Response Status 418

If you wonder where Response 418 is coming from, this is a ‘fake’ http status code from 1998 that was invented as an April fools day joke. The response is part of the ‘hoax’ Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol or htcpcp versus the real Hyper Text Transfer Protocol that you use daily surfing the web. In http the 4xx numbers are for client errors. One that you probably have encountered is error 404 File not found that you get when you try to load a webpage that cannot be found because made a typo for example or because the page no longer exists. Similarly we have error 418 I’m a teapot as a possible response for the htcpcp protocol that was invented as a joke. In 2017 an attempt was made to get rid of this fake protocol but a “Save 418 Movement” was started to rescue this status code because it serves as a reminder that underlying processes of computers are still made by humans. Similarly I chose to reference to response 418 on this blog as a general reminder to the fact that science and technology are not just abstractions but created by human beings driven by the same motivations as those active in other areas like religion, sports, arts, politics and so on. From that perspective there is nothing special or different to science compared to other activities. It also implies that it should not be reserved or only be accessible to a happy few with extra ordinary talents. Just like we don’t expect language to be beyond the capacities of most people we shouldn’t expect mathematics to be beyond the grasp of most people. Of course, not everyone can become a professional mathematician but we also don’t expect everyone to be able to become a celebrated novelist. There is something ‘elitist’ about being (not) good at mathematics on both sides (the ones good at it and the ones not good at it) which is based on a myth and I strongly believe this is a myth we should get rid of.