At 1:50 AM -0400 4/25/98, Florin Mateoc wrote:
-- snip --
>Alan,
>
>Thank you for your reply. I would say though that math looks to me like it
>is still ticking, even if it is much more formal than in its early days.
>And I think that the efforts towards formalization have helped its
>progress. Metamathematics or, more general, thinking about the thought
>process, are still very useful tools, even if not universal panaceas (sigh...)

Florin --

I totally agree that math is still ticking -- that's why I said that computers are already math. We are doing math, but of a new kind, and it could hardly be more formal. What we don't have yet for most of our stuff is "parsimonious beauty" and powerful metaviewpoints for thinking about computing. We are perhaps still in a Babylonian stage waiting for the Greeks to come along. However, as a card carrying mathematician, I don't believe that the trappings of classical math -- set theory, etc. -- will help.

Cheers,

Alan