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Slow Sums, Long Reach

Oct 16, 2026 · 0:34

Ren: two mathematicians say, keep the hard problems human! Granny Ume: Newton's laws explained the apple and the planets. Mio: and then? Granny Ume: three centuries on, they guided men to the moon. Computers came as adding machines; understanding, from people. Poko: slow sums, long reach.

Two applied mathematicians answer the AI maths boom with three hundred years of history: Newton's handful of laws explained the apple and the planets and, three centuries later, guided astronauts to the moon and home; quantum mechanics gave lasers and transistors; and when computers arrived in the Second World War to calculate artillery tables and break codes they were glorified adding machines that threatened nobody's understanding; the understanding, they argue, is what turned into power, and it is what is lost if the problems are handed to machines.

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Much Is Lost by Ceding Math's Hardest Problems to A.I.

The New York Times · Sep 29, 2020

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