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I'd go with no. I think there's some classic examples people pull out, but whether the relevant community actually thought them to be correct but unproven, I'd
by aaron695 12y ago
I'd go with no.
I think there's some classic examples people pull out, but whether the relevant community actually thought them to be correct but unproven, I'd like to know.
I find this an interesting topic, the concept of we 'know' this is true but can't prove it yet.
I wonder if the idea of 'absolutes' sets back Mathematics sometimes. But maybe there are whole fields that rely on yet unproven but assumed true ideas?
Complex engineering for instance relies on 'this is probably true'. They make catastrophic mistakes, but they just pick themselves up and move on. Unless they are NASA I guess.
- namlede 12y agoOne field that relies on unproven but assumed true mathematical conjectures is cryptography. Provably secure crypto usually assumes that P != NP (it also incorporates further assumptions such as the intractability of integer factorization).