
Ask HN: Why can't computer verify Mochizuki's proof of ABC conjecture? - r34
I&#x27;m not mathematician, but I remember from my logic classes that proof in mathematics is very well defined: it consists of either axioms or their consequences according to set of inference rules.<p>I understand that it is very hard for computer to generate such a proof, but shouldn&#x27;t it be very easy to check if proof is correct?<p>I&#x27;ve recently read an article about Mochizuki&#x27;s proof and all the controversy, discussions and lack of understanding by community.<p>Beside it&#x27;s huge volume (~600 pages) and huge work necessary to transform it to format understandable by appropriate software - are there any other reasons that prevent automatic verification of that proof?<p>(for those who don&#x27;t know what I&#x27;m writing about: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quantamagazine.org&#x2F;titans-of-mathematics-clash-over-epic-proof-of-abc-conjecture-20180920&#x2F;)
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vissi
Those 600 pages are not so well-formalised to be processed by the computer. If
they were, that could be 6000 or more pages. Even a simple statement is a lot
more verbose in formal form. Also, this is hard algorithmically, even SAT
problem
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem)
is NP-complete, verifying a generic proof is a lot harder.

