Twilight of the mathematicians: Noah Carl argues AI will make mathematicians obsolete first
NoahCarl90 · x · 2026-10-23
In The Critic, Noah Carl's essay "Twilight of the mathematicians" opens with Ted Kaczynski's 2004 prison reply to a high schooler: mathematics is "absolutely not" worthwhile, and mathematicians "will probably become obsolete before anyone else does, because mathematics is more amenable to computerisation." The piece argues recent AI progress is validating that prediction—and frames it as tragic: "We will no longer be masters of our own destiny. For that torch will have passed to the machines."
More from AGI Musings
- Pierce Lilholt: culture will become generated rather than inherited — PierceLilholt · 2026-10-24
- 135,000 tech layoffs in 2026: Oracle and UPS cut 30,000 each amid AI adoption — gaganghotra_ · 2026-10-24
- Suhail: pausing AI can't work — only acceleration, plus frontier 0-day tooling for defense — daniel_mac8 · 2026-10-24
- Aiden Bai: my daily unique sites fell from 50-100 to 10-20 — will the web die? — aidenybai · 2026-10-24
- Your AI results depend on your own expertise: domain knowledge is what steers LLMs to good answers — AlexTensor · 2026-10-24
- Watching His Own AI Voice Clone Get Scarily Close, This Creator Is Pre-Inoculating Himself — ZeroStateReflex · 2026-10-24