Derya Unutmaz, MD(@DeryaTR_):This is an excellent article on the end of pure mathematics as a field and a new beginning for applied math. Mathematicians who are sour about AI solving all the math problems should read this carefully and stop being pure math intellectual snobs. Those days are over; there is a new dawn for humanity. “New incentives can be designed around problems that genuinely matter for better human life, for individual and social health, for planetary flourishing. And we are not short of those problems. Viewed from the generative encounter model of mathematical progress, a true golden age of mathematics, rooted in human purpose and new visions of education and collective reward, may have just begun.”

2026.10.30 08:52

This is an excellent article on the end of pure mathematics as a field and a new beginning for applied math. Mathematicians who are sour about AI solving all the math problems should read this carefully and stop being pure math intellectual snobs. Those days are over; there is a new dawn for humanity. “New incentives can be designed around problems that genuinely matter for better human life, for individual and social health, for planetary flourishing. And we are not short of those problems. Viewed from the generative encounter model of mathematical progress, a true golden age of mathematics, rooted in human purpose and new visions of education and collective reward, may have just begun.”

Atoosa Kasirzadeh@Dr_Atoosa

2026.10.29 17:28

💥 Thrilled to share my new essay "A New Dawn For Mathematical Progress" out today in @NoemaMag! Read the essay here: As frontier AI systems solve some of the most difficult open questions in mathematics such as the Millennium Prize problems, many fear human mathematicians are becoming obsolete. I argue that whether AI ends human mathematics or begins its golden age depends on which of two models of "mathematical progress" we embrace: the checklist model or the generative encounter model. Right now, the impacts of AI systems on mathematics has left the mathematical community in deep disorientation. A PhD student recently wrote of a "profound spiritual crisis"; a Fields medalist called for "new theories of care and love." These reactions make sense under the checklist model, where progress consists of resolving well-defined, pre-specified problems (Olympiads, famous conjectures, Millennium Prizes) to crown lone human heroes. However, the checklist model was always a narrow view; one that elevated "pure" math as the only "real" math, while treating "applied" math as secondary. As the mathematician George Dantzig once said: "I consider myself a mathematician. I don’t differentiate between pure mathematics and applied mathematics." History shows that so much of our richest math comes from the generative encounter model on which mathematics makes breakthroughs when human mathematicians tackle complex and messy real world problems. If we embrace the generative encounter model of mathematical progress, a golden age of mathematics, rooted in human purpose & new visions of education & collective reward, may have just begun.