Urgent Questions for Mathematicians

That Navier-Stokes story just broke and I am distressed all over again. Truly, being a neurotic pessimist doesn’t seem to lessen the impact when things I fret over actually happen.

In another world, this latest result (whatever exactly it turns out to be when the dust clears) would not bother me so much. I can imagine a world where a story about some mathematicians using the latest tech to help resolve an open problem would put a smile on my face. Instead, our world is populated by malicious leviathan-corporations whose every AI-assisted result is a bombardment on mathematics, rather than a human-scale addition. Absurdly, this is a world that is being constructed with the help of mathematicians.

Consequently, I feel compelled to pose the following questions to mathematicians immediately:

1. Would you like to keep your job?
2. Would you like your colleagues to keep their jobs?
3. Would you like for you and those around you to have a meaningful role in society?
4. When you go to the beach, do you pick up every shell and take it?
5. Must one bulldoze a forest to get through it?
6. Why do you do mathematics?
7. How urgent or time-sensitive is your research when compared research in medicine?
8. Do you read others’ diaries? If not, why not?
9. Would you like coming generations to be inspired to pursue mathematics?
10. Do you enjoy cooperate culture? Do you prefer academic culture? What about the culture of passionate amateurs? Why?
11. Do you value personal mastery, skill, knowledge? Again, why?
12. Have you answered Michael Harris’ questions?
13. Would you work for the mafia?
14. Do you think that these companies are genuinely interested in your research?
15. How do you feel about the increasing inequality of resources, wealth and power?
16. If you were famous, would you “sell out”?
17. Are you afraid of missing out?
18. Why do you really do mathematics?
19. Is redemption possible?
20. If there was some organization you could join which was actively working against the worst excesses of AI encroachment in mathematics, would you join it?

Proceed carefully. Please read news coverage of new mathematical results (especially those involving AI) with caution.

Thus further delaying a fun, light-hearted post.

Edit: As pointed out by many of these questions are yes/no. However, most can then be followed with “why” or “why not” which I encourage you to do.

The point is that there is no need for mathematics to unravel at a break-neck speed that leaves everyone exhausted and apathetic. There is no obvious urgency. See this argument: https://marcelgoh.ca/2026/07/05/ai-vegetarian.html

See Tao’s thread: https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/117219548485446992

This question was inspired by a mathematician I met who told me that they couldn’t survive the corporate world because of its constant demands and deadlines. They have a chronic medical condition.

These ones: https://siliconreckoner.substack.com/p/pages-missing-from-the-mathematical?utm_source=publication-search

“If you don’t want me to be nice, then I don’t have to be nice”: https://substack.com/home/post/p-214706649

Follow-up: Were you born yesterday?

Be honest. Is it anything like why Bobby Fischer played chess?

If yes: Keep your eyes peeled.