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
How To Get Rich According To Mark Cuban
There are a million ways to make a million dollars, and today we’re looking at how Mark Cuban’s done it. For those of you who live under a rock, Mark Cuban is an American serial entrepreneur, investor, one of the main sharks from Shark Tank, and he also o…
How Much Money is There on Earth?
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. On Earth, the average piece of currency changes hands about 55 times a year. That’s about once a week. With that kind of turnover, it’s safe to say that statistically in the United States, out of every 100 pieces of currency, o…
Finding your next role: Tips from YC's Talent team
[Music] foreign [Music] And with that, let’s go ahead and get started. I’m Andy, like Paige mentioned. Um, to give you guys just a quick background about myself, I’ve been recruiting almost for 10 years now. It’s kind of crazy to think, but I started my …
Waste Not, Want Not | The Great Human Race
Whoa! What is that? Look at the bottom of that slope. I see it! Is that an animal? Huh! It’s a baby bushbuck! Look, something attacked this. Oh, look at these marks! It definitely was! Definitely something bit it. It’s bloated. It is bloated. We might no…
Capacitor i-v equations
We’re going to talk about the equations that describe how a capacitor works, and then I’ll give you an example of how these equations work. So, the basic equation of a capacitor says that the charge Q on a capacitor is equal to the capacitance value time…
Signs You are Moving From Middle Class to Wealthy
You know, it’s easy to tell when someone moves up from middle class, when you know the signs you see. It’s not just about the bank balance. It’s a complete overhaul of your life’s blueprint. Here are ten clear signs you’re moving from middle class to wea…