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
This Man Turned His Life Around by Mastering Falconry | National Geographic
Falconry is the oldest land sport known to man. Before you had any gun, you use the bird. [Music] People get into it for different reasons. Some people love to hunt. I love the fact that it’s an animal; then I get to bond with this beautiful thing. My na…
🇺🇸 DOES YOUR FLAG FAIL? Grey Grades State Flags!
[school bell rings] Hello, class. Your homework assignment as the U.S. states that you are was to make your state flag. A flag to stir pride in your citizens. A flag to stand proud on the American stage. A tough task, though not too tough with the guidel…
Climate Change and the Migrant Crisis | Years of Living Dangerously
Nice to meet you. How big is this European migration crisis? Down, it’s big, and it’s getting bigger. We’re doing a story on the impacts of climate change on migration. Many of the people are fleeing conflicts; we just couldn’t believe that some weren’t …
Explorers See Greenland's Glaciers Like Never Before | National Geographic
[Music] Lots of people who have tried before us had failed, and all of their aircraft are scattered across the ice cap. You ready? Oh yeah! When thinking about flying a tiny helicopter across the North Atlantic, the answer is no, way too dangerous, ab…
Trump On TikTok Ownership #shorts #money
Trump said, and I’m quoting now, “I’m for TikTok because you need competition. If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram. You know what that means? That’s Zuckerberg.” I spoke to Trump directly about this issue just prior to the Senate vo…
Variance and standard deviation of a discrete random variable | AP Statistics | Khan Academy
In a previous video, we defined this random variable (X). It’s a discrete random variable; it can only take on a finite number of values. I defined it as the number of workouts I might do in a week. We calculated the expected value of our random variable …