Seeking a quote about 1930s algebraic topology
It seems to me I recall someone, maybe Eilenberg, saying they gave a talk at Harvard in the 1930s on algebraic topology, where someone in the audience said the subject had reached a level of complexity that it would not be able to sustain. Can anyone here confirm that? Or can someone correct me by giving a different story that I might have confused in my memory? best, Colin [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
I recall an Eilenberg quote from the 1960's "Algebraic topology is a strange and bewildering field ... " I guess a google search yields the source right away. Best Johannes On Sun, 5 Jan 2014, Colin McLarty wrote:
It seems to me I recall someone, maybe Eilenberg, saying they gave a talk at Harvard in the 1930s on algebraic topology, where someone in the audience said the subject had reached a level of complexity that it would not be able to sustain.
Can anyone here confirm that? Or can someone correct me by giving a different story that I might have confused in my memory?
best, Colin
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
On 1/5/14 5:02 PM, Colin McLarty wrote:
It seems to me I recall someone, maybe Eilenberg, saying they gave a talk at Harvard in the 1930s on algebraic topology, where someone in the audience said the subject had reached a level of complexity that it would not be able to sustain.
Can anyone here confirm that? Or can someone correct me by giving a different story that I might have confused in my memory?
It wasn't the audience of Eilenberg's talk, but the source of the story seems to be MacLane's paper about his work in topology. MacLane wrote tentatively this was said by somebody attending a talk by Tucker or perhaps Steenrod. See: http://eilenberg100.ptm.org.pl/sites/default/files/documents/the-work-of-sam... Best wishes, t. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
participants (3)
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Colin McLarty -
Johannes Huebschmann -
Tadeusz Litak