[extropy-chat] Harvard president criticized over comments

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Olga Bourlin <fauxever at sprynet.com> wrote:
> From: "J. Andrew Rogers"
> <andrew at ceruleansystems.com>
> > I would note two things:
> >
> > 1.)  Really brilliant people are not brilliant
> because they were
> > trained.  You cannot be trained to be brilliant,
> as the very definition
> > generally asserts abilities that are far beyond
> what can be obtained by
> > mere training.  And most of the really brilliant
> people I can think of
> > in history had little or unextraordinary training
> in the fields their
> > brilliance is noted in.
> >
> > 2.)  Math and science are only related insofar as
> science often uses
> > math.  Scientists and mathematicians have very
> different thought
> > processes.
> 
> Aha!
> 
> "Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, has
> been pilloried for 
> suggesting that women may be biologically unsuited
> to succeed at 
> mathematics.
> He may have a point.
> 
> Just look at Condoleezza Rice.":
> 
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/opinion/20dowd.html?oref=login&hp

The article wasn't talking about mathematics in the
normal sense, but political "math".  Like "X number of
dead American soldiers times zero weapons of mass
destruction", which is a meaningless equation outside
of the political message it communicates.