[fantispug]

I wonder whether using computers more (whether numerical or symbolic calculations) could remove some of the burden of understanding mathematical techniques and make this process smoother. Or maybe it would just obscure the fundamental assumptions to software and increase the burden on learning computational techniques.

Does it matter whether mathematicians think it is handwavy? If any two trained practitioners can get to the same result of a calculation and it matches experiment to appropriate approximations that seems good enough to me.

[Maro]

> If any two trained practitioners can get to the same result of a calculation and it matches experiment to appropriate approximations that seems good enough to me.

I think that's already true today. The problem is, when theorists are out manufacturing new theories, I think it gets very confusing/handwavy (because everybody is brought up on handwavy fundamentals).

Disclaimer: I'm not a practicing physicist.

[andrepd]

There are no "handwavy" fundamentals. The theory is well-studied, well-understood, sound, and produces verifiable results. It is, however, incomplete, in that it does not provide an explanation for certain phenomena.