Thread · HN Continuity

As the famous British mathematician Alfred North Whitehead wrote 111 years ago, "Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."

This now includes the proving of theorems.

He went on to write "Operations of thought are cavalry charges in a battle - they are limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments."

Mechanization also demolished that institution, which had also survived for thousands of years.