Vladimir Arnold and Richard Stanley

Vladimir Arnold and Richard Stanley


In 1993 there was a workshop at Cornell on "Hilbert Functions and Related Topics". At the social dinner I happened to be at the same table with Vladimir Arnold, Richard Stanley, and some other younger mathematicians. At some point the conversation fell on whether computers would ever be able to do mathematics. Richard Stanley said that even if computers could do mathematics, he would still do mathematics, just as he still plays chess even though the best computers can beat the best humans in chess. Vladimir Arnold said: "If computers could do mathematics, I would do something else, but I would still call it ... mathematics".