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Jean-Yves Girard says that true theorems have corollaries. Computers can prove all sorts of propositions, but the gooey philosophical question is -- which prop
by thanatropism 7y ago
Jean-Yves Girard says that true theorems have corollaries.
Computers can prove all sorts of propositions, but the gooey philosophical question is -- which propositions are Theorems in the grand civilizational project of mathematics?
- arethuza 7y agoSo software can mechanically crank through and generate propositions but which of these are actually worth paying attention to? Edit: Has anyone tried deep learning (or similar techniques) to do the identification of interesting theorems?
- black_knight 7y agoYes, the job of a mathematician is not to prove theorems. But rather to find the interesting or beautiful ones.
- Laakeri 7y agoHowever currently the most difficult and time consuming part of the job is proving those interesting theorems.
- devinplatt 7y agoI'm genuinely curious, why do you believe this? From experience? From hearing mathematicians say so? I'm currently working on my first formal math paper, and I've been spending a lot of time figuring out how to best present the information so that it is comprehendible and easy to read. Things like structure of the paper, wording, notation, and more. There's probably a lot of time to spend convincing others that your theorem is interesting, too. Some of the most respected works in mathematics after all are thoughtful compilations of previously proven results.