The Mathematician So Strange the FBI Thought He Was a Spy

[@ahoj7720]

As a junior mathematician I guided Erdös while visiting my university in the early 70´s. I remember going with him to the Swiss consulate. He needed a transit visa through Switzerland. I had to argue the Swiss officer that this tramp-looking homeless man, holding a worn cardboard suitcase in possession of an overused Hungarian passport was actually one of the leading mathematicians on par with Swiss genius Euler. It took some time and some phone calls but he got his visa…

[@streampunksheep]

You are so lucky

[@Oxygenationatom]

Is there anything else about him you know?

[@me0101001000]

God, imagine being the agent assigned to him and telling your boss, "Chief, I don't think he's an agent. I think he's just a weirdo"

[@AdrianColley]

My life goal is for my own assigned agent to have to report exactly that.

[@thomasrichard7054]

... and if weirdos are a problem, then how do we explain DJT? 😁

[@BKNeifert]

Actually, that's probably why they followed him, was he was weird, and it was more for his protection, and they saw him as an asset.

[@tw8464]

The agency seemed to like to track "commies" to expand its budget while letting actual spies get away with it

[@SigmaValence]

@@AdrianColley sounds like something a spy would say

[@JM-us3fr]

Imagine being a Hungarian spy, and constantly getting distracted by your hobby to the point where no one ever sees you doing anything else. Least productive spy in history.

[@jakedones2099]

😅😅🤣That is one hilarious comment

[@birdbeakbeardneck3617]

erdos has breached our defenses

[@rentristandelacruz]

Erdős only needed 4 things to do his mathematical work: his mind, pen, paper, and amphetamine.

[@oxey_]

he's just like me fr

[@ChristopherDwiggins]

The spirit animal of science we never knew we had 🫡

[@kellymoses8566]

That applies to programing.

[@woowooNeedsFaith]

@@kellymoses8566 So you don't need a computer?

[@cosmnik472]

​@@woowooNeedsFaithI mean technically you can just use pen, paper, eraser, and your mind to run any program, the amount of ram you have is the size of your paper

[@christinejalandoni5919]

I'd suspect him of being an alien after that fruit incident 😳

[@brahnishmutz]

You may be correct. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)

[@OneFingerYT]

Like someone with lost senses having more focus in others, he seemed to forgo having any common sense in favor of math sense.

[@JohnFly4real]

Of course he was an alien. All hungaryans are!

[@mathisfun774]

First, a comment - Thank you Tibias - you are indeed a treasure. Second, a recollection - Erdös was also a treasure and he shared himself with everyone. I, a lowly graduate student could ask him questions and he would patiently answer me. This was at the University of Florida during the 1970's. Paul was the sort who would hunt down the Chinese graduate students because he loved to play Go. I never missed one of his seminars - not that I understand them, I was content to sample history in real time. His presence, often lasting a month or more (he was close friends with our Chair) would attract a parade of visiting major mathematicians who would also share their work and give seminars. I am one lucky son-of-a-gun; only wished I could play Go.

[@peybak]

I read his biography, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" in college. Apparently, he couldn't tie his shoes either. He had an interesting life to say the least.

[@tw8464]

"couldn't" tie his shoes. It's just as likely he was also a genius at fake "helplessness" so he could get people to cook for him, let him live with them rent free, even cut his fruit for him and tie his shoes for him. Basically he can make them his slaves while he becomes a famous mathematician.

[@InXLsisDeo]

@@tw8464 you clearly don't understand these superior minds.

[@edwinrollins142]

I'm reminded of that incident where a man was doing some complicated math on a plane, and the person sitting next to him alerted airline security because they thought he was a terrorist writing in Arabic. 😅

[@patrickwright8552]

When my kids ask what it was like after 9/11, I'm going to tell them this story

[@edwinrollins142]

@patrickwright8552 yuuuup

[@JackWMatrix]

​@@patrickwright8552 I remember that in the news. It was probably partial differential equations.

[@PaulOMalleyDublin20]

The person in question was an Italian economist who wouldn't entertain the Karen's conversation. It was an international story. A good search phrase for this story is: Italian economist flight mathematics profiled after complaint.

[@gn0st1c]

he was economist Professor Guido Menzio :)

[@TheSabian321]

Of course, comrade Paul is always one step ahead of the FBI. We are so proud of him.

[@-danR]

I don't think so. The only pool of "informants" the FBI could draw from would be the mathematicians he lodged with. The info recounted in the video would have come from them, which I find rather creepy. He didn't hang around anyone else. J. Edgar Hoover had an Erdős number of 3.

[@kc0itf]

Too bad today's communists are so devoid of both science and mathematics...

[@Alexagrigorieff]

One would say he was very calculating spy

[@guru0503p]

Your videos are so lovely in the sense that, despite them being just a talk by the host, they never fail to keep us engaged. It's not easy to only be talking with no animations and yet keep the viewers engaged. ❤🙌

[@NoPodcastsHere]

Honestly we don't really think he's a spy, but he's definitely weird so we're gunna keep stalking him just in case...

[@D9-THC]

Could you guys send a different van I can hear the people surveiling me laughing so loud it's like a laugh track, not cool guys. Let me plot in peace.

[@johancouder8013]

Only pen and paper? No, no, that's philosophers. Mathematicians need pen, paper and a paper waste basket.

[@slappy8941]

Ultimately, math and philosophy seek the same answers.

[@canchero724]

Math is philosophy at its purest. Just a brain attempting to understand reallity any way it can and in silence.

[@mathedguy]

@@canchero724I think philosophy is math’s initial application.

[@hrvojedjurdjevic2123]

Philosophy is as useful to mathematicians as ornithology is to birds.

[@nicolasguereca8337]

😂​@@hrvojedjurdjevic2123

[@benjaminbrewer2569]

It’s interesting how some peoples gifts and handicaps define a life. This story reminds me of Rilkes letters to a young poet. He talks about doing the one thing you have to do. The thing that keeps you up at night if you don’t do it. Erdos found his art form and did it all his life. His way of being is ahead of his time.

[@slappy8941]

"Peoples" is plural and "people's" is singular possessive.

[@t74devkw]

He was so weirdős!

[@abeyroy007]

Haha

[@karenhaley3444]

Wonderful video. Meticulously researched and clearly presented. Thank you!

[@EriktheRed2023]

As Tom Lehrer, mathematician and musician, once said: "Some of you may have had occasion to run into mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they... got that way".

[@miniummanee1733]

as someone with autism, i am so happy to see representation

[@veqv]

Everyone needs to read "The man who loved only numbers" the anecdotes about Erdos are a treat. From the SF, to the difference between dying and leaving, he must have been such a hoot.

[@NotesNNotes]

“Another roof another proof” God, I can’t imagine this life but he seems so cool

[@niall4588]

In the mid 1960s both Paul Erdos and Frank Harary were visitors at a university in London (I have forgotten which one) where they shared an office. Harary was fiercely competitive and resolved to always arrive in the office each morning even earlier than Erdos and be busy working when Erdos arrived. Erdos perceived what Harary was up to so upon arrival each morning would ask him (as only he could) : "Vell, vhat theorems have you proved today?" 😅 (at that time Erdos was extremely prolific and had a new proof, almost daily).

[@HappyFunNorm]

Erdos worked 19 hours a day... is also lazy... sheesh. I have to doubt these records entirely if they thought someone like Erdos was lazy!

[@topilinkala1594]

Lazy and hard working are not ontonyms for some people. I hired a cleaning lady because I had no time to clean my apartment and some colleagues called me lazy.

[@girlofanimation]

Sometimes, when people don't understand your work, they act like your work is unproductive and call you lazy.

[@LinkVerse1]

​@@topilinkala1594 First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so naturally, I always give the benefit of the doubt when any questions related to the English language come to my mind. Therefore, I tried to double-check whether a word like 'ontonym' really exists, but I couldn't find it. I think you meant 'antonyms,' though I am not sure. It would be helpful if you could clarify.

[@jonathanedwardgibson]

“I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way” - Jessica Rabbit

[@zorzeus]

Thank you for making video about him! Pure soul, pure mind. Regards from Serbia

[@pythagorasaurusrex9853]

"How do you want to pay your rent?" "I pay in mathematical proofs."

[@Alexagrigorieff]

Was way ahead of Bitcoin's "proof of work"

[@secretagent86]

Excellent video on a fascinating guy. It is so nice to hear a human voice not AI.

[@Ta2dwitetrash]

Ive been on a project for 9 months 8 hours a day on average. 4 notebooks full. My head hurts from thinking in multiple dimensions in a fractal nature.

[@MrMctastics]

Maybe talk to a psychiatrist about it

[@jacobwilson8275]

What's your project? - mathematician here

[@ms-fk6eb]

guy: thinks about numbers fbi: ayo???

[@mostm8589]

- Can I renew my passport so I can travel and stay legally with my overseas friends? FreedomLand 🦅: Yo homie that's some communist shit.

[@Ziggler-e9f]

The numbers, Mason!!

[@johnopalko5223]

Very nice! Erdős has long been one of my heroes. _Köszönöm szépen!_

[@okosalaska]

Why?

[@wild_insomnia]

Erdo means " forest" in Hungarian

[@David_K_Booth]

Thank you. I once had a work colleague who, leaving a phone message, said "My name's Malcolm Bigwood, as in 'forest'."

[@pofdsjoijsodfjsoidf]

@@David_K_Booth He must have been a cousin of Hugh Mungus.

[@vector8310]

Thanks for that. Really.

[@gergelysz2997]

Or more like forest-y, lol, But his father (who is also reknowned in Hungary) was born as Engländer (English in german )but changed his surname to the more hungarian sounding Erdős as did many jews at the time.

[@vladthemagnificent9052]

Run, forest, run!

[@Blitterbug]

These are all traits of being on the spectrum while also being high-functioning. I don't mean the cliches from Rainman - well, perhaps a little - but I've worked with autistic people and have an autistic son and the total inability to locate items that a four year old would have no difficulty with, ie in a fridge, or to seemingly be unable to wield a knife, is bang on the money for some people with certain types of autism.

[@anglaismoyen]

Wouldn't that be low functioning?

[@Desertphile]

Paul Hoffman's "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth" described Erdős autistic behavior without using the word. Alibris lists hardcover copies for $4 or so. But Paul Dirac is still my man crush.

[@taoist32]

I definitely thought he was autistic. Reminds me of me, except I hate math.

[@ianstopher9111]

The original submitted title for the book was "The Man Who Loved Numbers and Amphetamines" but it was rejected by the publisher.

[@Desertphile]

@@ianstopher9111 ; Dr. Erdős should have been the lead in Breaking Bad.

[@aarondemiri486]

One of the truest mathematician's ever

[@slappy8941]

What's an "ever", and how can a mathematician possess one?

[@Penrose707]

Erdos is a literal hero of mine

[@jagatiello6900]

At least the FBI can be excused by not being an 'intelligence' agency, ha. Nice video Tibees, have a great 2025! Greetings from Rosario, Argentina.

[@Ynerson9003]

The man who loved amphetamines…. And math

[@vixcentral]

All mathematics is divided into three parts: cryptography (paid for by CIA, KGB and the like), hydrodynamics (supported by manufacturers of nuclear submarines) and celestial mechanics (financed by military and other institutions dealing with missiles and rockets, such as NASA). (V. Arnold, in: Mathematics: Frontiers and Perspectives, AMS 2000)

[@patrickmaline4258]

if he was a musician, he would probably have been in the grateful dead.

[@chigglywiggly]

The book about him - the man who loved only numbers - is a great read.

[@andreasrohrer]

The best channel in universe :-) Many thanks Tibees

[@thelocalsage]

excellent video, loved getting to know a bit more about this brilliant man :)

[@enzeru5491]

Truly a peculiarly intriguing man, and a brilliant mathematician!!!!!!! Thank you Tibees, for sharing information about this fascinating individual !!!!!!!😊

[@DesmoraDays]

Erdõs asking for grapefruit after taking his morning amphetamine is wild. Last time i did that i had a psychotic break because the grapefruit made it last forever. 🤮😵

[@martin-vv9lf]

Ah so that's why he didn't know how to use the knife then.

[@Guishan_Lingyou]

The oath mentioned at 7:10, that Erdős refused to sign, UCLA was still making people sign that when I was hired there in about 2008. I didn't have the energy to make a stink about it.

[@unst0ppable_201]

What if he was such a good spy that he just never got caught...

[@jarod9135]

This is the kind of content I live for. I love learning about the beautifully strange humans who shaped the world

[@brunomoura7719]

Love your content here and all stuff you share with us. Thank you!! Best regards from Brazil .😊😉

[@kevin-e5h5t]

What a wonderful character, and teacher. I love to hear about those servants of our humanity. I would have loved to have met him.

[@neilgerace355]

P.A.M. Dirac was probably a kindred spirit.

[@markiangooley]

Though Dirac in old age was a professor at Florida State University, fleeing to cooler Britain in summer. There’s a memorial plaque for Dirac in Westminster Abbey, but when he died he was at Florida State, and is buried nearby.

[@MarcoPolo898zz]

He was a real methematician

[@slappy8941]

As opposed to an imaginary one?

[@vector8310]

I see what you did there.

[@mutabazimichael8404]

Now that is one Nomad genius whose sole raison d'être is the pursuit of knowledge wherever it may lead him!

[@rhonda-my_honda_cb500x3]

I can now see the Erdos derivative statement in the software devpt context: "A programmer is a simple device for turning coffee into code" {Let's also not forget pizza too!} 🤣

[@HugeRademaker]

"Wir sind allen ein bischen mesjogge." True.

[@2712animefreak]

This reminds me of Sophus Lie, who got arrested in France because people thought he was a German spy.

[@pizzafrenzyman]

He had the perfect cover to be a spy.

[@t63a700]

An early example the FBI pursuing a nothing burger.

[@nicholasmartin297]

This is the way to make the perfect video for KZbin. No irritating music. No “antique movie” effects, perfectly clear, well recorded speech. Just a woman delivering a concise, educational, intriguing video. The fact that she is also beautiful is noted. She could read a telephone directory and I would watch her. If you make educational videos for KZbin, this is the way to do it.

[@poindextertunes]

Sounds like you have to have a special video made for you with everything exactly how you like it or you complain about in the comments…

[@nicholasmartin297]

@@poindextertunes Seems like you have to have special KZbin comments made just for you or you complain about them in your own comment.

[@juliuscesar4176]

"They" targeted Turing and Oppenheimer a well. "They" are fearful of what "they" do not understand.

[@lrrromicronpersei8294]

I have had the pleasure of working with some great people who I call borderline crazy they are so incredibly intelligent in their work that every thing else is non existent… I walked into a workshop with this one person who was so engrossed in what he was doing he didn’t even notice his trousers were around his knees… I call them borderline crazy not because they are crazy but because they have very little in the way of common sense stuff that us mere normies do on a daily basis without even thinking about it… but they struggle in the real world with normal everyday tasks and some could not find a bag of frozen peas in a supermarket with a map… but ask them a question about their subject and they will blow your mind with the information they know…

[@MuzterLilmus-gd8le]

Dude sounds like a fun friend lmao🤍

[@Game_Hero]

except when he ruins your kitchen

[@h.clayjohnson3284]

I only saw Pal Erdos once, and I can’t say if he saw me, so I don’t claim to have met him. Two of my teachers have Erdos numbers of one, so I missed a chance for unearned mathematical glory.

[@piggly-wiggly]

Fascinating profile. Someone as singularly focused on intellectual pursuits can test the hypothesis that mental decline is a natural consequence of aging. Do we know if his productivity or the quality of his mathematical insights declined as he got older?

[@jwnomad]

1 is an insufficient sample size for statistical significance

[@veqv]

Well, he died at a mathematics conference, so I think it's safe to say that he was still engaged. But yeah, sample size of one.

[@koboDresden]

Famously, his publishing just started slowing down after his death.

[@mathedguy]

I love seeing you, and always enjoy your posts ! I recall something that included a discussion of one of his articles which was really great. I am sorry that I cannot recommend any particular article of his that might be popular. Thanks.

[@tw8464]

Excellent work on this video. Fascinating

[@Siskiyous6]

Four decades, that is absolutely disgusting.

[@SitichokeAmnuanpol]

Great inspiration, thank you

[@erdossuitcase7667]

Gosh, I've never heard of this guy. Lol. I think he referred to the Soviet Union as Joe and the US as Sam. Some say the baseball great Hank Aaron has an Erdös number of 1. They both signed a baseball while they were on stage together.

I hadn't heard that, but I would be fine with Hank Aaron having an Erdos number 1.

[@darkacadpresenceinblood]

YOOO im hungarian and finally people are talking about our country because of a weird mathematician instead of "hungry" jokes hell yeah

[@petersilva037]

John Von Neumann is a pretty famous Hungarian also. A biography of his that is great is "Prisoner's Dilemma" by William Poundstone (going from memory... I think that's right, read it decades ago...)

[@EconAtheist]

Erdős: **just needed a place to crash**

[@4thesakeofitname]

Your channel is probably the best offer of KZbin...

[@Will-Ch]

Erdos era un tipo que realmente le gustaba de las matemáticas.

[@AyushSharma80001]

Studying is so esoteric spiritual experience especially Maths.

[@EldritchMango]

Such freedom, much liberty

[@sojithssp]

I could fall asleep by listening to your voice toby..🤩

[@TheAncientAstronomer]

Well what can you say, the man was a true anarchist! No wonder the FBI couldn't figure him out.

[@RasheedKhan-he6xx]

I didn't expect to be moved by a video about a mathematician but its because my father was an academic of the same vintage and I recognized in this story a world that I knew growing up that I think no longer exists: one that had room for eccentricity and where there was a global camaraderie of academia of sorts. Even in the FBI files, you see a degree of restraint and observation, no jumping to conclusions, no rush to "act first and deal with the consequences later" that is the norm in the 21st century. My father was also at Minnesota and Madison WI at around the same time as Erdos which is another reason I felt a connection to this video, although I don't know if they ever interacted being from very different disciplines. Speaking of the FBI, wouldn't it be nice to imagine that they eventually grew fond of the old boy and went from keeping an eye on him to quietly looking out for him? I doubt it though. They closed the file in 1990 which is to say only after the collapse of the Soviet Union because there would no longer be any point.

[@morkovija]

I hope the episode of staying away from drugs for a month as a bet gets covered in a video ;) "Math lost a month of progress"

[@wellesradio]

Patron tiers should be by wholesomeness level.

[@A-Ls1]

“Another roof, another proof”

[@PaighamBot]

Omg she’s like a little princess 👸🥰

[@gaborhorvath9243]

The correct pronunciation is "aerdoesh" Btw, his family name means sylvan or forester.

[@stogies3]

She pronounced his name correctly.

[@XAirForcedotcom]

This is a cool episode, Toby

[@JSB2500]

00:49 "His only prized possessions were his notebooks, and he always carried one around with him" Oh no! This is true of me too! Even to KFC! 😂 I have two of my books in front of me now at half past midnight, and I'm writing in one about the underlying mechanism of the brain! 🤗

[@vikramanbaburaj1460]

Euler of our time ❤

[@szaszm_]

Just a fellow weirdo, but an extreme one.

[@douglasboyle6544]

To be fair, at the time, the FBI thought everything that wasn't them was suspicious.

[@MattGrayYES]

I’m now imagining CIA/GHCQ trying to make a spy care that much about maths that they’d blend in, but just failing at the first hurdle :D

[@AnnoyingNewsletters]

3:15 Combinatorics Combinatorics is a stream of mathematics that concerns the study of finite discrete structures. It deals with the study of permutations and combinations, enumerations of the sets of elements. It characterizes Mathematical relations and their properties.

[@theobnoxiousotter5554]

Happy New Year, Tibees!

[@jimsvideos7201]

Have you considered reading audiobooks? I think I’d enjoy your work in that. 😀

[@notice587]

I'm reading a real analysis book and it it was a footnote that went like this: "By now it has probably been ingrained in you that epsilon is always a small number; this will probably follow you throughout your mathematical carrier. Paul Erdos was one of the most interesting mathematicians in history -- and yet never held a permanent job. He didn't want one. In an age before air travel was common, he would be constantly be bouncing between universities and the homes of collaborators. he also had an interesting vocabulary. Alcohol was "poison." women were "bosses," and when a man married a woman he has been "captured." People who retired from research mathematics had "died" (this one caused some terrible miscommunications), while those who actually did die had "left." and me telling you all that is just lead-up to what he called kids. He loved kids, but because they are small, he called them "epsilons." I thought this was a great quote and I was also excited to that something that I had just read now magically has a video about it(it seems to be the case that so many things in my life have such neat coincidences). The author is Jay cummings if you're curious.

[@seachtose6959]

What did the constipated Mathematician do? . . . . He worked it out with a pencil.

[@enorma29]

don't you ever dare have an eccentric personality until after you're successful.

[@tradward]

Just as I thought that this guy was on meth, you confirmed it 😂

[@kellymoses8566]

Math was really just his excuse for taking amphetamines.

[@tgoshe]

@1:52 High as a kite all the time doing maths??!!

19h of math a day. What a freak. Love it. And for the "Erdos number", good luck finding its real maximum!

[@theguywiththewhistle]

Great vid!

[@BrianOxleyTexan]

Pen, paper, and chalk.

[@philosophy-of-science-and-law]

Very cool, thank you!

[@justin_time]

I wonder what files the FBI has on Toby? 🤔

[@TheyCallMeNewb]

This one was a real jaunt!