[ExI] Ramanujan

[Lee Corbin]

> I wonder if Ramanujan would have counted as a transhumanist.

Oh, certainly not.   Now wikipedia says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

> Ramanujan's first Indian biographers describe him as rigorously orthodox.
> Ramanujancredited his acumen to his family goddess, Namagiri, and looked
> to her for inspiration in his work.[77] He often said, "An equation for me has
> no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God."[78] [79]
> G. H. Hardy cites Ramanujan as remarking that all religions seemed equally true
> to him. Hardy further argued that Ramanujan's religiousness had been overstated
> -- in the point of belief, not practice -- by his Indian biographers, and romanticised
> by Westerners. At the same time, he remarked on Ramanujan's strict observance
> of vegetarianism.

Nonetheless, from reading Robert Kanigel's "The Man Who Knew Infinity" ---the
best single biography I ever read---I think that Hardy was understating Ramanujan's
religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices. 

Anyway, in my opinion, there is absolutely no correlation between mathematical genius
and a tendency towards transhumanist beliefs.   Or sensible philosophic beliefs at all.

Lee