Hilbert's 6th problem [pdf]

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24 points·hackandthink··4 comments

I went on a deep dive about David Hilbert a few years ago. He did incredible work. Unfortunate that his death was heavily overshadowed by the war.

Hilbert's 6th isn't just a problem; it's a quest for the ultimate scientific Rosetta Stone. A century on, we're still decoding the universe's complex math, inching closer to a universal scientific language. It's a testament to the enduring power of a great question: to inspire and challenge across ages.

His problems were pretty damn influential. I did my PhD on something that traces back to his list, and the research on the topic is still active.

A funny anecdote: von Neumann was asked to deliver a similar address in the International Congress of Mathematics in 1950. He completely forgot, and ended up giving a talk on some if his results from the 1930s. The talk was highly anticipated, so after a while a disappointed audience member heckled von Neumann, who proceeded to wrap up his talk in embarrassment and promptly left the stage.

Lamport on the troubles just within CS on agreeing upon axiomatisations: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/state-machine.pdf

> Biologists think they are Biochemists, Biochemists think they are Physical Chemists, Physical Chemists think they are Physicists, Physicists think they are Gods, and God thinks he is a Mathematician. — trad.

Very funny … would have preferred … physicists think they are mathematicians, mathematicians think they are Gods, God thinks: what kind of idiots have I created?

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