Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · 23d

Manifold markets: Will Gary Marcus still say that deep learning models can't reason after they prove the Riemann hypothesis?

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Aug 14

Thanks to co-PIs Sarah Sword, @jaypantone.com, and Ryota Matsuura, and to our advisory board, for countless hours shaping what good proof feedback should look like.

1

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Aug 14

Teaching intro to proofs this semester or next? We have a couple of spots left for college/university faculty who would be interested in participating in a field test. Details on the site, or reply or DM.

1

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Aug 14

Try it: hallmos.com

Free, browser-based, no account. Students, professors, and the proof-curious are welcome. Choose from common intro-to-proofs exercises, or use the sandbox with your own exercise.

HaLLMos

hallmos.com

1

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Aug 14

I'm excited to share: we built a free AI coach for intro-level proof writing. It critiques drafts, points out gaps, and helps you or your students iterate without giving away the answer. Also for lapsed mathematicians to see if they've still got it. Demo below, link in reply.

1 5

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Jun 16

Published today in the Notices of the AMS. Lol.

Federal Funding for Mathematics Research—What’s Changed in the Last Six Years?

This article was solicited in early 2024 and completed in Fall 2024. It therefore does not reflect the changes that have occurred, and which are still going on, at federal science-funding agencies in 2025. For example, website links given in the article may not be active at the time of publication. - Ed.

3

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Jun 15

The number of American kings over time: a harrowing saga of job insecurity, with a notable dip after 1776 and a suspicious lack of improvement since.

3

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · May 30

meanwhile, wikipedia is in existential crisis over whether √4 deserves its own page

Screenshot of a Wikipedia deletion discussion about whether redirects like “Square root of 4” and “Sqrt4” should exist. Editors argue over consistency, usefulness, and whether Wikipedia should function as a calculator. Some favor keeping the redirects for user convenience, others call them unnecessary or harmful. One comment invokes “Square root of 2209,” another disputes the logic entirely, and someone questions how to handle both positive and negative roots. The tone ranges from procedural to mildly exasperated.

1 2 25

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · May 29

people like years more than ever though. reliably, year X mentions peak during year X+2.

Line graph showing the frequency of years ending in “00,” from 1800 to 2020, in English books.

1 8

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · May 29

interest in the natural numbers is at an all-time low

Google Ngram Viewer line graph showing the frequency of digits 0 through 9 in English books from 1800 to 2019, with usage peaking around 1980 and declining sharply afterward.

5 5 16

Reposted by Vince Vatter

Otti Croze @otticroze.bsky.social · May 28

Just to say how much I like the digit party game digit.party created by Robert Brignall and @vatter.bsky.social.

digit.party

match numbers, score points. daily challenge + random boards

digit.party

1 1

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · May 8

Of course they would choose a math major

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · May 6

$FOX NEWS: Cardinals assess Pope Francis' legacy before vote. Delegates include $\aleph_0$, $\aleph_1$, $\beth_2$, and others, as the continuum hypothesis looms over the ceremonies.$

7

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · May 6

$FOX NEWS: Cardinals assess Pope Francis' legacy before vote. Delegates include $\aleph_0$, $\aleph_1$, $\beth_2$, and others, as the continuum hypothesis looms over the ceremonies.$

5 3 23

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 28

It’s final exam season again, and I like to display a clock while proctoring.
But all the web clocks google suggests suck.
So I made one (okay, tbh, chatgpt made it under my supervision):
digit.party/clock

Digit Party Clock

A minimalist analog and digital clock. Perfect for proctoring exams, or just keeping time beautifully.

digit.party

5

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 14

For a fuller glimpse of our dystopian future:
spinup-000d1a-wp-offload-media.s3.amazonaws.com/faculty/wp-c...

spinup-000d1a-wp-offload-media.s3.amazonaws.com

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 14

AI debt collector exhibiting speciesism

AI: Hello, is this Ms. Zhang San?
User: This is Ms. Zhang San’s robot phone assistant, may I ask what you want to discuss with her?
AI: Sorry for disturbing you, goodbye!

2 4

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 13

Needless to say, A001339 is not the same sequence, does not count preferential arrangements, and neither sequence has anything to do with the egf 1⁄(2−exp(x)). All of this was completely made up.

$A001339 a(n) = Sum_{k=0..n} (k+1)! binomial(n,k). 1, 3, 11, 49, 261, 1631, 11743, 95901, 876809, 8877691, 98641011, ...$

1 12

Reposted by Vince Vatter

Paul Rietschka @prietschka.bsky.social · Apr 13

'bc I'm tired'

Excellent example of how LLMs just reproduce what they've seen in their training data.

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 12

you're what now chatgpt?

ChatGPT-4o:

"go to OEIS bc i’m tired: [1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 17, 73, …] → OEIS A001339"

2 4 18

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 12

you're what now chatgpt?

3 3 28

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 4

I mean, it’s still better to have money than not have money right?

2

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Apr 3

you'll never guess what color my daughter's squares ended up

Instructions for assignment: Color each square blue. Color each rectangle yellow. Color each circle red.

3 1 11

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Mar 9

Everyone hates springing forward but loves falling back. Proposal: Abolish leap days, and redistribute those hours in the form of 6 annual "fall back" holidays. More sleep, less leap. A clear pareto improvement to our calendar.

1 3

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Mar 7

André's Reflection Method 😃

1 2

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Mar 7

Logical proof that "months" are fake.

Most people born in April are Aries.
All Aries are born in March or April.
Most people born in March or April were born in March.
Therefore, most people born in April were born in March.

8

Vince Vatter @vatter.bsky.social · Mar 4

I asked GPT-4o to flip a coin 10,000 times. Same prompt, same parameters, but the *odds of getting Heads* took on 42 different probabilities (none below 85% btw). Obv don't use gpt-4o to flip your coins, but what the hell is going on? Here are some thoughts.
towardsdatascience.com/avoidable-an...

Avoidable and Unavoidable Randomness in GPT-4o | Towards Data Science

Exploring the sources of randomness in GPT-4o from the known and controllable to the opaque and uncontrollable.

towardsdatascience.com

1 3