Today I got multiple copies of a “pump-and-dump” spam. You know, the kind where they tell you about a stock that is “going to go through the roof” which then does because enough people believe it, so it becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy. The best part is, no one even has to be convinced about the fundamentals of the stock — they just have to believe that enough other people are going to buy. Thus, the pump. Alas, the dump is a tough one. Good luck with the timing on that. But I digress.

Somehow, many copies of this spam made it through Gmail’s normally excellent spam filter. Each was from a different, made-up sender, with first and last names probably independently chosen from some list. What was cool was the name on one of the spams: “Math Jesus”.

How wonderful. I immediately claim ownership of this moniker, since the spammer is probably not aware that this pairing was made. And how fitting. I am very good at math — not the best mathematician the world has ever seen, but definitely way up there. Not a math god. But, yes, dare I say, a Math Jesus.

Thus my new screen name/nickname/band name. Math Jesus.

Gödel showed that we need an infinite number of axioms for a system that can embed the natural numbers to be complete (that is, for every statement to be provably true or false). Something along those lines.

So let me say right now: ten commandments ain’t gonna cut it. That’s just gonna be the tip of the infinite iceberg.