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
The Ancient City That Mastered Water
It’s a cold, rainy night in the walled city of Cordoba, medieval Spain. Watchmen guard the city, unaware that an entire army of Christian soldiers are about to launch a surprise attack. In a single night, they conquer the entire city, bringing the Muslim …
More formal treatment of multivariable chain rule
Hello everyone. So this is what I might call a more optional video. In the last couple of videos, I talked about this multivariable chain rule, and I gave some justification. It might have been considered a little bit handwavy by some. I was doing a lot o…
Reversible reactions and equilibrium | High school chemistry | Khan Academy
Let’s imagine a reaction where we start with the reactants A and B, and they react to form the products C and D. Now, it turns out that in certain situations, the reaction could go the other way. You could start with C + D, and those could react to end up…
10 BAD HABITS THAT DESTROY YOUR CONFIDENCE | STOICISM INSIGHTS
Welcome back to Stoicism Insights, where we delve deep into the wisdom of the Stoic philosophy to uncover timeless truths for modern living. Have you ever wondered why on some days you feel like you can conquer the world, and on others you struggle to mak…
Saving the Florida Wildlife Corridor | National Geographic
[Music] Florida is like no other place on earth. It’s the land, it’s the water, it’s the people. And the Florida wildlife corridor is the backbone that connects it all. But we are seeing changes because of those thousand people a day that are moving to Fl…
Stalin: a real atheist
This is pawn. Um, this is a message for YouTube Christians, especially those who like to point to the evils of atheism. So, I have atheism in common with some of the most murderous dictators of the 20th century, and I hope I can explain why that doesn’t b…