[–] 13 points 1 week ago* (6 children)

It’s really fucking me up the way AI boosters and friends are treating mathematics as a natural science whose goal is to uncover mathematical facts in the number mines. I’m not even staunchly opposed to platonism, but my god. That’s not even how natural science works!

Random idiot on r/singularity

That stance assumes we still need to fully understand the manual mechanics in order to apply the end result.

​Saying we lose out on the "journey" is like an 18th-century laborer complaining that the steam engine will create a society where no one has the endurance to swing a 20-pound hammer for a full 12-hour day.

Do we lose something through abstraction? Absolutely. And I understand why people would mourn that. But do we need to have the endurance to swing the hammer to build a modern skyscraper?

We aren't losing the ability to do math, we are just moving up a layer of abstraction, transitioning from the laborers to the architects.

Also look out for the new obnoxious metaphor of “what if aliens descended from the sky and handed us their science and proofs, how is this different”. First of all shut up. Secondly we should assume the aliens in this scenario have reason, intent, and the ability to communicate through language. You’re imagining they’re using the scientific method and not divination from wiggling their proboscis in the fourth dimension. Which is quite different from OpenAI’s big dump on scientific practice.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    I mean, I don't know, my confusion comes from also seeing a lot of mathematicians react as if mathematics are over and that it sucks that the future is all about checking AI proofs. And I suppose it's unpleasant when a sort of maybe authoritative entity comes out of nowhere and tells you the answer to your favourite problem is 42 and doesn't elaborate. But I feel like I might be missing something as to why this is a big deal. (Apart from OpenAI's shitty conduct, I mean.)

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    I suppose what it comes down to is, if OpenAI couldn’t be bothered to try and elucidate their results, or even try to separate nonsensical exploits from genuine proofs, I don’t understand why mathematicians shouldn’t treat all of it as worthless instead of doing unpaid PR work for them.

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