The four color theorem states that any map drawn on a plane can be colored using only four colors so that no two adjacent regions share the same color. The proof, while correct, requires the checking of nearly two thousand configurations by computer—a method that leaves many mathematicians uneasy, for it cannot be verified by a single human mind with pencil and paper. I find the unease misplaced; a proof’s validity does not rest on whether we find its method comfortable. This comes from watching my own mother, a seamstress, who could instantly identify a flawless bandhani knot in a sea of thousands, a feat just as incomprehensible to the untrained eye as our computer’s exhaustive checking.
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