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Posted by auggierose 2 days ago

Why do we need human mathematicians anymore?(terrytao.wordpress.com)
291 points | 375 commentspage 5
ourmandave 2 days ago|
This sounds like a student in algebra class asking, "when will I ever use this in my life?"
elendilm 1 day ago||
The premise of the article assumes that the work (number of true statements to prove) is finite.

But Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and Tarski’s Undefinability theorem ensure an infinite space of provable true statements.

Neither LLM's nor humans can exhaust it. So yes, both mathematicians and LLMs are needed.

Both can contribute and there will still be work leftover.

Kotlopou 1 day ago|
This is not what Gödel says, and in fact your statement is true in a trivial way: you can prove 1+1=2, and Not(Not(1+1=2)), and Not(Not(Not(Not(1+1=2)))), etc. ad infinitum. This is an infinite space of provable true statements that can be exhausted by a ten-line Python script.

IMO, this is why we actually need mathematics -- as a field in which to learn what it means to know what you're talking about.

elendilm 1 day ago|||
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bko 1 day ago||
> OBSERVATION: There are zero examples of any intelligent species which is vastly more capable than another species, yet surrenders decision-making control over its own future to the less-capable species.

This is just silly. AI isn't an intelligent species. It's a tool, it doesn't have autonomy or any motive apart from the one we enforce through reinforcement learning. That's like saying machines are "stronger" than humans, and obv they could kill us all so why would they not just take over.

sktrdie 2 days ago||
Why do we need any job? Check "Bullshit Jobs" by David Graeber. Not saying being a mathematician is a bullshit-kinda job, but there have been so many made up positions way before this AI-era. In that sense AI isn't changing much.
goatlover 2 days ago|||
Most people work for a living. Then there are people who find meaning in work. And people who advance in life by working. You want to do away with all that?
srean 2 days ago||
> Why do we need any job?

If not for nothing else but to form a basis for how to distribute/share/hoard the wealth created by a society. The eternal question - who gets what.

moralestapia 1 day ago||
Lol, this really struck a nerve. He has been posting non-stop for about a week now, wrote that lame open letter, gave a talk on it, etc.

What a disgrace, but I'm happy he's showing his true self to the public.

qnleigh 1 day ago|
You realize this is a guest post, right? Terrence Tao didn't write it. He's been using his blog to facilitate discussions about math's future.
XiphiasX 1 day ago||
We do not.
queenkjuul 1 day ago||
I thought "oh, I'll just click through to the original post and read it there" and wow, what a mistake. Just the most obnoxious slop-filled over-animated endlessly distracting claudesite I've ever seen in my life.
WhatsTheBigIdea 1 day ago||
Yet another extremely long and winding "defense" of the mathematics status quo.

What's the tldr;?

What are the mathematicians arguing for exactly? And against? Totally unclear to me even after chomping through that massive word salad.

This all feels very John Henry to me. Why is it not a good thing that we have new tools that can accelerate discovery? Because it disrupts the current order?

If you can't make the argument in 100 words, you probably don't have one.

aaron695 2 days ago||
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tom-cat 1 day ago|
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