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> I'd say e=mc2 was pretty novel Well, the rest mass notion in special relativity is just a natural derivation. It appears once you have the "real" ideas in p
by ajross 2y ago
> I'd say e=mc2 was pretty novel
Well, the rest mass notion in special relativity is just a natural derivation. It appears once you have the "real" ideas in place. And those aren't really "existing math" at all. It was a pure physics idea at root: "the universe's laws don't change if you are in motion" (or alternate framings like "you can't tell if you're moving from inside a moving box").
Well, it turns out that if you try to construct such a theory, you end up needing some different (pre-existing) math to help describe it. But the idea isn't math at all.
Then the question is "Can LLMs propose new well-framed, evocative theories like relativity", and the answer is sort of open. In point of fact human beings, to first approximation, can't do this either!
- Validark 2y agoConsidering the fact that we know the names of the individuals who came up with new ideas in physics, it's extremely rare. If every other college kid was in that category, then we could call it "human ability".