I feel like “giving up understanding” is inevitable.
There’s some hubris in thinking we can understand everything. For truly difficult problems, it’s entirely possible that humans are simply incapable of comprehending why a solution is true. But ultimately the practical value of applying that solution to the real world is going to eclipse our need to understand it.
Math is just the beginning. I see it happening in other fields too, like physics and biology. Many of us software devs have already given up on understanding parts of our own systems for the exact same reason.
In the future I feel one parallel to this is my research area, SAT solving.
People used to solve logic problems by hand, verify logic. Now you pile it into a computer. The problem has been around for a while, no-one fully ‘understands’ the proof of the four colour theorem as a big chunk is computer proved.
We are now just changing (admittedly greatly) what we can put in a box marked ‘checked by computer.
brap · · focus · HN ↗
There’s some hubris in thinking we can understand everything. For truly difficult problems, it’s entirely possible that humans are simply incapable of comprehending why a solution is true. But ultimately the practical value of applying that solution to the real world is going to eclipse our need to understand it.
Math is just the beginning. I see it happening in other fields too, like physics and biology. Many of us software devs have already given up on understanding parts of our own systems for the exact same reason.
Seems like a losing battle.
CJefferson · · focus · HN ↗
People used to solve logic problems by hand, verify logic. Now you pile it into a computer. The problem has been around for a while, no-one fully ‘understands’ the proof of the four colour theorem as a big chunk is computer proved.
We are now just changing (admittedly greatly) what we can put in a box marked ‘checked by computer.