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• Post #3040399

  From time to time I like to dabble in philosophy, and a little while ago I wrote an article, based on two seminars I had given at the Collège de France, on probabilistic judgments in mathematics. What are they, and how do we make them? One might argue that a decidable mathematical statement either has a proof or has a disproof, so either it is definitely true or it is definitely false. And yet mathematicians frequently express degrees of belief in statements for which they lack proofs or disp...

• Post #3040398

  If you've ever wondered about starting a Diamond OA maths journal, you should check out this new initiative to provide startup funds of up to $10,000. https://www.mathoa.org/diamond-open-access-stimulus-fund/

• Post #3040397

  If you were chased here from Twitter, it's just possible that you won't be aware that a lot of people are now leaving Twitter (or X if you must) for BlueSky. I mention this because I personally very much valued having a thriving maths community on Twitter while still being part of the wider world, so to speak. My experience here, which may be as much my fault as Mastodon's, is that there are lots of interesting people but not quite the atmosphere that I liked on Twitter....

• Post #3040396

  I've just followed Bridgy Fed for the fediverse at Bluesky. If I understand correctly, that means that my posts there will appear here under the name @wtgowers.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy It's probably too much to hope for, but nevertheless I hope that that will give me the best of both worlds -- a platform with lots of diverse company, but also interaction with the rather special company of people here on Mastodon.

• Post #3040395

  I've just realized that I missed a trick by not posting here on Mastodon about a project to create a database of "motivated proofs", which has received funding from the AI for Math Fund, a joint venture of Renaissance Philanthropies and XTX Markets. Very roughly, that means not just proofs but proofs presented in such a way that the origins of the ideas are made transparent. More details (including how you might be able to get involved if interested) in this blog post....

• Post #3040394

  Over the last two or three months I've been getting a large number of emails from school students in the Philippines, or at least that is who they say they are, asking for my general views about mathematics. Is this a well-known trend? (I haven't replied to any of them.)

• Post #3040393

  I've just written a blog post in which I describe a research-level problem (due not t Erdos but to Melvyn Nathanson) that ChatGPT 5.5 Pro recently solved. With a guest section by Isaac Rajagopal, on whose work ChatGPT built. https://gowers.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/a-recent-experience-with-chatgpt-5-5-pro/