/sci/ - Science & Math

Let's also make a few comments about the document. As a math dissertation, it's "strictly business", and therefore makes no concessions to the layperson. In practice, what this means is that the entire document runs lemma-proof/theorem-proof/remark/closing remarks/unsolved problems, done. In a neutral, non-disparaging sense therefore, the activity of the document can be described as "stamp collecting" in the simple sense that he's all about proving theorems (lemmas are also theorems) and then moving right on to the next thing that he needs them for-proving more theorems.

This plus Kaczynski's meticulous numbering of his items (incl. definitions) led me to have a go at charting the work out in my own way, pic related (it's a bit hard to read the grainy stuff at times, even in stark b/w scanning). Basically there's about 75 "things", whether theorems, lemmas, remarks, footnotes, pictures or otherwise. These "things" average one a page, then. The work centers around the proof of ten theorems, though as a text it's still an undifferentiated stream in its way-statement-proof-statement-proof. Straight business. Most sources are cited at the very front and back.

An "open question" about the open questions themselves: were Kaczynski's unsolved problems subsequently decided or at least treated of in the literature someplace? The first place to start looking would be among the authors he cites among all his works, of whom several are listed in the dissertation's final page, its works cited. Kaczynski was cited on a very limited basis by contemporaries in his field, with other citations more recently due to his cute, unserious number theory piece, and of course due to his later notoreity itself. At this time of course, K was known to Bagemihl, Piranian et al simply as a contemporary - student, fellow, colleague. As I am not qualified to say /too/ much about the content of the actual math itself, I refrain from this for the most part at present.