alt Hacker News>So if your aim in doing mathematics is to achieve some kind of immortality, so to speak, then you should understand that that won’t necessarily be possible for much longer — not just for you, but for anybody.
This made me a little sad
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jdale27 • today at 7:09 AM
I don't know that it's that disappointing. I doubt most of the great mathematicians were actually doing it to achieve immortality. I suspect most of them were either after (possibly indirect) practical applications (via the math -> physics -> engineering pipeline) or just "for the love of the game", appreciation of the beauty of math and the intellectual joy of doing it. AI might also take over the practical application side, but the other aspects are still there for the taking.
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I watched the movie '21' (2008) for free on YouTube yesterday.
The opening of the movie features the MIT campus full of students navigating its grounds and all the promise and status that higher education brings. [0]
Gave me the same sense of sadness realizing how much will fall to AI.
[0] - https://youtu.be/0lsUsWdkk0Y?si=TJl7f_b1RcWcDqF8&t=278