Mathematicians welcome computer-assisted proof in ‘grand unification’ theory
The abiltiy to automate proofs creates some interesting questions about the nature of mathematics. The article remined me of Erdos saying that you "don't need to believe in God, but you do need to believe in the book", 'the book' here being an imagined collection of mathematical proofs that are so simple, clear and beautiful that they immedieately stand out to any mathematician.<p>I don't mind proof assistants as a way to gain new insights into mathematics, but I worry that maths is drifting into a direction where it turns more into hermeneutics than actual mathematics. The automation of proofs isn't the only thing, I also was very scpetical about the whole process of Shinichi Mochizuki's proof of the abc conjecture.