In Many Cases A Dull Proof Can

Indeed, There Is Something To Be Said For The Old Math When Taught By A Poorly Trained Teacher. He Can, At Least, Get Across The Fundamental Rules Of Calculation Without Too Much Confusion. The Same Teacher Trying To Teach New Math Is Apt To Get Across Nothing At All.

The Last Level Of Metaphor In The Alice Books Is This: That Life, Viewed Rationally And Without Illusion, Appears To Be A Nonsense Tale Told By An Idiot Mathematician. At The Heart Of Things Science Finds Only A Mad, Never-ending Quadrille Of Mock Turtle Waves And Gryphon Particles. For A Moment The Waves And Particles Dance In Grotesque, Inconceivably Complex Patterns Capable Of Reflecting On Their Own Absurdity.

Consider A Cow. A Cow Doesn't Have The Problem-solving Skill Of A Chimpanzee, Which Has Discovered How To Get Termites Out Of The Ground By Putting A Stick Into A Hole. Evolution Has Developed The Brain's Ability To Solve Puzzles, And At The Same Time Has Produced In Our Brain A Pleasure Of Solving Problems.

One Day, When I Was Doing Well In Class And Had Finished My Lessons, I Was Sitting There Trying To Analyze The Game Of Tic-tac-toe... The Teacher Came Along And Snatched My Papers On Which I Had Been Doodling... She Did Not Realize That Analyzing Tic-tac-toe Can Lead Into Dozens Of Non-trivial Mathematical Questions.

A God Whose Creation Is So Imperfect That He Must Be Continually Adjusting It To Make It Work Properly Seems To Me A God Of Relatively Low Order, Hardly Worthy Of Any Worship.