Mathematical Culture and Massive Data
Jean G. Dhombres · 2018
The trick is a constant of mathematical culture. This chapter aims to explain how to interpret what is calculable, in order to really address the question of algorithms, and therefore massive data. If specialists recognize the inflation of digitized data, they give it the surprising name “universe” and talk about distinguishing communities, and cliques within the data. The chapter begins with what needs to be understood from Turing‘s machine. This will allow to introduce three general questions: that which is natural in mathematics, that of style and, finally, that of the constraints of any mathematical process. In the 1950s, digital specialists such as Hermann H. Goldstine, explained that with the machines of the time, which were still very moderate, digital technology finally triumphed over analog. The chapter then presents positive results, with well-known algorithms still used today, such as gcd. Finally, it concludes with the Louvain algorithm.