Mathematician\'s complaint (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 16, 2012, 17:05 (4665 days ago)

Just for Matt: credit to Tom Graffagnino --"But We'll Keep This Rock-a-Rollin'"
 (Up Ol' Sisyphus's Hill)
 
 
 
We're the smart ones in the classroom...
 We're the ones with PhD's!
 Now we're backed into this corner...
 (Though we're not yet on our knees!) -Our equations hold such promise...
 And we sense that something's there!
 We've got Faith in all these numbers,
 But they just don't seem to care! -Yes, we've filled up ev'ry blackboard,
 Every piece of chalk is gone!
 Still the Bottom Line escapes us...
 But I guess we'll soldier on... -Yes, we're used to crunching numbers,
 But, ... alas!...they're crunching back!
 Ev'ry calculation's lacking...
 And life's Riddle we can't crack! -We've been praying for some insight,
 To the gods of twos and threes,
 But our subsets turn up empty,
 And by anxious thoughts we're seized! -Every time we come up empty...
 What we get's a Question Mark!
 Goddess, help with this conundrum!
 We're still standing in the dark! -Mathematics, ...Yes!...we trust you!
 And we know that you're sublime!
 So, if you've still got our number,...
 Call us quick! We need a Sine! -Our equations just won't balance!
 We're unnerved and..."It's not FAIR!"
 Please come show us what we're missing
 In this Kingdom of the Air!
 --We detect true Beauty's pattern...
 It's both elegant and clean;
 Fibonacci's calculations
 Took us to The Golden Mean. -We can see the subtle Order...
 Information on display!
 But we're tethered to this notion:
 Naturalism's Mindless Way. -We can't get behind the Curtain,
 We can't reach beyond the Veil!
 We can't fathom what's The Reason
 Why the math we've done has failed. -All this leads to great discomfort!
 See?...The Curtain still is drawn!
 We can measure it and touch it,
 But our angst goes on and on! -It's absurd! We just can't figure
 What the heck it's all about.
 It's infernal ...and we anguish....
 Wringing hands...We twist and shout! -All our quantum physics fizzled...
 (That's been quite the Bitter Pill!)
 But we'll keep this rock-a- rollin'
 Up ol' Sisyphus's hill!