‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

We're gonna need a lot more mathematicians

407 points · 504 comments · srcreigh

  1. metalspot · · focus · HN ↗
    There is a failure to understand that the process is the result. You don't study mathematics or computer science and information theory to produce commodities. You study them to transform your mind. The output of an LLM is useless without a human mind to comprehend it. We can have Super Intelligence, but if humans are incapable of comprehending it, it is just another useless dead artifact. Practice, applied over a lifetime, is what creates the capability for comprehension. Asking an LLM to give you an answer creates an artifact. Humans being humans, most of their requests boil down to "make me rich without having to work for it," so the request itself is paradoxical and impossible to satisfy. Philosophers have only been saying this for all of human history, so don't hold your breath for any breakthroughs.
    1. echelon · · focus · HN ↗
      > You don't study mathematics or computer science and information theory to produce commodities. You study them to transform your mind.

      That's nonsense. Of course you study them to meet demand.

      1. danny_codes · · focus · HN ↗
        That's not why I studied. Maybe abstractly to prepare myself for the workforce, but the primary goal was to learn.

        Unfortunately many countries like the US are very under-developed, and have trained it's citizenry to approach education as job training. This is obviously an abject failure, and probably a contribution to our anemically slow and pathetic growth rate.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.