Patrice Riemens on Thu, 10 Jul 1997 16:49:43 +0200 (MET DST)


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<nettime> Goedel - and how Hitler lost the war.


> 
> Napoleon realized the strategic importance of officers skilled in
> mathematics and so he was eager to found the Ecole Polytechnique. Hitler
> was different. He concentrated on a stupid, cold and bloody Lebensraum
> instead of recognising that, in the small town of Goettingen, German
> mathematicians had already been successful in opening spaces that were
> waiting to be inhabited, like the flexible Riemann-space and the
> friendly Hilbert-space. Not seeing the opportinities that mathematics
> offered was one reason for losing the war.


After Bilwet's description of WWII as a case traffic control gone awfully
awry, I must say this is one of the more outlandish "why Hitler lost the
war" (as you may know, his one & only fault in many Germans'
eyes...) explanations I've been given to come accross. I hope nettime will
remain for long time a heaven for cranks but might remember its users &
posters of a famous saying at the Shipping Corporation of India: "Oh yes,
Captain Singh!  Well, we are very glad to have Captain Singh on our staff.
But we are also very glad we've got only *one* Captain Singh." (Captain JS
Singh was the Master of the legendary passenger liner "Nancowry" -ex
Karanja, of the P&O, BI Line) 

> 

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