Keith Devlin

“Now he has to learn to see the patterns in the mess.” Mathematician Keith Devlin (Aug. 11) left the University of Lancaster in England because he wanted to work on a question he formulated that has never been investigated. He has been driven into exile at St. Mary’s College, in Moraga, Calif., which he describes as “a monastery” where “you can retire and think thoughts.”

Any scholar who searches nature in order to learn from its myriad “patterns” knows that finding the pattern is a messy, inconclusive business that may occasionally lead to incredible breakthroughs in human understanding and applications. Unfortunately, until one finds the pattern there are few support systems.

Universities used to exist in order to foster scholarship; now they are only one other system that has been forced into the dominant corporate paradigm. Monasteries are sanctuaries for learning when civil society no longer supports those who pursue knowledge. The pattern here may be that we are slipping into another age of ignorance.

JEAN E. ROSENFELD

Tarzana