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youoy • today at 7:26 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

In contrast to what these philosophical pieces tend to convey, the main crisis in mathematics is a labour one.

Mathematitians exchanged proofs for employment. That was the currency. Now they cannot use that currency anymore, so the question is how does someone know if they should hire an unknow person or not?

Philosophicaly who cares if you like more theory building or theorem proving? You dont need to convince anyone. The only solution is to be curious and follow your interests and naturally humanity will redefine what the new mathematics feels like.

You cannot convince anyone about it, its not something rational.


Replies

skybrian • today at 3:05 PM

Where does the money come from? Who controls it? Convincing the funders of mathematics that they should still fund it, but for different reasons, seems pretty urgent. Studying theoretical mathematics is a prestigious activity, and these philosophical arguments are a high-status way of coming up with new justifications with somewhat different goals.

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wg0 • today at 6:33 PM

Can a layman be sure of an AI model's output if their proof is sound and follows through?

Wouldn't that still require mathematians?

Genuine question.