Paul Erdős on film with George Csicsery: four years on the road

Speaker 10:00

Welcome to the podcast from Tangente magazine and a warm welcome to you for another deep dive. Today, we're looking at something pretty wild. I mean, imagine trying to film like a nature documentary where the wildlife you're tracking is just a thought.

Speaker 20:15

Right. Like an abstract equation inside a genius's head. It's it's incredibly tough because the most groundbreaking math happens entirely internally.

Speaker 10:24

Exactly. You can't just point a camera at a thought. So to see how this actually works, we're diving into the legendary Paul Erdős and the filmmaker who documented him, George Paul Csicsery.

Speaker 20:36

Yeah, translating that abstract mental process into a visual medium like film, it requires a really specific storytelling approach. And Erdős is arguably the most uniquely documented figure in this space.

Speaker 10:48

Right. Csicsery made that documentary about him back in 1993. N is a number. And he followed Erdős for four years, right, from 1988 to 1992 across four different countries.

Speaker 21:01

Erdős famously lived out of a suitcase. He was just constantly traveling from university to university, working with, well, anyone who could keep up with him.

Speaker 11:09

Which is why I keep thinking of this as a wildlife documentary. Like instead of tracking some elusive snow leopard across the tundra, he's tracking this highly elusive nomadic mathematical genius across the globe.

Speaker 21:21

That's a great analogy, actually. And that relentless tracking resulted in a massive archive. I mean, there's over 18 hours of raw recordings, which is still the most significant audio visual record of Erdős that we have.

Speaker 11:34

Wow, 18 hours. And that footage has had this fascinating second life, hasn't it, with that compilation, Erdős 100 Plus?

Speaker 21:42

Yes, exactly. It features centenary interviews with esteemed peers like Laszlo Lovás and Ron Graham. But it also includes these short films explaining concepts like Erdős Bacon numbers.

Speaker 11:55

Oh, I love that concept. For you listening, it's this hilarious metric. It shows how closely a mathematician is connected to Erdős through co-authored papers and then combines that with how closely they're linked to the actor Kevin Bacon through film roles.

Speaker 22:09

It's such a fun crossover. And they also tackle complex ideas like the large gaps between prime numbers. And what really stands out there is how they use animation to actually show the math.

Speaker 12:20

Right. Instead of just staring at chalk on a blackboard.

Speaker 22:23

Exactly. Csicsery uses visual metaphors. So to show prime number gaps, you might see the numbers animated as stepping stones. It visually demonstrates this growing, completely unpredictable chasm that a mathematician has to jump across as the numbers get larger.

Speaker 12:39

So the animation is basically a bridge, like giving physical shape to abstract logic. But beyond the visual tricks, Csicsery's whole guiding philosophy is really interesting to me.

Speaker 22:49

Oh, for sure. He's made dozens of films since 1968, and he actually views himself as a cultural anthropologist.

Speaker 12:57

OK, so here is where I have to push back a little bit. Anthropology usually means studying physical societies, right? Like ancient tools, tribal rituals, the environment.

Speaker 23:07

Right. The tangible stuff.

Speaker 13:09

Yeah. But the culture being studied here is a universe that exists entirely inside the subject's minds. Can we really call that anthropology?

Speaker 23:18

I know it does sound a bit counterintuitive at first, but a shared mental space actually forges a very real human culture. I mean, mathematicians share a distinct language. They have specific rituals, a common history.

Speaker 13:30

Even their own inside jokes, I imagine.

Speaker 23:32

Oh, plenty of inside jokes. It really is a distinct human tribe. Csicsery is drawn to mathematicians precisely because they can work in this universe that they construct themselves.

Speaker 13:42

I see. So he isn't just filming the math itself. He's filming the diverse communities that are built around it.

Speaker 23:48

Exactly. And you see this anthropological lens in his other films, too, like when he's documenting indigenous students in Navajo math circles or profiling the brilliant Mariam Mirzakhani in Secrets of the Surface.

Speaker 14:00

Or even the newer series, right? Journeys of Black Mathematicians from 2024 and 2025.

Speaker 24:05

Yes, absolutely. Film captures things that academic papers simply can't. When you watch his footage of Erdős, you really experience the man's unique humor, his philosophical legacy, and his unwavering commitment to ethical behavior.

Speaker 14:21

So the camera is really capturing the humanity that drives all that abstract thought. It bridges the gap between these incredibly complex mathematical realities and the very real people navigating them.

Speaker 24:32

It really does. It proves that the pursuit of pure logic is still a deeply human, emotional journey. It forces us to reconsider what a culture even is.

Speaker 14:42

Right, and how a shared intellectual pursuit can bond people just as strongly as, say, a shared physical space, which leaves a really fascinating question for you to mull over today.

Speaker 24:53

I think I know where you're going with this.

Speaker 14:54

Yeah. If mathematicians can construct their own universes, these entire realms of thought forged by shared languages and invisible rules, what other invisible intellectual worlds are being built around you right now, just waiting for the right anthropologist to capture them?