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Are Computers Ready to Create Mathematical Proofs?

Posted by michael on from the GIGO dept.

DoraLives writes "Interesting article in the New York Times regarding the quandary mathematicians are now finding themselves in. In a lovely irony reminiscent of the torture, in days of yore, that students were put through when it came to using, or not using, newfangled calculators in class, the Big Guys are now wrestling with a very similar issue regarding computers: 'Can we trust the darned things?' 'Can we know what we know?' Fascinating stuff."

1 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. What did godel say? by Spam.B.gone · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Godels theorem pretty much says that there are things that you can NEVER know are true or false...and that in some cases you can PROVE that you can never know them.
    For the Godel impaired, this whole Godel thing is that there is a clever way to say "There is no proof fot this statement". Which must be true, but you can't proof it.
    So Godel proofs that there are true things that can impossible be proven. You know they are true, given the rules of logic, and you know you can't proof them using the same rules of logic. So you know, you know that you know, and you know that you can't proof it.