Thread

1. ghusto · 1791130396 · focus · HN ↗

   The desperately needed TL;DR is that perhaps the actual mathematics itself (i.e. proofs, calculations, etc.) can be done by AI, but why we do it and deciding which problems to solve can only be done by AI. Therefore mathematician do maths.

   I'm not a mathematician, but this seems like a weak and slightly bizarre argument.

   1. FeteCommuniste · 1791134831 · focus · HN ↗

      I'm wondering how we are going to maintain a critical mass of people who understand frontier mathematics if in another five or ten years the only "mathematicians" truly working at the frontier anymore are AIs. Or maybe "understanding" at depth will become a thing of the past, superseded by broad-strokes grasp of results plus machine verification.

      1. cma · 1791175036 · focus · HN ↗

         For one thing, every topic can be explained with motion graphics offering another 1 or 2 dimensions (time and for the 3d stuff that is hard to see structure of in static 2d, plus things like vr will allow more direct depth perception and different views) than a typical blackboard lecture.

         On Proof and Progress in Mathematics talks about how much gets lost of the geometric understanding when translated to a paper. The kinds of things many mathematicians visualize in their head will be much easier to transmit.

         I don't know if that is enough to offset the other affects, but learning and transmitting the understanding should be able to get much easier for a lot of people in principle.

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