Poincare Conjecture Proof Completed

Flamerule writes "A New York Times article has finally provided an update on the status of Grigori Perelman's 2003 rough proof of the Poincaré Conjecture. 3 years ago, Perelman published several papers online explaining his idea for proving the conjecture, but after giving lectures at MIT and several other schools (covered on Slashdot) he returned to Russia, where he's remained silent since. Now, mathematicians in the US and elsewhere have finally finished going over his work and have produced several papers, totaling 1000 pages, that give step-by-step, complete proofs of the conjecture. In addition to winning some or all of the $1,000,000 Millennium Prize, Perelman now seems to be the favorite to receive a Fields Medal at the International Mathematics Union meeting next week, but it's not clear that he'll even show up!"

Comments

I remain skeptical

[maynard]

1000 pages is a lot of potential for error. Also, Occam's Razor would suggest it to be a ridiculous outcome. If I believed in this I might as well just believe in Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, or that crazy man on the moon myth! *shrug* Just let me say, I'm much more partial to the Fields Prize in Philosophy than any esoteric discipline like Mathematics. Sometimes in life, ya just gotta take sides! --M

Re:I remain skeptical

[maynard]

Yes. But how do you know any one of those steps you've taken is really correct? Whoa. That makes you think twice, doesn't it?

Grigori Perelman, please give us a sign!

[reporter]

We should be quite concerned about Grigori Perelman since he returned to Russia. During the last several years, democracy in Russia and human rights have begun to fade.

If Perelman is truly a genius on par with Albert Einstein, he faces two problems in Russia.

First, the Russian government will want to tap into his genius to improve its weapons systems. In the Russia of today, if he said, "no", then he would be faced with harrassment and, even, trumped-up charges leading to imprisonment.

Second, like Albert Einstein and Andrei Sakharov, I expect that Perelman would be a supporter of human rights and democracy. Their genius enables them to see that freedom fosters the growth of intellect, of which they have much. Unfortunately, in the Russia of today, too much talk about political change to removing the ruling party can cause a tax audit or worse.

Russia, today, is much better than the old Soviet Union, but saying that Russia is a democracy would be an exaggeration.

So, I hope that Mr. Grigori Perelman is okay. If he can read this message, then, I wish that he would, at least, post a message on SlashDot so that we know that he is all right.

Perelman really should come to USA. Here, he can work on neat projects like the new hyperdrive for space travel. If this hyperdrive is ever to succeed, we will need the enormous intellect of Perelman to work out the hairy mathematics.

Re:Grigori Perelman, please give us a sign!

[Doc Ruby]

Moderation -1
    30% Flamebait
    30% Troll
    30% Interesting

There's nothing remotely Flamebait or Troll in that message. TrollMods spew cosmoturf to suppress discussion of growing Russian backsliding towards tyranny. Slashdot's mod system really is disgusting sometimes when it's abused by political operatives.