The Man who Knew Infinity (2015)
We all know about Ramanujan's story, his inability to secure a good score and a good job due to his fixation with Mathematics and neglect on other learning subjects. We all know how, he, a lowly shipping clerk wrote his theories to a Trinity College professor and also was not given a second look. We are aware of how he was made a Fellow of Royal Society. In his short life, he discovered formulae that would be used to understand black holes a century later!
What struck me most about this film is the clash between the two men of different faith and are quite confident and comfortable with their conviction. Ramanujan (played by Dev Patel) is cocksure that the mind-boggling revelation that came to him are mere expressions of the Divine Forces. They just oozed out from him from his deity, Namagiri, during prayers. Ramanujan believed that that is the truth, the end-result that determines the truth. There was no need to painstakingly proving it. Some things were obvious.
For Professor G.H. Harold (Jeremy Irons), a self-professed atheist, that was just not enough. Every effect must be proven step by step. Simply short-cutting, deducing and assuming would not do.
Herein, lies the dichotomy in the belief system of a theist and an atheist. For a believer, life is easier. Certain assumptions need not be questioned. They like to tell themselves to look at the bigger picture. Going from point A to D does not matter how one reaches point B and C before reaching D. For an agnostic, it is the lynchpin of the discussion. He would not accept it until and unless he knows in precise detail the journey from A through B, C and finally D. Like Sisyphus, the joy is rolling the boulder up the hill. It does not matter if rolls back down again, begging for another question to answer. The pride is in working out the problem. Solving is secondary.
Another thing that hit me from the interaction of two mathematicians is the class consciousness. Unlike his contemporaries, John Littlewood and Bertrand Russell, Hardy was a self-made man. He rose from the working class, much like Srinivas Ramanujan, to prove himself through mathematics. Like it or not, poverty and deprivation are strong enough motivators to scale higher levels in life. 1729.
We all know about Ramanujan's story, his inability to secure a good score and a good job due to his fixation with Mathematics and neglect on other learning subjects. We all know how, he, a lowly shipping clerk wrote his theories to a Trinity College professor and also was not given a second look. We are aware of how he was made a Fellow of Royal Society. In his short life, he discovered formulae that would be used to understand black holes a century later!
What struck me most about this film is the clash between the two men of different faith and are quite confident and comfortable with their conviction. Ramanujan (played by Dev Patel) is cocksure that the mind-boggling revelation that came to him are mere expressions of the Divine Forces. They just oozed out from him from his deity, Namagiri, during prayers. Ramanujan believed that that is the truth, the end-result that determines the truth. There was no need to painstakingly proving it. Some things were obvious.
For Professor G.H. Harold (Jeremy Irons), a self-professed atheist, that was just not enough. Every effect must be proven step by step. Simply short-cutting, deducing and assuming would not do.
Herein, lies the dichotomy in the belief system of a theist and an atheist. For a believer, life is easier. Certain assumptions need not be questioned. They like to tell themselves to look at the bigger picture. Going from point A to D does not matter how one reaches point B and C before reaching D. For an agnostic, it is the lynchpin of the discussion. He would not accept it until and unless he knows in precise detail the journey from A through B, C and finally D. Like Sisyphus, the joy is rolling the boulder up the hill. It does not matter if rolls back down again, begging for another question to answer. The pride is in working out the problem. Solving is secondary.
Another thing that hit me from the interaction of two mathematicians is the class consciousness. Unlike his contemporaries, John Littlewood and Bertrand Russell, Hardy was a self-made man. He rose from the working class, much like Srinivas Ramanujan, to prove himself through mathematics. Like it or not, poverty and deprivation are strong enough motivators to scale higher levels in life. 1729.
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