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pnrjulius comments on Privileging the Hypothesis - Less Wrong
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Indeed, I think we could end up calling the simple deity by his holiest of names: Math.
You mean the mythical Welsh hero/king Math? :-)
What properties does "Math" have that would justify calling it a "deity"?
Actually, back up: since when is mathematics (the human endeavor) simple from a mathematical perspective?
It contains the almighty hammer Mjölnir. It is omniscient. (By volume - sure, it knows all wrong things that can possibly be represented too but hey, every other deity I have studied is defined as something outright logically incoherent so they can't talk.) So in conclusion... not much justification at all until you worship it a bit and it starts to get personified.
If you left it at this I'd say never...
... but I'll never cease to be amazed at what a mathematian will describe as "simple" or even "trivial" when he is in his mathematical perspective groove!
So a math professor is going through the proof of a theorem on the blackboard in front of his class. Partway through, a student stops him to ask about the justification for a particular step. The professor furrows his brow, stares at the chalkboard for a moment, then walks briskly from the room. Twenty minutes later he returns, his chalk worn down to a nub, and announces triumphantly, "it's obvious".
Exactly. I wonder if anyone has a good link to a particularly witty or authoritative expression of this parody. I find it warrants reference rather frequently.
It's one of the standard famous anecdotes about Norbert Wiener.
(Oddly enough, the reason I know so much about Wiener is because Dan Simmons in Hyperion & Fall of Hyperion based Sad King Billy on him.)
I know this one as: professor walks into a class, scrawls an equation on the blackboard, and announces "I'm sure you'll all agree that this is obvious." Then he stops, stares at it, walks away, comes back 20 minutes later and says "Yes, that's right, it is obvious."