Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be true are wrong

Re:Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be... by gowld on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:23PM (#21107916)

Headline is of course absurd hyperbole that does not belong here.

> "I think there is a non-zero chance that some of our great castles are built on sand," Buzzard wrote in a slide presentation. "But I think it's small."

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Re:Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be... by mirimir on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:30PM (#21107967)

Yes, the title ought to be changed. At least, "all" to "some".

But he does note:

> This overreliance on the elders leads to a brittleness in the understanding of truth. A proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, proposed in 1637 and once considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world's "most difficult math problem," was published in the 1990s. Buzzard posits that no one actually completely understands it, or knows whether it's true.

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Re:Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be... by kurlberg on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:34PM (#21107989)

Well, they also quote him as saying:

"I’m suddenly concerned that all of published math is wrong because mathematicians are not checking the details, and I’ve seen them wrong before,”

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Re:Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be... by kevinzz on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:54PM (#21108123)

https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/does-anyone-kno...

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