--- title: "Super Mario is mathier than you think" url: https://daily.dev/posts/super-mario-is-mathier-than-you-think-lfejn6idh source_url: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/23/1138262/super-mario-is-mathier-than-you-think type: article source: "MIT Technology Review" published: 2026-06-23T21:09:42.914Z updated: 2026-06-23T21:15:23.516Z reading_time: 11 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Super Mario is mathier than you think **[MIT Technology Review](https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary MIT researchers have proven that certain Super Mario levels are undecidable — meaning no computer program can always determine whether Mario can complete them. By constructing 'counter gadgets' that simulate Minsky counter machines within game levels, the MIT Hardness Group showed Super Mario belongs to RE-Complete, the hardest complexity class for such problems. This places it beyond PSPACE and even harder than the traveling-salesman problem or integer factorization. The work uses reduction techniques and gadget theory, which have broader applications in robotics motion planning and chemical reaction network modeling. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard](https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-mathematics-illuminates-why-hard-problems-are-hard-cdq4huwn0) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation](https://daily.dev/posts/mathematical-proof-debunks-the-idea-that-the-universe-is-a-computer-simulation-uaau4ralt) · Phys.org · 57 upvotes · 7 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/super-mario-is-mathier-than-you-think-lfejn6idh)