Post

worth noting that Magpie Mathematics is much older than llm-based tools, though these make it much easier to do. Figures such as Erdős, though much romanticised, were controversial in their day for similar reasons.

Alexander Kasprzyk@amkasprzyk.bsky.social

Right. I feel it needs to be said that although LLMs are playing a key role here, it’s *people* who are choosing to take the ideas of other mathematicians. It’s a complete breakdown of our discipline’s norms of behaviour, in just a year. Yes, there was always the occasional dishonest thief. But…

22/10/26, 9:24 am0 reposts7 likes

Michael Barany

@mbarany.com

👋 @barbarafantechi.bsky.social re puncturing the Erdős mystique

Hendrik De Bie

@debiehendrik.bsky.social

Thanks that is a good example. Are there writings on Erdos from this perspective?

Alexander Kasprzyk

@amkasprzyk.bsky.social

Do you know when peer review as we recognise it today became standard in maths? I’d be really interested in knowing more, but don’t know where to start. I read somewhere that it wasn’t until astonishingly recently it became standard for Nature (1960s? I can’t quite recall…).

Michael Barany

@mbarany.com

can be a hard thing to pin down because different aspects of today's system have precedents that came about unevenly over the years

Michael Barany

@mbarany.com

new open access book includes a good overview of the general lit on refereeing in science and medicine bsky.app/profile/mbar...

Michael Barany@mbarany.com

as, *ahem*, one of the referees for this book, excited to see how the final text turned out and can already strongly recommend based on the version I got to read!

Michael Barany

@mbarany.com

key aspects are probably older for mathematics than in others fields, eg already at the turn of the 20th century gatekeepy refs were shutting out Heaviside