Comment by thereitgoes456
18 hours ago
I am asking about approaches, not results.
Nobody serious would deny this is incredible progress, but GP is making an unmotivated leap to RSI, so I respond to that framing. It’s an interesting argument to be had but I suspect few of us have standing to say one way or the other.
(Gesturing at the number of problems solved, or the number of years the problem was open for, isn’t an argument.)
Those Theorists are arguing whether the QR Hypothesis result is the biggest Number Theory Advance in 1 or 2 centuries because there was zero progress on it whatsoever and many believed that would remain the case in our lifetime. Any approach there would be surprising as no-one had the faintest clue how to begin this at all. There are like at least a dozen of these results that would have catapulted a human to instant fame and the highest accolades in the field. If you think about it, it would be impossible for there to be no surprising approaches.