AI mathematicians still need human ingenuity
From Paul Silcocks, Bamford, Derbyshire, UK
Regarding your special report on the explosive developments in mathematics, I am still sceptical that AI is doing anything truly new. It has yet to propose, perceive the need for and justify an entirely new concept. For example: the idea of 0, negative numbers, real numbers, imaginary numbers, non-euclidean geometry, infinitesimals, transfinite numbers and so on (19 September, p 4).
Once such a new paradigm shift has been introduced, then yes, we can say AI can make connections in surprising ways 鈥� but right now it is still only using the rules it has been taught, rather than rewriting them.
From Florence Leroy, Swindon, Wiltshire, UK
Up to 10,000 AI agents were put to work to resolve a mathematical problem, clues about which were already provided by a team of scientists. Collectively, it took them tens of thousands of hours to complete their work. From this point of view, is the feat so extraordinary, and wouldn’t humans have reached the same result eventually?
I also shudder at the thought of how much electricity and water was spent to resolve that sole problem. Was it worth it?
Where did the word “Viking” come from?
From Wayne Newman, Wellington, New Zealand
Michael Marshall’s review of The Sea-King and the Sorceress raised the origins of the word “Viking”. There are multiple schools of thought. The word wicing appears in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith, dating from the 9th century. It doesn’t occur in any preserved Middle English texts (spoken from around 1100 to 1500). “Viking” was introduced into modern English by the early 19th century, at which point it acquired romanticised, heroic overtones of the “barbarian warrior” (12 September, p 26).
To me, it seems likely that wicing derived from wic (meaning “settlement”) and referred initially to those coming by ship to the great trading emporiums established around the North Sea in the 7th century, such as Hamwic, Lundenwic, Gippeswic and Eoforwic. The later Norse meaning of vik as an inlet or sandy bay probably reflects the siting of the earlier trading towns to allow ships to be run ashore in the absence of quays or wharves.
Climate change’s economic fallout could prompt action
From Tim Moulsley, Caterham, Surrey, UK
As David Flint points out, even though the likely magnitude of climate change has been known for a long time, there has been much too little of the global action needed to mitigate or reverse it. For many people, uncertainty about aspects such as the exact future temperature rise may have turned this into an abstract issue. On the other hand, the challenges of achieving net zero may appear only too real, and arguably not effective for any single country to try on its own (Letters, 19 September).
Perhaps what we need now is to give a much higher profile to the huge cost of the necessary adaptations and the consequences of failing to do so. Surveys in the UK and many other countries suggest the economy and cost of living are much higher on people’s list of concerns than the climate, but this might change if there were a wider appreciation of the real costs of adaptation, the economic impact of unmitigated climate change (even with adaptation) and the inevitable effects on quality of life. If this happened, then politicians might take notice. One can only hope!
Simulated reality question opens a can of worms
From Richard Manchin, Marston, Oxfordshire, UK
Catherine Heymans asks if our reality and our consciousness are a simulation. But if so, what are they a simulation of? If it is a simulation constructed by beings experiencing a deeper, in some way more “real” reality than our own, how do we 鈥� or they 鈥� know that they, too, aren’t simulations? We have immediately got ourselves into an infinite regress. Better to stick with what we know (26 September, p 40).
From Richard Grimmer, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK
It would be very easy for an advanced society to simulate your universe. All they would need to do is simulate the chair you are sitting in and the copy of New 女生小视频 in your hands, open at the letters page, and insert a false memory of everything you think has gone before.
Multivitamins have uses beyond preventing death
From Dudley Miles, London, UK
Xand van Tulleken dismisses multivitamins in part because studies have shown they aren’t associated with a reduction in deaths from any major health condition. On the other hand, New 女生小视频 has reported that a daily multivitamin slows cognitive decline in older people (19 September, p 36). Should van Tulleken’s dismissal of multivitamins, based on studies asking a different question, therefore be qualified?
Perhaps total solar eclipses aren’t a cosmic coincidence
From Miles Drake, Worcester, West Midlands, UK
Leah Crane marvels at cosmic coincidences, like how the moon is perfectly sized and distant for us to see total solar eclipses (26 September, p 18). But what if this isn’t really a coincidence?
Life may need Goldilocks conditions: habitable temperatures, billions of years of liquid water and a suitable radiation flux. This points to it needing a sun-like star with a rocky, tectonically active planet, orbiting in a zone allowing a few billion years between the chaotic Hadean period and the eventual boiling of the oceans as the star ages. I would add a further requirement: a large satellite. What if science-capable life arising within that window is itself highly unlikely, but made substantially more likely by a large moon?
Two mechanisms could accelerate that evolution. A moon the size of ours is widely proposed to stabilise the planet’s axial tilt, giving the climate baseline stability. And tides create a transition zone in silty estuaries for life to move from ocean to land. Whatever distance yields tides strong enough to drive that transition also roughly bounds how large the moon appears in the sky, plausibly close to the sun’s own apparent size constrained by habitability. If my conjecture holds, science-capable life may always get to enjoy a solar eclipse.
For the record
The average January temperature in Anchorage, Alaska, is about 16.8掳F (26 September, p 30).