Avi Wigderson

Right, and it's just, I can't, I don't even understand how you could verify an undecidable problem.

And yeah, there you have it.

Wow.

I mean, when someone produces 200 pages of such complicated work that makes such an outrageous claim, how does that get verified by...

In complexity theory, it's very mathematical in nature when I read the papers, but obviously it has implications in computer science.

What's the relationship between math and computer science to you?

You mentioned earlier that some people might have the perspective of complexity theory, that it's kind of solving problems for problem's sake.

I read in another interview you did that you were never motivated by application.

And then my natural thought was, what motivates you to solve all these really tricky, complicated problems?

You mentioned a few times in this conversation, you know, some people made a major discovery and then it, you know, kind of broke some assumption that was maybe 50 years ago.

And, you know, researchers make these advances.

And I know in your career, you've made a few as well.

And the time space between payouts is sometimes decades, you know, where you make a major change.

because a lot of people's careers like maybe you know if you're just the engineer you just you got your shipping projects every year um but in in your case like let's say you imagine you discovered p equals mp or something like that yeah like how do you feel when you make those discoveries those sparse discoveries in your career well it's great

Last question for you, and I think people in the field might be curious because you have so much experience.

If you could go back to the beginning of your career when you just started becoming a researcher, is there any advice that you'd give yourself?

Thank you so much for your time, Avi.

I really appreciate it.

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