Debate sparked by Terence Tao's 'Math 2.0' lecture: do we even need to understand drug mechanisms?
teortaxesTex · x · 2026-10-11
Responding to a slide from Terence Tao's 'Math 2.0' public lecture at Caltech, one commenter argued almost any Stage 4 cancer patient would find human comprehension of a cure's mechanism irrelevant. Another countered that no human fully understands how any drug works—liquid-like structures regulating GPCRs, the most common drug target, were only just discovered—highlighting the tension between understanding and effectiveness in the AI era.
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