Alexandre Borovik

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

Alexandre Borovik, "The Tool/Weapon Duality of Mathematics," Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 16 Issue 1 (January 2026), pages 365-392. Available at: https://t.co/cD7gItApvm
The paper is covered by CC BY 4.0 licence. It is juicy controversial.

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

My paper "The tool/weapon duality of mathematics" https://t.co/Z4jQNPTroX

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@snezanalawrence Wonderful!

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

Placed on Substack some musings on introduction of concepts of orientation and chirality into school geometry: https://t.co/9rHfywmbHr

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

Captures the moment:

https://t.co/pkBWNhYbdl

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@Anthony_Bonato And what is the difference between (a,b) and ]a,b[?

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

"That is the goal towards which we are already moving, though, of course, we have no intention of getting there; just as a man who drinks a bottle of whisky a day has no intention of getting cirrhosis of the liver." Which trends of our times can be characterised that way?/3

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

Therefore the logical end of mechanical progress is to reduce the human being to something resembling a brain in a bottle. That is the goal towards which we are already moving, though, of course, we have no intention of getting there; /1

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

just as a man who drinks a bottle of whisky a day has no intention of getting cirrhosis of the liver."
George Orwell: The road to Wigan pier (1937) /2

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@BrendanLarvor My Dear Colleagues, and what was your experience?

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@BrendanLarvor Educational research? Does it exist? In my 40 years of work in education, in 4 different countries, with 4 different education systems, I could not recall using anything which was labelled as "results/recommendations from educational research".

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

https://t.co/G8ubSry5MF

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

In an ideal world, this would be a template for a school level question in mathematics: given a mathematical statement never seen before, prove it or refute by constructing a counterexample.

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@tirumuru_87 This is what I call work-life balance.

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@LongFormMath Reference, please!

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

Meme of the day: Artificial Intelligence is no match to natural stupidity.

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

I've been giving this lecture to first-year classes for over twenty-five years. You'd think they would begin to understand it by now.
~ J E Littlewood

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@snezanalawrence @rmathematicus With deindustrialisation, there is no real economic demand for maths in the mass education. This is why criteria of assessment of "solution for the crisis" do not exist, any rubbish go. "Consultants" could easily be snake oil peddlers, it is safe, no-one will catch them. \1

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

@rmathematicus All children are good at maths, but most of them are damaged in the process of their education, and this damage is frequently unrepairable. This is how bad at maths adults are produced - they are victims of bad education.

[Alexandre Borovik @AVBorovik]

Azat Miftakhov discloses how the FSB ensured that he is branded a member of the “lowered” caste in the Russian prison system https://t.co/Oq1eoULts2