[akavi]

If I had the mathematical background necessary to understand it, I certainly would.

... and I really wish I did have the mathematical background. Anyone have any recommendations on how to go from a standard CS undergrad math background to being able to understand proofs like these?

[adamnemecek]

This book is a good start http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Theory-Computation-Michae...

[ibejoeb]

Sipser is great. Highly recommended. Working that book really accelerated my understanding. You can go from practically nothing to something with it, though it helps to have some discrete math.

[evincarofautumn]

As a compiler guy, I found that reading a lot of type theory papers helped me really get into the CS theoretical mindset, which made reading mathematics papers a lot easier. Writing a lot of Haskell code didn’t hurt. Oleg Kiselyov has some fairly approachable papers, as do Simon Peyton-Jones and Daan Leijen. Try searching for things on Lambda the Ultimate[1] if you’re interested.

[1]: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/

[Tloewald]

Read it and google as you go. Math is one of the best covered topics online. For a potential millenium prize proof, it seems very approachable. That said, that's not saying much.

[m0nastic]

I find math in some cases to be really hard to Google. Particularly with expressions that I don't know the names of; I never know what to use as search terms.

[bowyakka]

I am not sure I would consider it approachable, I am lost by page 3