yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

We Can’t Prove Most Theorems with Known Physics


2m read
·Nov 3, 2024

Processing might take a few minutes. Refresh later.

The overwhelming majority of theorems in mathematics are theorems that we cannot possibly prove. This is Girdle's theorem, and it also comes out of Turing's proof of what is and is not computable. These things that are not computable vastly outnumber the things that are computable, and what is computable depends entirely upon what computers we can make in this physical universe.

The computers that we can make must obey our laws of physics. If the laws of physics were different, then we'd be able to prove different sorts of mathematics. This is another part of the mathematician's misconception: they think they can get outside of the laws of physics. However, their brain is just a physical computer. Their brain must obey the laws of physics.

If they existed in a universe with different laws of physics, then they could prove different theorems. But we exist in the universe that we're in, and so we're bound by a whole bunch of things, not least of which is the finite speed of light. So there could be certain things out there in abstract space which we would be able to come to a more full understanding of if we could get outside of the restrictions of the laws of physics here.

Happily, none of those theorems that we cannot prove at the moment are inherently interesting. Some things can be inherently boring; namely, all of these theorems which we cannot possibly prove as true or false. Those theorems can't have any bearing in our physical universe. They have nothing to do with our physical universe, and this is why we say they're inherently uninteresting. There's a lot of inherently uninteresting things...

More Articles

View All
Things to Remember When Time Traveling
The year is 2019, or maybe 1600, or maybe there isn’t even a calendar system in place yet. There is no BC or AD because, you know, it hasn’t happened yet. But somehow, you’ve managed to travel back in time. Okay, first things first, don’t panic. However …
Advice for Young Adults in Their 20s
And you have a lot of young people here that would all like to be you. Um, what advice would you give them from your, you know, looking back at your 20-year-old self? I think the important thing is that you have the life that you want to have. How you d…
Local linearity for a multivariable function
So a lot of the concepts that you learn about in multivariable calculus are really all about taking ideas that you originally might have learned in linear algebra and then transferring those to apply to nonlinear problems. So for example, I’m going to gi…
Geometric constructions: parallel line | Congruence | High school geometry | Khan Academy
Let’s say that we have a line. I’m drawing it right over there, and our goal is to construct another line that is parallel to this line that goes through this point. How would we do that? Well, the way that we can approach it is by creating what will even…
We Tracked Every Visitor to Epstein Island | WIRED
Even in death, the secrets of Jeffrey Epstein remain tightly guarded. But earlier this year, I spearheaded a Wired investigation that uncovered the data of almost 200 mobile phones belonging to visitors to his infamous pedophile island. The data was so pr…
15 Ways People Are Wasting Your Time
Guess what, Aluxer? People waste your time a lot of the time. You may notice sooner rather than later. You might only notice once they’ve taken a big chunk of it. And the worst, you may never notice. You might be giving your time and effort to people who …