Knowledge

[Zeta-Flux]

Suppose someone came from the future and offered you the following two choices:

A) I can tell you, and I won't lie, whether the Riemann hypothesis is true or false,

or

B) I can show you a PROOF of the truth or falsity of the Riemann hypothesis that you will understand, but will also put a computer chip in your brain that will stop you from communicating anything about the Riemann hypothesis to anyone else, or of using this knowledge to prove any mathematics.

Which would you choose?

[ET_]

Originally Posted by Zeta-Flux

Suppose someone came from the future and offered you the following two choices:

A) I can tell you, and I won't lie, whether the Riemann hypothesis is true or false,

or

B) I can show you a PROOF of the truth or falsity of the Riemann hypothesis that you will understand, but will also put a computer chip in your brain that will stop you from communicating anything about the Riemann hypothesis to anyone else, or of using this knowledge to prove any mathematics.

Which would you choose?

If the A) man is me, I would just accept the answer...
If the B) man is Peter Nelson, I would sit and wait...

Luigi

[Greenbank]

I'd pick A. Then, depending on whether it is true or false:-

If the RH is true I'd offer a $10bn prize to whoever proves it false (i.e. finds a zero that isn't on the critical strip).

If the RH is false I'd offer a $10bn prize to whoever proves it is true.

I'd then invest as much as I could in various computer/chip manufacturer/etc companies and reap the profits.

[alpertron]

There are two problems with your approach:

1) You have to show the money before starting a challenge.

2) Somebody sent by your enemy could have come from the future in order to make you poor.

[Greenbank]

1) A minor problem to overcome. ;-)

2) I was working from the premise that the person telling me the answer was not lying.

[alpertron]

What do you think the person sent by your enemy is supposed to tell you?

[Zeta-Flux]

So Alpertron, which would you choose?

[mfgoode]

Originally Posted by Zeta-Flux

Suppose someone came from the future and offered you the following two choices:

A) I can tell you, and I won't lie, whether the Riemann hypothesis is true or false,

or

B) I can show you a PROOF of the truth or falsity of the Riemann hypothesis that you will understand, but will also put a computer chip in your brain that will stop you from communicating anything about the Riemann hypothesis to anyone else, or of using this knowledge to prove any mathematics.

Which would you choose?

I would choose A). If he says the RH is true I'd work on a proof and claim the extant reward if successful.

If false I would try to disprove it and claim the reward.

In both cases hard work is required. there is no easy way to make money unless you are born with a silver spoon in the mouth.
Mally.

[alpertron]

Originally Posted by Zeta-Flux

So Alpertron, which would you choose?

Obviously I would choose "A". Do you think that I will approve that someone puts something in my brain?

Anyway, most mathematicians believe that RH is true (I also believe it is true but I'm not a mathematician), because that there are a lot of theorems that start "Supposing RH is true...".

By the way, it is possible that someone selects option "B", and then starts listening a 2-hour demonstration using math that he/she does not understand. It is like Andrew Wiles trying to explain to Fermat his proof. I don't think that after listening the proof he would be able to communicate it to someone else with or without chip in his brain (and of course Wiles would not be able to insert a chip inside a brain).

[potonono]

Would said chip be able to do any efficient LL or TF?