This leads back to the question of how you really know that something is true.
Mathematical questions are simpler for this purpose than, say, theological
questions. If Fermat's Last Theorem was actually important (which of course in a
practical sense it isn't) how would you "know" it was true? Would you believe
it if some experts said it was true? Or if a computer checked all possible cases
(as in the 1976 "proof" of the Four Color Theorem)? Or would you have to study
the proof yourself until you could see it all as one idea?
Has anyone here read Tipler's book _The Physics of Immortality_? Frank Tipler,
a famous physicist (that's almost an oxymoron), claims to have proof of the existence
of God. I'm not ready to become a disciple, but I will say that what I have read of the
book so far is interesting.
Bill H.
Paul Prestopnik wrote:
> Nathan Russell wrote:
>
> > Yes, there are many conjectures which are widely believed to be true i.e. the
> > four-color conjecture, Fermet's last therom, the closed universe, the existence
>
> maybe someone can verify this, I thought some guy proved Fermet's last theorem a
> couple years ago?