(no subject)

[impossiblewizardry]

fermat's last theorem and irrationality of ζ(3) were both important in the 90s... yes the ζ(3) proof was 70s but bear with me

they're both unsolved problems from the beginning of number theory. Not really comparable because fermats last theorem was pursued much harder, and because the proof was deeper and resulted in widely applicable theory.

BUT... here's where the 90s come in... the 90s is when the hard part of the ζ(3) proof was automated. Part (all?) of this was zeilbergers algorithm, which you may have used without realizing it in a computer algebra system. A different kind of generality.

and zeilberger pushed this politically, politicized judgments of what's "real math". You may have heard, its tragic what you learned in your math classes, just symbol manipulation and procedures, whereas real math is deep and about ideas and there's barely any numbers in the formulas. No, said zeilberger, the symbol manipulation is the real math, and its cool and shouldnt be disparaged.

i kind of wonder, how much more successful would this political move have been, had it not been for the fermats last theorem proof? Would we just take for granted, ah the increasing abstraction of 20th century math didnt connect with real problems, it turns out we should all obsess over symbol manipulation procedures and achieve generality with symbolic computation algorithms rather than with theorems? Idk probably this was just one of many things going on, i mean i feel like penrose recently getting the nobel prize is another big confirmation of the value of super abstract 20th century math although tbh idk what im talking about cause idk much about penroses work