[Todos] The principle of natural selection at FCEN/UBA

[fabio vicentini]

In the last 3000 years at least 11,000,000,000 human beings were born .
>From Homer to Freud no more than 100 geniuses lived in the history of
mankind. We estimate the probability of  running into a genius when we
choose at random  a person out of  the population of the world:



p = 100/11, 000,000,000 .



The math dept has 55 professors, the probability of a Fermat among us is
according to Bernoulli 's formula:



1 - ( 1 - p) ^ 55 = 0.000004



As we see none of us is a genius. Given our limited capacity, our primary
mission is  to teach our pupils and wait for another Alan Turing to show
up. Our papers will only serve to make a bonfire to warm ourselves after
the Yankees  unleash the nuclear war. In the meantime it would be decent of
us to raise our children for a better world.



But we pretend to be what we are not. Publishing rubbish will make us more
important. Those who put their effort in teaching the students are
displaced by bullshit artists. The following case will make the point
clear.



Ms Boluda has worked 30 years as a professor. Her students cheered her in
the polls because she prepared her classes , wrote notes on theory and
practice, and attended consultations in person and by email. However, she
had a flaw: she won't dare publishing a paper unless she had something
worth saying. For instance, she stubbornly investigated the 4 colors
problem looking for a solution without a computer assistance . She had
published just 3 papers and a book in 30 years . This veteran teacher has
to report now to her renovation contest.



On the other side, Miss Piola is young , enterprising  and has half the age
of Ms Boluda. Unlike Ms Boluda, Miss Piola has understood, right from the
start, the rules of the game. She knows that the so-called "academic
excellence" is measured by the number of  published papers - just the
number not the  content. So she has joined a research gang under a
well-known CEO of the bullshit production engine of graph theory,
combinatorial optimization, operations research ... Well, useless to say
what the topic is, the goal is to maximize the number of papers no matter
what. However, the paper must obey certain important conditions, namely



1) It should not be the 4 colors problem because it might take 120 years.



2) The problem must be such that it should allow the production of a whole
series of baloney.



3) The paper must have as coauthor the gang skipper. In fact, he has chosen
Miss Piola to produce a mountain of garbage on Graph Theory.



Needless to say, when Ms Boluda reported to the renovation contest, she was
drowned under an avalanche of bullshit of Miss Piola, and had to abandon
the school.



This shows the principle of  natural selection at FCEyN : piolas displace
boludos. This  trend of climbing rascals has resulted in that FCEyN/UBA is
now at the hands of a Mafia.
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