Conclusion
Yesterday all the past. The language of size
Spreading to china along the trade-routes; the diffusion
Of the counting-frame and the cromlech;
Yesterday the shadow-reckoning in the sunny climates...
Yesterday the classic lecture
On the origin of Mankind. But today the struggle. (W.H.Auden, ‘Spain’, 1936.)
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military
machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. Akin
to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological
revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized,
complex, and costly.
A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government. Today, the solitary
inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In
the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced
a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes
virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic
computers. The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the
power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. (Speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961.)
At the end of this book, we look to the present and the future as the above quotations do. For the
young Auden, the history of mathematics lay in the past, while the present belonged to agitation,
rifles and comrades. For the old ex-president Eisenhower, technology was central, its nature was
changing, and it was, as he was in a good position to know, controlled by what he termed the
‘military-industrial complex’. Both of them belong to a time which seems remote, and mathematics
continues to be produced — for what, and for whom? The military have certainly not reduced their
demands, and they have money to spend.Researchers at Duke, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Michigan will each
take on different parts of developing the enabling mathematical underpinnings of this technology with $6 million in
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funding, which will be administered through the U.S. Army.
The objective...is the development of ‘detection and classification algorithms for multi-modal inverse problems.’ That
means developing mathematical rules – called algorithms – to ‘train’ and control multiple sensors that, with increasing
precision, could detect invisible signals emanating from such targets, and trace those signals back to their sources –
a technique called inversion.
‘The targets could be land mines, targets under trees like tanks or troops, or targets in underground bunkers or caves,’
said the overall administrator of the grant. (Report in http://www.spacedaily.com, April 2002.)