Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
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Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
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Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#2Should add (2019) to the title.
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#3“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.”
Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#4“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.” Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
I think that would be because God is nature (for those who believe in God) and math is how humans describe nature. That would be the same as saying that nature can't be expressed in its own language any simpler than this.
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#5From Scott Aaronson's blog (linked in the article):
> Another Update: In the comments section, my former student Shalev Ben-David points out a simplification [1] of Huang’s argument, which no longer uses Cauchy’s interlacing theorem. I thought there was no way this proof could possibly be made any simpler, and I was wrong!
[1] https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4229#comment-1813084
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#6“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.” Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
FFS take a few seconds and read the article.
"Aaronson and O’Donnell both called Huang’s paper the “book” proof of the sensitivity conjecture, referring to Paul Erdős’ notion of a celestial book in which God writes the perfect proof of every theorem. "
and read the article that sentence links to.
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#7“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.” Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
A) There isn't.
B) It is a figure of speech that somewhere there is a book of "perfect" proofs/blueprint of the universe. Presumably whatever concept you call "God" has access to this, just like "Death" has a list of all living things etc..
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#8“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.” Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
FFS take a few seconds and read the article. "Aaronson and O’Donnell both called Huang’s paper the “book” proof of the sensitivity conjecture, referring to Paul Erdős’ notion of a celestial book in which God writes the perfect proof of every theorem. " and read the article that sentence links to.
I think that's just another example of what OP is referring to. Erdős, a mathematician, invoked God.
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#9“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.” Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
It's a shortcut, they're not literally invoking "God". It's an encoding of:
We don't know what the optimum is, but we can imagine the complete set of possible things, and from those there will be one that's best. So that's the optimum, and we want to refer to it. We don't know what it is, but we assume it exists, so let's just call it 'God's solution'
Re: Mathematician Solves Sensitivity Conjecture in Two Pages (2019)
#10“ I find it hard to imagine that even God knows how to prove the Sensitivity Conjecture in any simpler way than this.” Why is there a tendency to invoke God in math?
FFS take a few seconds and read the article. "Aaronson and O’Donnell both called Huang’s paper the “book” proof of the sensitivity conjecture, referring to Paul Erdős’ notion of a celestial book in which God writes the perfect proof of every theorem. " and read the article that sentence links to.
It's not a terrible question, and even if the reference to God is via Erdős, there's still a reference. I think it's evident in the sciences as well, e.g. "God does not play dice with the universe."