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The development of mathematics has had many encouraging forces: societal, technological, cultural. These have served to accelerate mathematics and have been accelerated in turn, in many cases the pair becoming locked into a mutually beneficial resonance that has dramatically energized both. In this article, I look at some of the significant catalysts, from the rise of the leisured class in ancient times to the impact of computing in modern times. The development of mathematics is intimately interwoven with society and culture, influencing the course of history through its applications to science and technology. But mathematics itself has changed much over its history. Even the mathematics of the early 1800s can now seem quite strange, so great have been the changes in just the past 150 years as it has been reworked in the modern abstract approach. Though advanced mathematics may now appear arcane from the outside looking in, the present state of mathematics is the result of a natural evolution of the subject. And there is much excitement promised ahead with the rise of new mathematics and application areas in subatomic and quantum physics, in the the field of statistical learning (also called artificial intelligence or machine learning), and in numerical computing and simulation. What follows is the story of mathematics, in a nutshell. What are the characteristics of mathematics, especially contemporary mathematics? I’ll consider five groups of characteristics:
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© 2009-2026 Assad Ebrahim To contact me on email, use: assadebrahim2000 at gmail dot com (do the obvious) |
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