What a fascinating talk. Thank you, Dr. Nappi, for interviewing Roger Hart and drawing out broad themes from a topic–linear algebra in ancient China (!)–that would seem at first blush to only interest specialists. I love what Dr. Hart says at the end about how his research made him appreciate how progress in science is actually made, and how we are finding that it is far more fortuitous and serendipitous than is commonly thought–in other words, progress is not linear, to add to his puns about titling his book. In fact, the need to have a linear narrative is perhaps itself a bias in Western thought, which led us to ignore or dismiss other traditions which contributed to the way we view and measure our world. Certainly, the methods of Han-era fangcheng practitioners, which, apart from using a visual approach foreign to Western mathematicians, served a culturally-specific imperial need to impose order, could not fit into the view that scientific progress is driven by a rational ethos unique to the West. (Come to think of it, this view probably serves another culturally-specific need.) I like to think that Dr. Hart’s eclectic interests led him on a scholarly chase that spanned millenia and continents, perhaps itself reflecting the way that scientific ideas have been painstakingly put together–not as the result of inspiration, but of painstaking work done by many, often in unlikely places. Like the counting-rod chambers of ancient China.
Thanks again for a wonderful interview, Dr. Nappi!