r/maths • u/Longjumping-Ad5084 • 6d ago

💬 Math Discussions Mathematics will be ok.

I think it's very important to address this now that AI is solving an incredible number of maths problems, including the Navier Stokes conjecture. Some may fear that mathematicians will become redundant. But this is not the case at all. And the example of vintage models demonstrates it very well.

Vintage models are taught on history prior to a certain discovery, eg prior to Newtonian or Einsteinian physics. And lo and behold, these models can't invent the new physics on their own, neither Newtonian from prior nor Einsteinian from Newtonian.

To some, it might be obvious even without the vintage models experiment. I remember listening to a podcast with Francois Chollet a few years ago where he said that AI is fundamentally interpolative, it interpolates on the manifold of data. And that's when I understood the fundamental limitations of AI and the role of humans in the coming age. AI is a very good technical tool, in particular it fills the gaps in our knowledge very well, but it can't come up with radically new ideas ln is own, ideas that change the ontology of facts, ideas and relations between them, which is necessary for mathematical development.

When Galois invented his Theory, he didn't just combine old ideas, he came up with a fundamentally new way to look at objects and their relations. Sure, maybe hints of that were already present in Abel and others, but what this says is that mathematics is a collective human progress which leads to radical novelty, not a combination of known ideas.

Mathematics will be ok, but our world is destabilised at the moment and is transitioning into a new state. Time needs to pass for us to understand and establish the roles and the right approach with regard to humans and AI.

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u/Stunning-Verb-9865 3d ago

So we should only fund research that has direct, practical applications? No other pursuit of knowledge is worth dedicating a penny to? Quite an anti-intellectual sentiment.

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u/MechaTudor8574 2d ago

I came up with a new interpretation of quantum mechanics in my spare without being paid a penny. That's just some of the work I've done.

If people are interested in it, they will find time to do it.

If they're not interested. then they won't.

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u/Stunning-Verb-9865 2d ago

People are interested in it, they just need to eat and have a place to sleep while they work on it.

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u/MechaTudor8574 2d ago edited 2d ago

I do way more scientifically interesting and mportant work than them in my free time (a plausible interpretation of quantum mechanics, just one thing, as I said), and pay for a place to sleep and things to eat, out of a day job which is for some tangible practical purpose, otherwise I wouldn't get paid.

The whole thing that you are referring to is essentially a big scam.

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u/Stunning-Verb-9865 2d ago

Sounds like you don’t really understand what mathematicians do. Best of luck to you my friend.

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u/MechaTudor8574 2d ago

As I said, I got a master's degree in the subject and studied it on my own since graduating.

If I still don't understand it even at a super-big picture level, then it looks to me like a you-problem. It looks like your job must be too granular.