July 12, 2005

• Reply to my fan mail

  Discussions in Internet forums indicate that at least three people seem deeply interested in my work in finite geometry:

  1. Someone falsely using the name of R. T. Curtis, a U. of Birmingham group theorist,
  2. Someone falsely using the name of George Polya, a deceased mathematician, and
  3. Someone using the nickname crankbuster.

  Unfortunately, remarks posted under these names are all extremely
  negative.  This is understandable, given that the author or
  authors have completely failed to comprehend what I was getting
  at.  Actually, I suspect that all three authors are the same
  person, who was inspired to bitter hatred by my negative review
  of an attempted proof of the four-color theorem.  I do not suspect
  the author of that attempted proof, but rather one of his countrymen;
  attacks posted using the forged name “R. T. Curtis” were posted from an
  address somewhere in Bombay, and “crankbuster” claims to be posting
  from Sri Lanka.

  As the real R. T. Curtis has noted,
  “If someone is deliberately using my name to attack Steven Cullinane
  anonymously, it shows malice and cowardice unusual in the mathematical
  world.”  At least my anonymous fan has, it seems, stopped using other
  people’s names to hide behind… although the latest attacks, under
  the name “crankbuster,” seem to be trying to imply, falsely, a connection with the Crank Dot Net website.

  • 2:08 am
  • 3 Comments