Re:Machine Readable ? (Score 2, Informative)

instead of abstracting everything and assuming everyone knew as much as them [...] resent the way mathematicians try to maintain their elitist clique

Umm... parent article is so many flavors of wrong I don't know where to start, so I'll just tick off some things:

• For about the past hundred years, abstracting everything is what has allowed modern mathematics to become further advanced
• If you go back before math got so abstract, things don't get easier -- they just get more complicated and arbitrary.
• Notation looks scary if you're not familiar with it, but it's harder to learn the math without it. We've tried writing it all down in prose, and that seriously doesn't work.
• Mathematicians aren't born knowing all of math and its associated notation; every time we go into a new subfield we have to learn all of that, same as you.
• As a math guy, I would love it if more people were interested in learning and doing serious math. Many mathematicians devote their lives to trying to do improve this situation. So, if you've got some magical formula that'll make John Conway eclipse rock stars and hotel heiresses in the tabloids, then by all means let us know about it!
• I won't hold my breath, though.

In summary: maintaining our elitist clique takes no effort whatsoever. And if you've got an allergy to abstract thought, then maybe you're just not 37337 enough to join us...