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Comment by abstractbill | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the best posts I've seen on this topic in a while.

I finished a math PhD before I decided to get out of academia and into startups. Since then, the older I get the more of a Platonist I become, especially now that I've taught my daughters a bunch of math (I'm their homeschool math+science teacher). And the more of a Platonist I become, the less I care about who made a particular discovery. Who cares?! It seems obvious (and quite beautiful) to me now that the same discoveries must be getting repeated again and again across the universe by alien mathematicians, and eventually by their AIs.

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I think there as a difference whether the discovery was done by some greek guy 2500 years ago or by a person who is still living and interested in knowing the consequences of his discovery.

(There is also some irony that "Platonism" has the mention if its creator right in its name, and that "creator's note" has survived the entirety of that timespan)

I've always intuitively been a Platonist, although I wasn't aware of the term to describe it. I extend the thinking to creative works - to my mind the greatest creative works have the same egoless beauty as mathematics, they feel like some truth in the universe that the artist discovered, rather than a creation of the mind of the artist.

yeah but it's fun to discover things with your own brain

You can still discover it for yourself even if AI discovered it first (or some other human, or an alien on another planet). It is fun to figure out how something works, in and of itself

Absolutely. One of the best pieces of advice my PhD advisor gave me was that to really understand a particular result I would usually have to redo the proof of it myself (even after reading someone else's proof).

that's not nearly as exciting as uncovering something new first yourself, but I agree to some extent. Also that's not something you'll get paid for, it's basically coursework at that point.

Sure, but for most humans except for some on the upper echelons of education and intelligence, discovering something new for the first time was never going to happen anyway.

sure, and what you said is also not mutually exclusive to what OP said

I wish more people read Plato's work, or did shrooms. Both probably works.

Problem is learning math as a hobby doesn't put food on the table.

What did you mean to say by saying that in response to my comment? I am not sure I followed you

Sounded like you were saying you wish people were more platonic and interested in discovery for the sake of discovery, and not for the sake of personal accomplishment. The problem is, when someone else makes a discovery, there's no way for me to get paid for it. So the more "platonic" I become, the more I surrender myself to homelessness.

Or did I misunderstand?

Ah I see where you’re coming from. I was mostly saying that Plato’s work benefits life in general, not to imply go read Plato to cope with your specific situation.

I guess I replied to the parent OP to break into a tangent about Plato solely.

So why should your children bother to learn math? Just have them prompt their AIs.

When I was a kid we didn't need to learn multiplication tables or how to add/subtract large numbers or long division. By high school a pocket calculator could also do any algebra we were learning no sweat. We were still taught. But those graphing calculators that could do all of the work for us sure did come in handy to teach us a bunch of stuff faster/more clearly than was possible with the previous generation.

Whether or not 99% of people actually use those skills in life for anything other than to pat themselves on the back that they're "good at math" is another story. People are often proud if they can calculate a 20% tip in their head these days.

It is my belief that teaching math serves an important secondary purpose, other than the plain ability to multiply or substract. It teaches logic and reasoning, both skills now more important than ever in the age of hallucination.

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