alt Hacker NewsSince I actually don't know math, maybe my ELI5 understanding can be helpful (or corrected).
The conjecture says that you can always reverse (a process) to determine the original inputs.
But this proof shows multiple inputs creating the same output - which obviously cannot be reversed to determine the input - thus falsifying the conjecture.
Replies
bananaflag • yesterday at 9:24 AM
Exactly, yes!
And the conjecture was for a specific class of processes.
And Fable found an example of one concrete* process in that class and three concrete inputs (two were enough of course) giving the same output.
*Concrete here means given by a finite string of characters
QuesnayJr • yesterday at 7:05 AM
It was known to be false in general. But there are many questions that are false in general, but true when restricted to polynomials.
[...] you can always reverse (a process) to determine [...]
There is a precondition - constant non-zero Jacobian - to the inverse existing and the inverse is claimed to be of a specific kind - polynomial. The counter example satisfies the precondition and by mapping two different inputs to the same output makes any inverse impossible, including polynomial ones. But maybe that is already ELI7.