For example, the number theorist might one day have a sudden revelation that abstract mathematics is a waste of time and it should go into politics and philanthropy instead, all the while having no idea that the master is manipulating it to maximize status and power.
This isn’t meant as a retraction or repudiation of anything I’ve written in the OP, but I just want to say that subjectively, I now have a lot more empathy with people who largely gave up their former interests in favor of political or social causes in their latter years. (I had Bertrand Russell in mind when I wrote this part.)
This isn’t meant as a retraction or repudiation of anything I’ve written in the OP, but I just want to say that subjectively, I now have a lot more empathy with people who largely gave up their former interests in favor of political or social causes in their latter years. (I had Bertrand Russell in mind when I wrote this part.)