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44 Conjectures of Stephen Wolfram Disproved

Posted by kdawson on from the new-kind-of-error dept.

Richard Pritches writes in to let us know that MIT errata expert Evangelos Georgiadis has disproved 44 conjectures set by Dr. Stephen Wolfram (founder of Mathematica) in A New Kind of Science. The paper was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Cellular Automata and can be read in PDF form at Prof Edwin Clark's collection of reviews of Wolfram's ANKS. "The formulas provided by Wolfram for these [44] rules are not minimal. Moreover for 8 of these cannot be minimal even by simple inspection since minimal formula sizes for 3-input Boolean functions over this basis never exceeds 5."

10 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. English anyone?? by Racemaniac · · Score: 4, Funny

    "has disproving"
    is it that hard to write a summary without such huge errors??
    i'm not a native english speaker, and it even pokes out my eyes...

    1. Re:English anyone?? by rxmd · · Score: 5, Funny

      "has disproving"
      is it that hard to write a summary without such huge errors??
      i'm not a native english speaker, and it even pokes out my eyes...
      You have assuming that the editors can reading!
      --
      As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
    2. Re:English anyone?? by evanbd · · Score: 4, Funny

      If your shift key is broken, it is permissible to use your caps lock key for the duration of the required capital letter. I know that key is abhorrent to most here, but it does have uses in the event a sudden failure of both shift keys.

    3. Re:English anyone?? by rcw-home · · Score: 2, Funny

      "has disproving" is it that hard to write a summary without such huge errors??

      One word: havening.

    4. Re:English anyone?? by flyingfsck · · Score: 4, Funny

      Slashdot Engrish is to be informating and not to be laughful at.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    5. Re:English anyone?? by Sky+Cry · · Score: 4, Funny

      Surely you meaning righting, not reading!

  2. Watch out for the roundhouse kick by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doesn't Evangelos know that Wolfram is the Chuck Norris of Math?
    Nobody disproves Chuck Norris and lives to publish about it!

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  3. Re:Humm... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Funny

    For particularly small values of "everyone" of course.

  4. MIT Errata Expert, eh? by mathcam · · Score: 4, Funny
    "...so basically I'm really good at being right about things that other people are wrong about."

    Wait a minute, that's what I do!

  5. That's egg on his face. by yotto · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The formulas provided by Wolfram for these [44] rules are not minimal. Moreover for 8 of these cannot be minimal even by simple inspection since minimal formula sizes for 3-input Boolean functions over this basis never exceeds 5."

    Oh, SNAP!

    --
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