A genius remembered
It’s a commentary on India’s approach to science that computational wizard Shakuntala Devi doesn’t leave behind a whole new school of mathematics that would shake the foundation of learning the pure sciences.
Her dream of opening a mathematics university and an R&D centre died with her. It’s a pity she leaves behind just a few books of puzzles; not even a Trachtenberg-type methodology to help lesser mortals deal with the frightening complexities of numbers and extinguish their phobia by developing what she called a “numerical attitude”.
Shakuntala’s background may have led her to take the route of show pony than the more academic enterprise of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, who went to a temple of learning. As the daughter of a trapeze artiste and lion tamer, the business of showing talent may have seemed right, but it did lead her to capture the people’s imagination. It’s again symbolic of India that the inexact science of astrology should have given her a livelihood than an exalted place in academia for someone who beat the fastest Univac computer of the time by a clear 10 seconds to mentally derive the 23rd root of a 201-digit number!
She explained “there are a large number of people whose logic is unexplored,” which is a pity as society may not have derived the maximum benefit from this “human computer”, as she was called by an admiring populace. We will fondly remember her as a very special numbers person, while science will wonder what gives certain people such subliminal gifts.
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