logoalt Hacker News

skew-aberration • yesterday at 11:12 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

That's not that how that works btw. The incompleteness is a property of the algorithm which does the proofs, not the theorems. If a theorem is true it has a proof and a program which proves it (printf("the proof verbatim")). But no computer program can successfully prove all theorems. The space of potential proofs is too big to search systematically, but you can still get lucky.


Replies

noslenwerdna • yesterday at 11:54 PM

That is also not how it works. The theorem says that there exist some true statements for which there is no proof. This is assuming the axioms are consistent.

➕ show 1 reply
rcpt • yesterday at 11:43 PM

Godel says that there are statements that are true but have no proof within that system. It's not about algorithms.

I'm saying it'd be funny if Riemann were true but not proveable.

Though I guess it's actually funnier. If Riemann were false then there would be a counterexample, so it's clearly within existing axioms.

So if one can prove that Riemann isn't proveable in our current axioms then it has to be true.

➕ show 1 reply