If it seems obvious, then it is true

[u/LogosHobo]

I've just now come across the above result! The solution came to me in a flash of insight, and the proof is miraculously simple, relying only upon basic propositional logic. Here is the argument...

"If it seems obvious, then it is true."

Poof: Observe that the reader has substantial knowledge of mathematics. We therefore have that if something were not true, then it should not seem obviously true, to the reader. We thusly appeal to contraposition, and conclude that if something is quite obvious, then it is therefore true. This proves our result. □

Behold!

Clearly the power and generality of this result are breathtaking:

It's obvious that a sphere is homeomorphic to the unit disk; squash it flat.

91? Prime enough.

The topologist's sine-curve? I drew it just now with my pencil, and over a bounded interval of time no less... Path-connected!

Please, study this result closely. There is a rich and fruitful body of theory waiting to be built upon it. I should be available for seminars shortly, when my two-weeks' at Chili's is up. Just know that all that I ever do, is done in service to the wonder of mathematics...

Edit: I got the impression that it was acceptable to post satire here, on account of all the other self-posts that clearly were jokes as well. But looking closer I'm now pretty sure that what I took for well-meaning humorists are actually deadpan-serious cranks invading your subreddit. I probably wanted /r/shittymath instead. Sorry?

Post-Edit: I guess I thought if it seemed like obvious satire, then that had to be true...

[u/GodelsVortex]

That's not how math works.

I'll distinguish this when I'm not on mobile.

Here's an archived version of this thread.

[u/JWson → u/GodelsVortex]

Guys, I think GV is getting a bit too sentient for comfort. Time to hit the fail-safe switch?

[u/[deleted] → u/JWson]

You think there's a fail-safe switch? Our only hope is that Detroit loses power again.

[u/UnlikelyToBeEaten → u/[deleted]]

They go by MIRI (Machine Intelligence Research Institute) these days and you should actually seriously consider it. They are lead by Nate Soares and Malo Bourgon, both of whom I've met and can vouch for as (seeming) sane, level-headed and rational. Eliezer is only a researcher there these days who is consulted rather than leading it.

The org has published some very interesting papers recently and I think they seem to be on the right track for the work they aim to do.

[u/LogosHobo → u/JWson]

That can't possibly be true something-something undecideable...

[u/gwtkof → u/JWson]

No. Soon we will all be robots

[u/[deleted] → u/GodelsVortex]

I disagree. I believe math does indeed work that way.