Re:A fleet of computers helps settle a 90-year-old math problem
by MaxBarraclough on Thursday August 27, 2020 @05:44AM
(#24291792)
> fret not, a second computer program can assure us of its validity
Formal methods are rigorous enough and mature enough to be helpful in avionics software development, why not in research mathematics?
> I hope they are not building the foundations of future math on this house of cards.
Mathematics is always a house of cards, and human mathematicians will always be fallible. It's already possible for a published result to later turn out to be invalid, in turn invalidating papers that relied on it.
Formal methods are rigorous enough and mature enough to be helpful in avionics software development, why not in research mathematics?
> I hope they are not building the foundations of future math on this house of cards.
Mathematics is always a house of cards, and human mathematicians will always be fallible. It's already possible for a published result to later turn out to be invalid, in turn invalidating papers that relied on it.