Massive Open Collaboration In Math Declared a Success

nanopolitan writes "In late January, Tim Gowers, a Fields Medal winner at Cambridge University, used his blog for an experiment in massive online collaboration for solving a significant problem in math — combinatorial proof of the density Hales-Jewett theorem. Some six weeks (and nearly 1000 comments) later, Gowers has declared the project a success, and some of the ideas have already been written up as a preprint."

Massive open collaboration in math

[morgan_greywolf]

I wonder if you could do massive open collaboration for software? You could probably write an OS kernel, maybe even an entire operating system!

Re:Too bad he used a blog

[morgan_greywolf]

How about Subversion or GIT?

Prior Art

[D Ninja]

I totally tried "Massive Open Collaboration" on my homework and tests in high school. I most definitely came up with this idea first.

And, no, I still don't understand basic algebra? Why do you ask?

Surprise result

[Hwatzu]

It turns out that 2 + 2 actually = 5.
I know; I'm surprised, too. Well, I'm off to patch my calculator.

Re:It's about n-dimensional tic-tac-toe.

[psnyder]

Now they can move onto more important things, like n-dimensional chess.

I postulate that with enough dimensions, my opponent's king will be in checkmate before I even make a move. If said number of dimensions are found to be within the confines of string theory, I would not owe my friend 20 bucks nor the sexual favors agreed upon in the rematch. Finally! A useful implication of string theory [xkcd.com].