6 ms·

I think that the main thing people in this thread are missing, is that it's not about math. AI progression is very likely to affect every single thing humans ca

by gpt5 5d ago

I think that the main thing people in this thread are missing, is that it's not about math. AI progression is very likely to affect every single thing humans can do today. Mathematicians are feeling the blow this week, especially as there was wide spread denial in that math community over the capabilities of AI over the last few years, but it's the same problem everywhere.

deleted 5d ago
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octoberfranklin 5d ago
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pvab3 5d ago
that is incredibly depressing
- nmeagent 5d ago
  Yep. Perhaps humanity would be better off if we instituted and enforced the notion of "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." It's worth thinking about; just because we can build AI systems doesn't mean we should.
  - mxkopy 5d ago
    The technology is fine, great even. It’s the rabid greed of venture capital and sociopathic CEOs that try to integrate themselves into every aspect of our lives for profit, that’s the problem. “For 19.99 a month you too can be a world class mathematician!” Meanwhile they are extinct.
  - demibabs 5d ago
    I think it would be depressing in its own way if this technology just ended up being regulated out of existence.
    - vips7L 5d ago
      Why what benefit has it brought? Mass anxiety?
      - Turfie 5d ago
        Yes, and mass excitement
        YeGoblynQueenne 5d ago
        Don't you mean mass investment?
        deleted 3d ago
        [deleted]
      - kaffekaka 5d ago
        Yes. In the best possible world AI could enable a much better future, but currently we are on a quite bad trajectory.
      - JumpCrisscross 4d ago
        > what benefit has it brought? I mean, we have a Millenium problem that is most likely solved. Either by OpenAI on its own, OpenAI stealing another's work and finishing it or a researcher using AI to iterate more rapidly than a human alone could.
        vips7L 4d ago
        We should be happy that they’re stealing people’s work?
  - applfanboysbgon 5d ago
    The problem with technology is that the people who have it conquer and kill all the people who don't, essentially ensuring a destructive race to the bottom. You would need a mutual international alliance of nations who not only renounce the technology but also agree to invade anyone who attempts to develop it. Our closest precedent is nuclear weapons, but rather than renouncing them, the US's position is that "only we should have them" and that other people acquiring the same tech they have are valid targets for invasion, and they will obviously apply that notion to any new technology that can be weaponised as well.
    - simianparrot 5d ago
      Google which countries have nuclear weapons. Hint: It’s not just the US, it’s also its allies and frenemies who’ve not been invaded. It’s only nutball countries like Iran that get invaded when on the cusp of acquiring it and for good reason.
      - FreePalestine1 4d ago
        Try googling which country was the only country to use nukes. Hint: it's another nutball country. There is strong evidence that Iran was not as close to a nuclear weapon as you say. We will find out the truth eventually, like we found out that the WMDs in Iraq claim was a complete lie.
      - deaux 4d ago
        Ah yes, such nutball countries who have apparently been on the cusp for 30 years. Wild definition of cusp for sure.
      - pfdietz 4d ago
        The consequences of that invasion debunks the claim it was done "for good reason". It seems to have been done without use of reason at all.
    - deleted 5d ago
      [deleted]
  - int_19h 4d ago
    I would remind you that the fictional society that did this was also described as a feudal monarchy in which a tiny class of nobles exploits the economic output of trillions of people reduced to serfs by controlling all means of interstellar trade. Oh, and they also have legal slavery.
    - talon8635 4d ago
      Honest question, is an oppressed human society better than no human society at all? Isn’t there at least a hope for humans to free themselves from human oppressors?
    - laughingcurve 4d ago
      “B-b-b-but muh pop culture trope” Thank you for commenting this. I'm tired of hearing about Dune like its some kind of utopia
      - achierius 4d ago
        Do you seriously think that's that people mean when they quote that?
        int_19h 4d ago
        Of course they don't, but if you choose to use a work of fiction as an illustration, it comes as a coherent package (assuming the author did a good job at worldbuilding) - you can't just take the bits you like and ignore the bits you don't and still have something coherent.
        jackie293746 4d ago
        What a stupid pov lmao
        deleted 4d ago
        [deleted]
    - silver_silver 4d ago
- munksbeer 4d ago
  I feel the opposite. Human history is depressing overall. I imagine AI will eventually lead to less scarcity and better lives overall.
  - reasonableklout 4d ago
    I am sure it will lead to more material wealth, but I can’t help but feel pessimistic about the political economy of making millions of people redundant. What leverage will knowledge workers have in the new world?
rester324 5d ago
Well, yeah, while that is true, my impression is that mathematicians (as a community, even though there were outliers) didn't care - not even the slightest - about the impact of LLMs and generative AI, other type of AI and machine learning until it started impacting them. So I have no sympathy for their community at all. They brought all this AI dystopia on us, so they should have voiced their concerns much louder and much much earlier. They should also have shamed their peers who helped these companies much louder and they should have lobbied their institutions and their governments much earlier and much stronger. They should also have protested the direction these companies took at the exact moment when they started using AI for profit.
- reasonableklout 5d ago
  We can look at the past and wish we were more clear-eyed about what was happening, just as we can look to the present and ask that we have more empathy for each other going forward. But I don't think it helps anybody to blame the mathematics community for not organizing until they were directly impacted. This is a tidal wave that has caught everyone off guard in <3 years.
- andrepd 5d ago
  > mathematicians (as a community, even though there were outliers) didn't care - not even the slightest - about the impact of LLMs and generative AI, other type of AI and machine learning until it started impacting them. So I have no sympathy for their community at all. They brought all this AI dystopia on us Wait wait wait. The research mathematicians brought this AI dystopia on us. Not the techbros, not Silicon Valley, not the global financial system and its tentacles, not surveillance capitalism... No, it was the postdocs working on ultrafilters for C(2,3) epimorphisms on symplectic manifolds. That's certainly a take.
talon8635 4d ago
I work at a top tier academic institution and they are completely asleep at the wheel on this topic. They just blindly assume people will keep taking on a potential lifetime of debt when there is a genuine existential (for ed, at the very least… ignoring humanity for the time being) crisis looming

by gpt5 5d ago

deleted 5d ago

[deleted]

octoberfranklin 5d ago

[flagged]

deleted 5d ago

[deleted]

pvab3 5d ago

that is incredibly depressing

nmeagent 5d ago
Yep. Perhaps humanity would be better off if we instituted and enforced the notion of "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." It's worth thinking about; just because we can build AI systems doesn't mean we should.
- mxkopy 5d ago
  The technology is fine, great even. It’s the rabid greed of venture capital and sociopathic CEOs that try to integrate themselves into every aspect of our lives for profit, that’s the problem. “For 19.99 a month you too can be a world class mathematician!” Meanwhile they are extinct.
- demibabs 5d ago
  I think it would be depressing in its own way if this technology just ended up being regulated out of existence.
  - vips7L 5d ago
    Why what benefit has it brought? Mass anxiety?
    - Turfie 5d ago
      Yes, and mass excitement
      - YeGoblynQueenne 5d ago
        Don't you mean mass investment?
        deleted 3d ago
        [deleted]
    - kaffekaka 5d ago
      Yes. In the best possible world AI could enable a much better future, but currently we are on a quite bad trajectory.
    - JumpCrisscross 4d ago
      > what benefit has it brought? I mean, we have a Millenium problem that is most likely solved. Either by OpenAI on its own, OpenAI stealing another's work and finishing it or a researcher using AI to iterate more rapidly than a human alone could.
      - vips7L 4d ago
        We should be happy that they’re stealing people’s work?
- applfanboysbgon 5d ago
  The problem with technology is that the people who have it conquer and kill all the people who don't, essentially ensuring a destructive race to the bottom. You would need a mutual international alliance of nations who not only renounce the technology but also agree to invade anyone who attempts to develop it. Our closest precedent is nuclear weapons, but rather than renouncing them, the US's position is that "only we should have them" and that other people acquiring the same tech they have are valid targets for invasion, and they will obviously apply that notion to any new technology that can be weaponised as well.
  - simianparrot 5d ago
    Google which countries have nuclear weapons. Hint: It’s not just the US, it’s also its allies and frenemies who’ve not been invaded. It’s only nutball countries like Iran that get invaded when on the cusp of acquiring it and for good reason.
    - FreePalestine1 4d ago
      Try googling which country was the only country to use nukes. Hint: it's another nutball country. There is strong evidence that Iran was not as close to a nuclear weapon as you say. We will find out the truth eventually, like we found out that the WMDs in Iraq claim was a complete lie.
    - deaux 4d ago
      Ah yes, such nutball countries who have apparently been on the cusp for 30 years. Wild definition of cusp for sure.
    - pfdietz 4d ago
      The consequences of that invasion debunks the claim it was done "for good reason". It seems to have been done without use of reason at all.
  - deleted 5d ago
    [deleted]
- int_19h 4d ago
  I would remind you that the fictional society that did this was also described as a feudal monarchy in which a tiny class of nobles exploits the economic output of trillions of people reduced to serfs by controlling all means of interstellar trade. Oh, and they also have legal slavery.
  - talon8635 4d ago
    Honest question, is an oppressed human society better than no human society at all? Isn’t there at least a hope for humans to free themselves from human oppressors?
  - laughingcurve 4d ago
    “B-b-b-but muh pop culture trope” Thank you for commenting this. I'm tired of hearing about Dune like its some kind of utopia
    - achierius 4d ago
      Do you seriously think that's that people mean when they quote that?
      - int_19h 4d ago
        Of course they don't, but if you choose to use a work of fiction as an illustration, it comes as a coherent package (assuming the author did a good job at worldbuilding) - you can't just take the bits you like and ignore the bits you don't and still have something coherent.
        jackie293746 4d ago
        What a stupid pov lmao
        deleted 4d ago
        [deleted]
  - silver_silver 4d ago
munksbeer 4d ago
I feel the opposite. Human history is depressing overall. I imagine AI will eventually lead to less scarcity and better lives overall.
- reasonableklout 4d ago
  I am sure it will lead to more material wealth, but I can’t help but feel pessimistic about the political economy of making millions of people redundant. What leverage will knowledge workers have in the new world?

rester324 5d ago

Well, yeah, while that is true, my impression is that mathematicians (as a community, even though there were outliers) didn't care - not even the slightest - about the impact of LLMs and generative AI, other type of AI and machine learning until it started impacting them. So I have no sympathy for their community at all. They brought all this AI dystopia on us, so they should have voiced their concerns much louder and much much earlier. They should also have shamed their peers who helped these companies much louder and they should have lobbied their institutions and their governments much earlier and much stronger. They should also have protested the direction these companies took at the exact moment when they started using AI for profit.

reasonableklout 5d ago
We can look at the past and wish we were more clear-eyed about what was happening, just as we can look to the present and ask that we have more empathy for each other going forward. But I don't think it helps anybody to blame the mathematics community for not organizing until they were directly impacted. This is a tidal wave that has caught everyone off guard in <3 years.
andrepd 5d ago
> mathematicians (as a community, even though there were outliers) didn't care - not even the slightest - about the impact of LLMs and generative AI, other type of AI and machine learning until it started impacting them. So I have no sympathy for their community at all. They brought all this AI dystopia on us Wait wait wait. The research mathematicians brought this AI dystopia on us. Not the techbros, not Silicon Valley, not the global financial system and its tentacles, not surveillance capitalism... No, it was the postdocs working on ultrafilters for C(2,3) epimorphisms on symplectic manifolds. That's certainly a take.

talon8635 4d ago

I work at a top tier academic institution and they are completely asleep at the wheel on this topic. They just blindly assume people will keep taking on a potential lifetime of debt when there is a genuine existential (for ed, at the very least… ignoring humanity for the time being) crisis looming