At 06:33 PM 21/07/00 EDT, Greg wrote:
>In a discussion in another forum, the question of whether computers have
>"found" valid mathematical proofs has come up.
Newell and Simon's very first program, Logical Theorist, proved (from first
principles) theorems from the Whitehead/Russell PRINCIPIA. In 1956, running
on Rand's Johnniac, it produced the complete proof of theorem 2.01; indeed,
it proved 38 of the first 52 theorems in chapter two, mostly in under a
minute each. You'll recall that Russell nearly killed himself doing this work.
Damien Broderick
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