2024/06/25 by Bryan Kaiser, Tailin Wu, Kaiser, Bryan +7
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · #Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #Big Data and Business Intelligence #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Overview (math.HO) #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Scientific Computing and Data Management
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.17836
openalex publication_date 2024/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Nobel laureate Philip Anderson and Elihu Abrahams once stated that, "even if machines did contribute to normal science, we see no mechanism by which they could create a Kuhnian revolution and thereby establish a new physical law." In this Perspective, we draw upon insights from the philosophies of science and artificial intelligence (AI) to propose necessary conditions of precisely such a mechanism for generating revolutionary mathematical theories. Recent advancements in AI suggest that satisfying the proposed necessary conditions by machines may be plausible; thus, our proposed necessary conditions also define a moonshot challenge. We also propose a heuristic definition of the intelligibility of mathematical theories to accelerate the development of machine theorists.