Are logic and mathematics human inventions, or something we’ve discovered? Philosophers have debated the issue for centuries, with no definitive answer. We’ll take a different approach, by investigating simple axiom systems and ask, how typical are they in the space of possible systems? Are they the ones we’d expect to discover in nature?

To investigate these questions, we’ll ask: What is logic? How can we develop new axiom systems, and what’s their point? We’ll use computational techniques to investigate as a group how different systems work. Some of these computational proofs grow very large. We’ll reflect on this and ask, does it matter if we can’t understand what the proofs are telling us?