benelliott comments on The Crackpot Offer - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 September 2007 02:32PM

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Comment author: Kingreaper 24 August 2011 01:51:48PM 0 points [-]

Demonstrated satisfactorily =/= 100% proven

Most things outside mathematics can never be proven, but many can easily be demonstrated satisfactorily.

Comment author: benelliott 24 August 2011 05:13:45PM 0 points [-]

The 4-colour theorem is not outside mathematics. I think I sort of understand what you mean by 'demonstrated satisfactorily' but in my experience such demonstrations aren't worth much, not only can they be wrong in principle, they are often wrong in practice. Mathematics is nothing if not counter-intuitive.