Interesting question - to me, the distinction is that 'evidence' of the validity of something is expected output(s) given known input(s), whereas 'proof' (at le

Interesting question - to me, the distinction is that 'evidence' of the validity of something is expected output(s) given known input(s), whereas 'proof' (at least in the mathematical sense) is a logical transformation that is applied to make it obvious that the theorem must be true. I'm not sure you could call a proof 'evidence' because it's not an output of the theorem - it is the theorem. I'm less certain than I was before I read your post, though - so I stand to be corrected :-)