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.
Indeed. How many scientists understand how a compiler works? Or know about branch prediction on the CPU? If they do, do they lose sleep because it's non-deterministic? I don't. Seems fine.
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.
levocardia · · focus · HN ↗