| | | Professor Chaim Goodman-Strauss
~ Questions in tiling, open and closed ~
Day 2 of Hatfest was intentionally more technically demanding. Chaim Goodman-Strauss gave the first talk, presenting some of the “bigger picture” environments in which conjectures are formed, perhaps subsequently proven or disproven or maybe turn out to be undecidable. Philosophically, he said that a big personal realisation that had slowly dawned on him over the years was that the threshold for being undecidable is surprisingly low. Mathematicians often don't appreciate this because of a focus on deriving results, and a “running away” from unprofitable areas where obtaining publishable results is unlikely. Of course, proving undecidability in itself becomes a result. Chaim published a fantastic paper on this topic in 2010 that includes some material from this talk and much else too. It is in the journal, Notices of the American Mathematical Society and titled Can't Decide ? Undecide !
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