alt Hacker NewsReputation and desire for recognition are an incentive system that have gotten us a long way. They are a way of celebrating and honoring the human reach for excellence. If you like humans, that's a good thing.
I like the UK's archaic system of measures for the similar reasons. It has the stamp of humanity. For those who think about such things it reminds of who we were. Without historical context we think less of ourselves.
If you're not from the culture in question, then these are just additional barriers to entry because you have a lot of extra stuff to learn, completely unrelated to your task at hand. It also puts you at a disadvantage to native members of the culture.
> They are a way of celebrating and honoring the human reach for excellence. If you like humans, that's a good thing.
I think progress is inevitable, ideas build on each other, and those with access to capital get to slap their name on their moment in time (yes, even if they did the hard work of converting that capital to progress). If AI takes over math, I really don't think we'll see a slow down in technological progress. Quite likely the opposite.