Proofs and reasons: How math works in the mind

Mathematical proof dates back at least to Euclid in 300 BCE, and yet little is known about what happens in the mind when humans solve proofs. This week, an SFI working group co-organized by SFI External Professor Simon DeDeo (Carnegie Mellon University) brought together mathematicians, cognitive scientists, computer scientists, and philosophers to ask what it means to understand a proof. As DeDeo says, that question matters more now that machines are proving theorems “we used to consider to be at the absolute outer edge of human possibility.”