creative computers and mathematics
Glenn Morton (grmorton@gnn.com)
Tue, 10 Dec 1996 19:48:55Today on the New York Time page, there is an article in which a computer has
proved a mathematical theorem called the Robbins conjecture. The article does
not say what that is. But it has stumped mathematicians since 1935. The
computer made the full set of mathematical deductions from assumptions in 8
days. The proof has now been checked by hand and appears valid. Apparently
this is the first case of a computer program displaying creativity in the form
of a proof of a mathematical theorem.
As I understand it, this was not a "search" problem in which a theorem is
proved by searching through all options. Rather it was formal logic
processing.
the article is at
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/1210math.html
glenn
Foundation,Fall and Flood
http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/dmd.htm