Computer Math Proof Shows Reasoning Power

A computer program written by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois has come up with a major mathematical proof that would have been called creative if a human had thought of it. In doing so, the computer has, for the first time, got a toehold into pure mathematics, a field described by its practitioners as more of an art form than a science. And the implications, some say, are profound, showing just how powerful computers can be at reasoning itself, at mimicking the flashes of logical insight or even genius that have characterized the best human minds.

Computers have found proofs of mathematical conjectures before, of course, but those conjectures were easy to prove. The difference this time is that the computer has solved a conjecture that stumped some of the best mathematicians for 60 years. And it did so with a program that was designed to reason, not to solve a specific problem. In that sense, the program is very different from chess-playing computer programs, for example, which are intended to solve just one problem: the moves of a chess game.
"It's a sign of power, of reasoning power," said Dr. Larry Wos, the supervisor of the computer reasoning project at Argonne. And with this result, obtained by a colleague, Dr. William McCune, he said, "We've taken a quantum leap forward."

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Contributed by: Paritosh Karnatak, IIT, Kanpur

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