Re: [HM] Proofs and the computer

Gordon Fisher (gfisher@shentel.net)
Wed, 09 Jun 1999 11:14:36

At 10:01 AM 6/9/99 -0400, John Conway wrote:
>
>
>On Wed, 9 Jun 1999, Michael Deakin wrote:
>
>> My understanding is that Frank Allaire, using a different programme,
>> and allegedly a simpler one, reproduced the result by Haken, Appell &
>> Katz.
>
> That's true. More recently, Paul Seymour produced another proof,
>which is still simpler, and has the further advantage that the computer
>not only performed the reducibility checks of the cases, but also handled
>the discharge method that produces them. I think this is the most reliable
>proof to date.
>
> John Conway
>
>

I wonder ... are some of us more apt to trust a proof gone over by numerous
humans, say as in the case of the Fermat conjecture, than to trust a proof
produced by a machine using different programs composed by different
programmers? Or not?

Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net