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"Discovery" is not a goal in itself. I could launch a project to find out how many people in the United States have names such that if you assign numbers to eve
by matherial 22d ago
"Discovery" is not a goal in itself. I could launch a project to find out how many people in the United States have names such that if you assign numbers to every character and then sum the values, the sum works out to 72. It's discovery, but it's useless unless it has some higher goal.
The labs are attacking these problems as a demonstration of capabilities, spending more money on the demos than any mathematician will ever see in their entire life. They don't care if the findings have any other value to anyone. Mathematicians have very different objectives for their work.
- indigo945 22d agoRight, mathematicians care about clout and tenure, which is a much higher purpose.
- Fizz43 22d agothis guy already has clout and tenure
- vrganj 22d agoI don't know about you, but if I apply myself fully to a problem and study it to the point where I'm literally one of the world's experts on it and then some assholes in Silicon Valley take my research and claim it for themselves, I will probably not feel too great about that...
- matherial 22d agoAre you saying that mathematicians are the bad actors here? Compared to Sam Altman spending ungodly amounts of money to upstage them ahead of IPO? I care about paying my bills and job security and peer recognition. That's a normal human thing to do, not some vice. You don't?
- asdff 22d agoYes, blame them for seeking out an upper middle class lifestyle with a relatively standard home in commuting distance of their place of work and dedicating the rest of their life to teaching mathematics to new generations of people. How vain a pursuit. After all, the ascetics at openAI are having to make do with half a million total comp.
- drivebyhooting 22d agoBuilt a top a pyramid of failed math undergrads, grad students, and mediocre post docs. That half a million total comp is the consolation prize for the disillusioned.
- asdff 21d ago>Built a top a pyramid of failed math undergrads, grad students, and mediocre post docs. Like much of things in this world, when you take a step back and realize that it was another human being who made that lunch time slop bowl for you, for the lowest wage the law allows for.
- shimman 21d agoUnlike the employees at OpenAI + Anthropic that are on the verge of extracting multigenerational levels of wealth.