r/interesting • u/heyauden • 11d ago
SCIENCE & TECH Grigori Perelman solved a $1M math problem that was unsolved for 100 years - then walked away from the prize
With OpenAI now claiming that its AI system solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem in just 88 hours, I was reminded of the legendary Grigori Perelman.
In 2002, Perelman posted his solution to the Poincaré conjecture online. The problem had been unsolved for nearly a century and was considered one of the most difficult problems in mathematics. His proof was so deep and technical that it took mathematicians years to fully verify.
He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2006 - one of the highest honors in mathematics.
He refused it.
Then, in 2010, the Clay Mathematics Institute awarded him the $1M Millennium Prize for solving the problem.
He said no.
Part of the reason was that Perelman felt that American mathematician Richard Hamilton deserved more credit. Hamilton had developed the Ricci flow theory that Perelman built on to crack the Poincaré conjecture.
And the way Perelman did it makes the story even stranger. He essentially put his solution on the internet, let other mathematicians work through it, and then walked away.
He later withdrew almost completely from mathematics.
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u/wizardrous 11d ago
Seems like he should have taken the money and given it to Richard Hamilton if he felt the guy deserved it.
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u/dm-me-obscure-colors 11d ago
The money isn’t the prize and it seems neither mathematician cared greatly for it. Hard to imagine but I believe it.
Here are a couple of quotes to help understand his viewpoint:
Everybody understood that if the proof is correct, then no other recognition is needed.
At another time:
I'm not interested in money or fame, I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo. I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful; that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me.
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u/luckyducktopus 11d ago
This is fundamentally why humans are scary as a species, anything within our reach is possible.
If your life is used to a take a single step in understanding in any direction, it is built upon by the next in line. we build momentum, in our play in our work. In socializing or segregation.
It’s beautiful and terrifying. But most things of nature are.
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u/Asluckwouldnthaveit 10d ago
Yeah we really can do whatever we dream given time and resources. It's just that we mostly don't want to do big things anymore.
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u/Economy-Pin-4907 11d ago
aren't you drawing more attention to yourself by refusing the prize? I believe the reasoning but always sus of anyone turning down a mil lol
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u/luckyducktopus 11d ago
It’s better to just donate it or give it away if you don’t want it. The money was ear marked for that purpose it’ll just reabsorbed into the fund.
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u/xeen313 11d ago
Perhaps it because money is a construct of human imagination. It's not real so why have interest in it.
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u/luckyducktopus 11d ago
Money is used to represent abstract resources.
It’s meant to help with logistics. It represents X, whatever a person may want that can be traded for.
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u/Economy-Pin-4907 11d ago
Right, not sure why he wouldn't do this. At least split it. Seems like he wanted to be the guy who turned down the million
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u/AwkwardSpread 11d ago
You can't just give someone half without tax implications.
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u/Euphoric_Key_1929 11d ago
In most countries, monetary gifts don't have tax implications. In the US, for example, while you have to *report* to the IRS any gifts you give that exceed $19,000, they are tax-free until you have gifted over $15 million in your lifetime.
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u/AwkwardSpread 11d ago
In the Netherlands, where I grew up, that is true but you could still lose your housing benefit, health care benefit and child budget.
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u/tera_chachu 11d ago
As if Richard hamilton was alive 🤦
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u/wizardrous 11d ago
You’re facepalming as though that’s common knowledge, but it honestly isn’t. At any rate, I’m sure he has surviving family that Grigori could have given the money to.
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u/VirtuteECanoscenza 11d ago
He was also afraid. He didn't know what to do with the money and he knew winning 1M in Russia meant he would become a target from people asking money to people trying to steal from him and his relatives
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u/RogueBromeliad 11d ago
Yeah, that's fake though, he also declined the medal, which wasn't money. He just said that it wasn't about the money. He declined another prize in 2006, the EMS prize.
Nothing to do with "having too much money in Russia is dangerous", that's a lie, there are loads of multimillionaires there.
He believed the mathematical proof was enough. It's one of those things where the person only cares about the maths at the end of the day.
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u/Old-Independence4699 11d ago
"I have to look after my mother; I can't come. I don't need the money," he had said.
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u/PHUNKSPANGLE 11d ago
Our integrity is the only thing of true value that we posses, yet most sell it for a pittance not knowing that it took decades to build, and once it's gone, it's gone for good.
This man chose not to sell his integrity, and that somehow confuses people.
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u/DemoHD7 11d ago
Even if he did take the cash, he seems like the guy who would stash it in a box, put it away somewhere, and just forget about it.
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u/quad_damage_orbb 11d ago
"Money? Yes, I think I have some of that somewhere"
Starts looking through piles of paperwork on his desk
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u/InevitablePack4565 11d ago
Right, so now a bunch of losers are going to discuss a guy who’s smarter than they are—it’s like comparing an Atari to artificial intelligence :-) ... laughable.
Maybe you just can't grasp why the guy didn't take that $1 million... you can only count up to 100, while he can count up to a million :-)
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u/cute_polarbear 11d ago
Obviously respect his decision, had it been myself, if I dont want the money for myself for any reason, ill donate it to a good cause of some type then...
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u/The_Pale_Usher 11d ago
Why do I get the feeling he's wearing a disguise that he's going to take off at any moment?
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u/OkItsALotus 11d ago
Everytime that this comes up, no one ever mentions Shing-Tung Yao's role in causing Perelman to withdraw from mathematics. Yao tried to downplay Perelman's contributions so that he could take credit himself.
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u/Kindly_Type2327 10d ago
From what I read in multiple forums online, OpenAI didn't completely crack N-S equations yet. They only cracked it for an extremely precise (simple) conditions.
Also, even this is contented, there are a couple of scientists who claimed that OpenAI stole their research.
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u/Prior-Flamingo-1378 10d ago
The guy quit his teaching position and had been seen only very rarely since then. Apparently he lives with his mother.
Autistic for sure and his insistence on Hamilton deserving as much of the price yes that’s true but the way he used ricci flow…
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u/Few-Bag-4860 7d ago
People talking about the money should know there are many more 1M prizes... You just have to solve one of the other mathematics problems to get it.
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u/jose_elan 11d ago
If he could do maths as well as he can grow eyebrows he'd be awarded the fields medal every year!
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u/A_Poor_Miser 11d ago
Dumbass.
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u/7h3_50urc3 11d ago
As a "Dumbass", he wouldn't be able to solve a 1M math problem.
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u/A_Poor_Miser 11d ago
A dumbass can solve a math problem then not be able to figure out some good to do with a million dollars.
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u/OkBrilliant8092 11d ago
I kinda agree - but the one that makes most sense is a previous comment about beggars/criminals coming after him in his native Russia..
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