Terence Tao blog: Raghu Meka on how 'perceived barriers' cost math AI-solvable problems
jainprateek_ · x · 2026-10-09
Terence Tao's blog published a guest post by Raghu Meka, "The barriers of perception," on how folklore claims in math and theory ("famous people tried it," "heuristics show it can't work") self-reinforce into perceived barriers that make problems untouchable.
- Reflecting on several major results from the past year, Meka argues some problems were abandoned due to 'social' hardness rather than real limits.
- AI models' recent solutions, while brilliant, are 'not completely alien' — and they came on problems almost nobody was still trying.
- The essay extends Tao's ongoing discussion of doing mathematics in the age of AI.
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