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From: wme@dweazel.sw.mcc.com (Michael Evangelist)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: Question About the Four Color Proof
Message-ID: <3964@dweazel.sw.mcc.com>
Date: 13 Jul 90 14:35:34 GMT
References: <9615@hubcap.clemson.edu> <1212@s8.Morgan.COM> <1593@oravax.UUCP>
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 13

> The beef with a proof by computer program is that computer programs
> that have not been rigorously checked for correctness are more likely
> to be in error than proofs written out by human beings (even as prone
> as the latter are to errors ...).

This is only one of the beeves and not the most important. What if
computers had been available for case checking a hundred years ago
and had been used to establish the four-color conjecture as a
mathematical fact? Much graph theory would never have seen the light
of day. 

Are any mathematicians still working on a theory adequate to
establish the conjecture by traditional methods?