Patenting Logic, Mathematics or Logarithms? The Case of Computer-Assisted Proofs

Jordi      Vallverdu

Abstract

One of the most important debates about symbolic entities is about its ontological status. In other words, their true nature. There are three knowledge domains, logic, mathematics and computer languages (algorithms), that share a common nature. From a conceptual analysis, we can justify that all three fields are logically equivalent and that the statements about one of them should be automatically extrapolated to other two. There is also a very important question regarding software-mathematical-logical objects: the object contains in itself the process by which it is possible, that is the diverse verification, justification or demonstration processes. Patents on these fields should be severely restricted by very special circumstances, but should be not so easy to obtain. Beyond the academic, industrial and social claims on authorship, abstract knowledge belongs to the human species, in the same way as DNA is the essence of our physical structure.

Keywords: Patent, mathematics, proof, computer-assisted, epistemology, black box, algorithm, logic, programming entities, computational techniques, mathematical proof, internal computer chips, ontological identity