| there are a number of ways to answer your question, so consider the following only one: i do research into the underlying pattern of primes, and do so from the intended inference that there does exist an algorithm that returns primes based on configurable inputs > starts of saying there's no pattern, then shows a pattern there are many patterns in the prime number sequence here is a seemingly ludicrous pattern in the sequence of primes 468,395,662,504,823 + 205,619 · 223,092,870 · n, for n = 0 to 23 (o) but i think when people say things like: If there’s a pattern, it’s inscrutable; from the article they are referring to an ability to answer questions for all primes such as: what is the three thousandth and one prime after 17, or what prime follows and precedes 113; those kinds of questions are currently unanswerable for all numbers efficiently > How hard have people looked for pattern visually? the concept of visual is very subjective numbers are abstract concepts and how you choose to visualise them is simply a matter of choosing how the abstraction you use will appear, i can make any prime number appear anywhere in a visualisation depending on how i configure the visuals > the way they're displayed (spirals, ovals, wrapping them as square spirals etc) dreaming up display methods, and developing them, is math there is a famous question in mathematics called the riemann hypothesis(i)(ii) where one could argue that complex numbers become a clever abstraction for visualising of primes > I've read about people with mental health issues who somehow are able to tell if a number is prime and assuming that this is accurate then again, unless they are somehow able to run a learned algorithm in their heads stupidly fast they're therefore tapping into something natural. confirming if a number is prime or composite, what is called a primality test(iii), is a 'solved' problem with an efficient algorithm (o) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green%E2%80%93Tao_theorem (i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6c6uIyieoo (ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTveQ1ndH1c (iii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primality_test |