There are many historic instances. Take the history of Western mathematics, for example. The steady decline occurred during the ascendancy of Rome, the greatest military machine of its day and of centuries later. After Ptolemy, Diophantus, and Pappus, there was pretty much nothing for about 1000 years. Then mathematics heated up again.
Today s golden age of mathematics is due in a fair measure to the evils of three wars.
There is, we can only hope, a critical mass for rejection as well as for acquiescence. Having gotten this mixed message into my word processor, this quasi-Luddite will fax it off to his editor at SIAM News in the firm faith that there are people at the other end of the process who still like to read. Philip J. Davis, professor emeritus of applied mathematics at Brown University, is an independent writer, scholar, and lecturer. All rights reserved.