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Reposted by David Bessis

Best of HN @bestofhn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

An essay by mathematician David Bessis on how AI theorem-proving could hollow out math, without advancing it. Submit to upvote on HN news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=h…

davidbessis.substack.com

The fall of the theorem economy

How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it

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Natalie Christie Peluso 🧠 @nataliepeluso.com · 28/06/2026

While this essay is centred on mathematics, the gist is the same for any human conceptual thought facing AI Intelligence is process, path-walking, culture, collective, accretive #neuroskyence davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...

davidbessis.substack.com

The fall of the theorem economy

How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it

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Nathan Douglas @tenesm.us · 19/06/2026

I finished *Foucault's Pendulum*, then had a transformative experience with @davidbessis.bsky.social's fantastic *Mathematica*, then John Williams' *Stoner*, then Bird and Sherwin's *American Prometheus*, and now Italo Calvino's *Invisible Cities*. What a delightful week!

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Two? Your post had only mentioned one.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

To be complete, I must add that I'm not a big fan of your hit-and-run pattern of gratuitous attacks on social media. In our only past interaction (18 months ago, on X), you hadn't even cared to reply to my objection to your rant against "the French". Your only reaction had been to block me.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Barbara, I have written a 300+ page book on this subject, translated in 10 languages, endorsed by hundreds of mathematicians who love it and recognize themselves in it. You have the right to disagree with my ideas, but this caricature is unserious and unfair.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

"Plagiarize": you seem to not have gotten the joke, made explicit by the link to Tom Lehrer's great song; more profoundly, it was a foreshadowing of a core theme that math ideas that seem new are often not so new.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Seriously, these are unserious criticisms. '"By claiming the result, I had killed the incentive for anyone to write it up." In the mathematics I am familiar with, an announcement not followed by a proof may stall the situation for a while' => so you agree that the incentive is suppressed

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Barbara— Which exact statement did I make do you disagree with? Which view did I present that made you think I have not understanding of mathematics, and no respect for it? I'm honestly curious, because I don't recognize myself in what you present as being my position.

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Moa Johansson @moajohansson.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Great text by David Bessis! Read it all. He puts the finger on, and formulates very well, exactly what also bothers me about the AI-take of "solving" mathematics: davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...

davidbessis.substack.com

The fall of the theorem economy

How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it

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Reposted by David Bessis

TomTeach @tommaths.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Not another textbook, just a great book about Mathematics. What do we really do when we "do" and "think" about Mathematics? I recommend without a doubt. #MathsToday

The cover of the book "Mathematica", by David Bessis.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

One might actually argue that even the closed components such as ZFC (which only constitute a tool, not math itself) are inexhaustible, since even things like basic arithmetic can express undecidable problems. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert...

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

"This is assuming the feat of proving theorems, not the knowledge they embody, is the win." => that is the whole point of the piece

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

1. It's not particularly surprising or impressive. 2. It's ugly, building basic objects from a baroque one. 3. It's useless. 4. It's pointless, since you still need to define exp and log, which you can't without all the basic objects underneath.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

"Mathematics in the age of AI"—a one-hour conversation I had earlier this year, for an audience of machine-learning graduate students at Université Paris-Saclay. [In French] www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dTb...

youtube.com

Journée ImpAct 2026 - David Bessis

YouTube video by Institut DataIA Paris-Saclay

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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Bessis continues his run of being one of the most interesting and engaging popular intellectuals these days. open.substack.com/pub/davidbes...

open.substack.com

Twins reared apart do not exist

The shaky science of genetic determinism

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Grand Labo @grandlabo.com · 24/02/2026

Quel est l'intérêt de se lancer dans une carrière scientifique, si l'IA générale arrive ? Sur son blog, @davidbessis.bsky.social répond à cette difficile question posée par un doctorant. Vous ne lirez probablement rien de plus intéressant cette semaine. davidbessis.substack.com/p/letter-to-...

davidbessis.substack.com

Letter to a PhD student

What's the point of intellectual work, if AGI is around the corner?

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Justin Cormack @justincormack.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Thanks to @cedricchin.bsky.social for arranging a group call with @davidbessis.bsky.social definitely going to be reading his book about how maths is really done, see davidbessis.substack.com/p/thinking-f... for a taste

davidbessis.substack.com

Thinking fast, slow, and super slow

How mathematicians train their intuition

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Stanislas Dehaene @standehaene.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Il est arrivé… « Le Rectangle de Lascaux »rencontre le triangle des Éditions Odile Jacob ! Sortie en librairie mercredi 28 janvier. @editionsodilejacob.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @inserm.fr @college-de-france.fr @cedricvillani.bsky.social @davidbessis.bsky.social

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

This reminds me of John Nash's letter where he declined an offer for a prestigious chair at the University of Chicago because he was expecting to become Emperor of Antarctica.

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Reposted by David Bessis

Julian Togelius @togelius.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

I recently read "Mathematica" by David Bessis, and I think it's a fantastic book! Before I recommend it to everyone, I would love to hear from people who do mathematics, or at least prove a theorem now and then. Do you agree with Bessis' description of what mathematics is and what mathematicians do?

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Thanks. I could indeed have noted that, but I think it is more effective to debunk what this person is claiming, rather that debunking him as a person. Especially with a pop sci account that blends 10% hardcore nonsense with 90% legit science news (this vicious strategy has served him well so far.)

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Petra Schwer @petraschwer.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

In case you are still trying to find a present for yourself or a loved one who would like to hear more about what we mathematicians do and how so.... I can only recommend Bessis' book Mathematica. What a wonderful read. I could highlight every other sentence. #math #maths #mathsky

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Taken at face value, "twins reared apart" studies seem to prove the IQ is almost entirely genetic. But when you look at the actual science, you realize that it is entirely inconclusive — the approach just doen't work! davidbessis.substack.com/p/twins-rear...

davidbessis.substack.com

Twins reared apart do not exist

The shaky science of genetic determinism

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Reposted by David Bessis

Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 27/11/2025

The mathematician David Bessis believes that mathematical skill is not innate, but learned. “Genius is not an essence. It’s a state. It’s a state that you build by doing a certain job.”

quantamagazine.org

Mathematical Thinking Isn’t What You Think It Is | Quanta Magazine

The mathematician David Bessis claims that everyone is capable of, and can benefit greatly from, mathematical thinking.

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QuBobs @qubobs.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

His book "Mathematica" is a real eye-opener. David Bessis describes accurately and vividly the way we perceive and manipulate mathematical objects. Colleagues who read it also felt he put into words what they had not been able to formulate about the mathematical process. Highly recommended.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

BTW, do subscribe to my Substack, if you haven't yet done so! The latest post is about why mathematics survives the many errors in the literature—if it really was founded on pure logic, math would crumble to dust. davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-curiou...

davidbessis.substack.com

The curious case of broken theorems

Mathematics shouldn't survive logical errors—yet it does

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Just received this legitimate reader request: could I publish a French Substack, alongside the original English? (The same could be asked about my posts here.) I could, but it wouldn't be worth the effort. I'm writing for a global audience whose only lingua franca is English.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Ça ne devait pas être mon époque, il n'y avait pas vraiment de démonstration, j'essayais d'expliquer ce que c'était qu'un énoncé mathématique, ce qu'était une démonstration, comment tout ça marchait, et d'expliquer quelques notions *avec les mains*.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Another notable omission is Poincaré. I'm more embarrassed about this one, as I hadn't done my homework and should have read him more early in the writing process — but reading him at the end of the process provided validation and reassurance.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

As for Thom, he clearly influenced me (as I read a lot about catastrophe theory in my early 20s) but not through his philosophical writings and not in a way I can easily convey. Again, I wanted to write an accessible book, not a reference-complete one.

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Thanks! Re Holton and Bachelard: I never the read the former, and only read the latter during the book writing process (as a friend suggested I should) and decided not include him, because it wouldn't have added incremental clarity and I didn't want to write an "erudite" book.

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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Russ Roberts’ “Econ Talk” is one of the most interesting podcasts. This episode with @davidbessis.bsky.social is truly fascinating. It got me thinking we should train students to think of research as “a dialogue between intuition and evidence.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

podcasts.apple.com

A Mind-Blowing Way of Looking at Math (with David Bessis)

Podcast Episode · EconTalk · 10/27/2025 · 1h 22m

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Dori Moody @dorimoody.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

“We seek numbness, avoidance of pain, oblivion...I wake up every day aiming at Christianity, and often can’t even land on Epicureanism.” @philipchristman.bsky.social sums up our times in his amazing @plough.bsky.social Book Tour Reviews: www.plough.com/en/topics/cu...

plough.com

Book Tour: World Enough and Time

Phil Christman reviews Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation by George Musser, Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity by David Bessis, Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield, and Making Ti...

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David Bessis @davidbessis.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Why you can't fit Terry Tao on a bell curve, and why genius is too extreme for genetics: davidbessis.substack.com/p/why-genes-...

davidbessis.substack.com

Why genes can't explain genius

The mathematical structure of cognitive inequality

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