Hacker News: robinhouston

New comment by robinhouston in "AI-assisted proof of optimal packing for 11 squares"

robinhouston — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:43:38 +0000

They've just excluded square numbers because (as you noted) the solution is obvious. Except 4, for some reason.

New comment by robinhouston in "AI-assisted proof of optimal packing for 11 squares"

robinhouston — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:44:59 +0000

This is the paper that’s being referenced: https://pingyou.com/papers/eleven-squares.pdf

It’s not obvious to me that it has any deep significance.

New comment by robinhouston in "Samon: Designing a Zen Garden Raking Puzzle"

robinhouston — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:26:34 +0000

I really liked Zen Puzzle Garden back in the day. I spent a lot of time playing it when I ought to have been working on my PhD, and I even ended up writing a paper on it. [0]

It’s interesting that Gwern explicitly mentions ZPG as an inferior predecessor, because – for reasons I cannot clearly articulate or explain – I find it much more enjoyable to play than Samon. The player experience feels a lot more polished.

For a while, you could upload your own ZPG garden designs to the Lexaloffle BBS, where they would be playable on the web. I designed a few brutally difficult gardens, which were unsolved for years. Good times.

0. https://arxiv.org/abs/1106.2104

The feedback loop of mathematics research

robinhouston — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:39:10 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.danromik.com/the-feedback-loop-of-mathematics-research

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49889563

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by robinhouston in "We're gonna need a lot more mathematicians"

robinhouston — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:04:30 +0000

>Terence Tao is arguing

This is a guest post by Amit Sahai.

New comment by robinhouston in "I Agreed to Join Agmai"

robinhouston — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 22:13:19 +0000

The original title is ‘Why I agreed to join AGMAI’. I think this is a rare case where HN's auto-declickbaitification has changed the meaning of the headline for the worse.

I agreed to join AGMAI

robinhouston — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 22:11:39 +0000

Article URL: https://proofsandprompts.com/2026/09/22/why-i-agreed-to-join-agmai/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49808919

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by robinhouston in "Bend – A language that blocks AI mistakes via proof, on CPU and GPU"

robinhouston — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 21:16:08 +0000

I’m just looking at it for the first time myself, but isn’t the compiler in https://github.com/bendlang/bend/blob/main/bend2/comp.ts ?

Is METR a Meaningful Check on Anthropic?

robinhouston — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:47:39 +0000

Article URL: https://www.verysane.ai/p/is-metr-a-meaningful-check-on-anthropic

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49726169

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by robinhouston in "A beginning for mathematics"

robinhouston — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:57:24 +0000

I don't think that's actually the real problem. Along with the progress in answering mathematical questions, recent progress on AI-powered autoformalisation has been astonishing. All the recent AI discoveries have been accompanied by Lean proofs.

And, yes: that doesn't absolutely guarantee correctness. The Lean kernel has had soundness bugs, and may have some still. But it's pretty strong evidence of correctness nevertheless.

The concern among mathematicians is not mainly that they doubt the correctness of any of these discoveries, but that human understanding may be devalued.

A beginning for mathematics

robinhouston — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:33:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.daniellitt.com/blog/2026/9/13/a-beginning-for-mathematics/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49698699

Points: 274

# Comments: 148

New comment by robinhouston in "Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]"

robinhouston — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:58:47 +0000

For context and balance, Bubeck has tweeted a curiously non-specific denial:

> A series of false and inflammatory allegations against me are currently circulating on social channels. To clarify, I came into the discussion following academic norms, and I'm disappointed that it has come to this. Anyone who knows me knows that academic standards are of the highest importance to me. Will have more to say tomorrow.

Finite time blowup with smooth forcing term for the incompressible porous medium

robinhouston — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:38:25 +0000

Article URL: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/07/finite-time-blowup-with-smooth-forcing-term-for-the-incompressible-porous-medium-boussinesq-and-incompressible-euler-equations/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49607944

Points: 25

# Comments: 1

Look, Mom, I pressed a button

robinhouston — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:03:49 +0000

Article URL: https://galoisrepresentations.org/2026/09/05/look-mom-i-pressed-a-button/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594884

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

robinhouston — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 22:27:27 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/science/92-year-old-mathematician-apprentice.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591563

Points: 189

# Comments: 17

Formalization of the Solution to the Hopf Problem

robinhouston — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:04:52 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/plby/HopfProblem

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49467053

Points: 22

# Comments: 14

New comment by robinhouston in "A complex structure on S^6 [pdf]"

robinhouston — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 22:27:10 +0000

I’m pretty sure no one (except perhaps Anthropic insiders who had prior access, and probably not even them) has properly digested this paper yet, and some caution is warranted given the notoriety of this problem and the history of claimed solutions that did not stand up to scrutiny. But if it stands up, it’s a really big deal.

Background: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/1973/is-there-a-complex-s...

A complex structure on S^6 [pdf]

robinhouston — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 21:47:25 +0000

Article URL: https://alpo.ge/s6.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49412947

Points: 65

# Comments: 28

New comment by robinhouston in "An elliptic curve of rank ≥ 30"

robinhouston — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 07:46:43 +0000

Funny coincidence: I (who submitted this story) am the second author.

An elliptic curve of rank ≥ 30

robinhouston — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:14:39 +0000

Article URL: https://elliptic-rank.icarm.cloud/curve/273

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49374873

Points: 104

# Comments: 31