Inspiring speeches

Adam Spencer and Roger Antonsen are known through the speeches they have performed

all around the world. Both of them are mathematicians and speakers trying to ally

philosophy and mathematics. Before talking about their speeches, I would like to introduce

them.

Adam Spencer, was born in 1969 in Australia. He has discovered his speaking talent

at University. He was one of the world's top-ranked debaters and won a few prizes like the

Australasian debating championship twice (1988, 1990) he also reached the final round of the World Universities Debating Championship three times (1990, 1992, 1996). He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science with first class honors in pure mathematics in 1991. Now Adam spencer is an Australian radio presenter,

comedian, and media personality.

Roger Antonsen is a logician, mathematician, computer scientist, researcher, lecturer,

science communicator. He teaches mathematics and computer science at the University of

Oslo. He also gives talks on subjects related to mathematics, computer science, and

philosophy.

Allying philosophy and mathematics in the same speech is a little arrogant isn’t it?

Both of them adapt their speeches to make them understandable to the general public.

Their shows are based on the same idea: the vulgarization of mathematics and a bit of

philosophy.

Even if their goals are not exactly the same they use the same way to express their idea.

Indeed Adam Spencer is more dedicated to mathematics and what we can do with it, as

Roger Antonsen uses them to change people’s minds, we can compare the different ways

they talk to deliver their message.

They divided their talks into three parts. At the beginning they introduce their idea

by explaining their goal and introducing the specific vocabulary. Adam Spencer talks about

himself making the speech more relatable to the public, telling anecdotes about his private

life.

In the second part they demonstrate, through simplified mathematical explanations

and examples, that the crowd can understand the whole speech. Using new technologies,

like screens and computers, they show what they are telling you, combining voice and

images. They regularly make their way back showing all the steps taken with the public,

kind of reverse engineering their answer.

The lasts few minutes are dedicated to the conclusion. They both give a quick

overview of their whole demonstration showing to the crowd how well they’ve been

following the math explanations. Then they really conclude. Adam Spencer says that

combining the power of machines and the intelligence of humans we could do even greater

things and we could get an incredible power to understand the world.

Roger Antonsen uses different mathematical examples to explain that by changing our

point of view we can change our minds.

As an engineering student I have been particularly inspired by these speeches.

Mathematics are part of our daily life, and these two speakers, researchers and

mathematicians help us to re-discover our world. Adam Spencer went so far as to say that:

“Numbers are the notes of the melody called Universe”.

#Tedx #Speech