Re:Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be...
by parsimo2010 on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:54PM
(#21108122)
Someone who says that is, ironically, not concerned with the details. All of published math is wrong? No, a lot of is is understandable and verifiable by advanced undergraduates.
Most of the fundamental theorems in each field are understandable by humans. As you get more and more abstract, and get into more and more obscure areas, you start to see non-understandable proofs built on top of non-understandable proofs. There's a danger that those are wrong, but when they collapse it just means that one professor has wasted their life, not that all of mathematics will suddenly collapse.
Re:Number theorist fears many proofs widely considered to be...
by kevinzz on Sunday September 29, 2019 @05:26PM
(#21109710)
The headline is clickbait. A more measured debate about the issues is here https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/does-anyone-kno...
> “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,” Buzzard told Motherboard while he was attending the 10th Interactive Theorem Proving conference in Portland, Oregon, where he gave the opening talk.