alt Hacker News>The situation with human mathematicians is not much different. Eg, Wiles original proof of Fermat's Last Theorem contained errors found by reviewers, which he later repaired.
In fact, it was Wiles himself who realized there was an error.
>The situation with human mathematicians is not much different. Eg, Wiles original proof of Fermat's Last Theorem contained errors found by reviewers, which he later repaired.
In fact, it was Wiles himself who realized there was an error.
Yes, at the prodding of the reviewer (from wikipedia):
> After the announcement, Nick Katz was appointed as one of the referees to review Wiles's manuscript. In the course of his review, he asked Wiles a series of clarifying questions that led Wiles to recognise that the proof contained a gap.
It seems likely Katz played a crucial role here.
Wiles is just a prominent example. In practice, other humans often play this "verification role" for mathematicians, whether via a formal review process or informal discussion.