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There's been a ton of great work in math lately! I mean in number theory alone we have tools which would have made the greats of the past weep with joy, and we'

There's been a ton of great work in math lately! I mean in number theory alone we have tools which would have made the greats of the past weep with joy, and we've only just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do. Implementing a formalism that frankly does not have a significant impact on any area of math which isn't directly based on working with it is not a sign that math as a whole is trending towards programming. Theorem solvers are, obviously, getting more awesome by the day though. Not quite there yet, but damn are they close

motohagiography 4y ago
Indeed, it's not that math is trending toward programming, but programmers are trending toward math, which means more minds on the problems acquiring the tools. It's exciting to read about too. Quanta has some of the best writing I've ever read anywhere. I am a layman who is enthusiastic about it and sees the most important problem to solve as being how to scale to new minds faster. The most influential people in my own life were not the best at what they did, but the ones who let on that the bar to doing those things and being a part of the conversation was closer and more achievable than the headlines about virtuosos made it appear. We're only ever 3-5 years from learning anything, imo, and I think a lot of the opportunity to have an impact will be in writing the next GEB, Chaos, Emperor's New Mind, or other popular treatment, where instead of focusing on and solving one problem, we can inspire and apply a million new minds to several of them.