A SAT Attack on Tarski's High School Algebra Problem · HackerPapers discussions

A SAT Attack on Tarski's High School Algebra Problem — mentioned by YeGoblynQueenne

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:11:08 GMT

>> In a way, yes. You can easily write a program that recursively enumerates all provable theorems in some order. But if you want a proof of a specific theorem, how do you find it in the list? You need to encode the theorem in a formal syntax first, and since mathematics is built on towers of definitions referencing other definitions, that alone is a significant amount of work before you can even write down what you want to prove. My current framing of this is that the advantage of LLMs lies in their ability to generate the text of a proof without having derived each of its steps in order…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

A SAT Attack on Tarski's High School Algebra Problem — mentioned by yorwba

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:41:57 GMT

> We've had the ability to brute-force all of mathematics "eventually" In a way, yes. You can easily write a program that recursively enumerates all provable theorems in some order. But if you want a proof of a specific theorem, how do you find it in the list? You need to encode the theorem in a formal syntax first, and since mathematics is built on towers of definitions referencing other definitions, that alone is a significant amount of work before you can even write down what you want to prove. If you want brute force alone, specialized solvers are likely a better choice than LLMs, but…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

A SAT Attack on Tarski's High School Algebra Problem — HN submission

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 06:30:57 GMT

A SAT Attack on Tarski's High School Algebra Problem

98 points; 39 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.