People still play chess and go and StarCraft. People do what people want to do. It's not clear whether this will reduce the number of working mathematicians or increase it. There will a lot to learn from the machine proofs that will open up new frontiers as well.
So, it's like the story, "We'll see."
There has been a shocking but not altogether surprising development, and all reactions are valid.
Chess and StarCraft are games. For many other intellectual activities, part of the satisfaction comes from contributing something meaningful to a collective effort. If a machine can do that orders of magnitude faster, for many people these activities become effectively pointless.
People still play chess and go and StarCraft. People do what people want to do. It's not clear whether this will reduce the number of working mathematicians or increase it. There will a lot to learn from the machine proofs that will open up new frontiers as well.
So, it's like the story, "We'll see."
There has been a shocking but not altogether surprising development, and all reactions are valid.
Chess and StarCraft are games. For many other intellectual activities, part of the satisfaction comes from contributing something meaningful to a collective effort. If a machine can do that orders of magnitude faster, for many people these activities become effectively pointless.
This comment reminds me of the "run for fun" guy in Back to the Future Part III.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouCVJIpSmEE
(This isn't to say I disagree with you.)
> People still play chess and go and StarCraft
but very few get paid to do that