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"Truth Machine". Now, that's.. a lot. Gödel is cancelled? Did I miss the memo? bsky.app/profile/simo...

Simons Foundation@simonsfoundation.org

In his book, "The Proof in the Code: How a Truth Machine Is Transforming Math and AI," @kevinhartnett.bsky.social tells the story of computer program Lean in an effort to answer a longstanding question: Can computers reveal universal truths? Out today from @quantabooks.org: https://bit.ly/43X5To1

the fact that that is your response kind of indicates that you didn't appreciate what the whole deal was with Godel, namely that it nuked ANY attempt to logic yourself out of the question of knowledge. so, the whole posture of this guy is ridiculous regardless of the specifics.

Well the Gödel theorems actually have a precise content, they are not about "knowledge" or such imprecise terms of the common language. Since @tuomaspernu.bsky.social is invoking Gödel I feel I can kindly ask what precisely he is referring to...

sorry, get overly annoyed by the idea that people find an idea like "truth machine" even remotely worth pondering over for more than two second. my bad. i thought "godel is cancelled?" was a pretty good way to pre-empt such pondering.

Of course the guy is doing some kind of marketing, but type theory -- which is what is behind Lean -- actually is a real thing (for instance, Lean is mostly inspired by Rocq which has been a real topic of academic research for over 30 years (especially in France)).

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