Heisenberg's uncertainty finally resolved

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Feb 9 14:08:41 PST 2002


Justin Schwartz wrote:


> The auditorium was filled, jammed, and this little wisp of an
> ancient man tottered to the podium and began to lecture in a heavy German
> accent just above a whisper, painfully writing equations on the board. I
> don't think that there were 10 people there who understood a word he said. I
> was not one of them. Like everyone else, I just wanted to see him.

John Crowe Ransom spoke at Michigan while I was there -- he was clearly well into senility. Luckily the location was the Rackham auditorium, which had the most comfortable seats I have ever encountered anywhere.

But then the philosophy dept at U of M then had a very well known member (logician) well past early senility. They let him hold classes in his home; his wife conducted the classes. The whole football team would register for them -- it kept their gpa up. I didn't know this, and my second semester there I tried to register for his class in B Russell, it was full, and I didn't understand at all the look of contempt I got when I refused to sign up for some alternative I was offered.

Carrol



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