The 'strip mining' research paradigm — phenomenon to conjecture to machinery — will soon matter less
_onionesque · x · 2026-10-07
onionesque argues that the prevalent route for research advances — interesting phenomenon, then conjecture, then a community gathering point, then new machinery that constitutes the actual advance, then solutions — is a kind of 'strip mining' that is externally myopic. It is unclear what upstream conceptual development driven by AI alone would look like, and he is curious how important but isolated problems will be attacked. He expects this paradigm to soon become less important.
Related event: Mathematician argues AI can 'strip mine' well-developed areas of math(7 posts)→
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