logoalt Hacker News

kens • yesterday at 10:52 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

> I think the next step is to demand that proofs either be human-scale or they prove that a human-scale proof is impossible and the machine proof is as good as it gets.

In 1976, the proof of the Four Color Theorem was controversial because it was done with a computer examining over 1000 cases by brute force and was essentially not comprehensible by humans. But mathematicians ended up accepting it. So mathematics has a 50-year precedent of not requiring human-scale proofs. How is the current situation different?

(Disclaimer: Apologies if this sounds dismissive or argumentative. I genuinely think that the Four Color Theorem should play a role in these discussions and suspect that many people are unaware of the controversy over it.)


Replies

pizza234 • yesterday at 10:58 PM

There's also another (that I find more concerning) aspect to it.

As AIs become smarter and smarter, there will be no amount of clarity that will make more complex proofs understandable to humans - this is an inevitable effect of the cognitive capacity gap.

Complaining about bad style can make some sense now (I disagree anyway), but it's an argument that will be dead shortly.

➕ show 2 replies