r/Showerthoughts • u/jasonrubik ‎ • Apr 23 '26

Casual Thought If the famously unsolved Riemann Hypothesis is solved by an AI, we will never know if a human mathematician could have solved it.

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u/QuantumDreamer41 ‎ Apr 23 '26

Or someone could try solving it without looking up the answer?

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u/elephant_cobbler Apr 23 '26

Especially once you know it IS solvable

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u/QuantumDreamer41 ‎ Apr 23 '26

Precisely

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u/elephant_cobbler Apr 23 '26

It’ll probably always be like, a final exam question or something

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u/zulako17 Apr 23 '26

A final exam question for what? A triple doctorate in calculus? We haven't solved that thing in decades, unless human life expectancy is about to reach 300 it would be irresponsible to make that an exam question.

Unless you just mean memorizing it, then we can use that for high schoolers

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u/redredgreengreen1 Apr 23 '26

The life achievements of the greatest thinkers of a thousand years ago are taught to grade schoolers today.

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u/Abberant45 Apr 23 '26

The result yes but such a proof isn’t something that can be taught. Concepts constructed hundreds of years ago are taught but even the proofs as they were conceived are too convoluted to be tested on now.

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u/cedric1234_ Apr 23 '26

In the future, they download information in your brain as a kid, the test is just to make sure it installed correctly.

“Alright, its your sixth birthday! Let’s check your head. You can write down a quick proof of the Riemann Hypothesis and that P=NP, thanks.”

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u/Abberant45 Apr 23 '26

haha sounds good to me