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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   25234 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026

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This is true. But not because they haven't been obsoleted. They have. Rather because most of them work in industries that do not generally fire useless people.

There's still the problem that a lot of people don't like to feel useless. Of course I am aware that lots of people work BS jobs where they do essentially nothing but genuinely believe (at least to some extent) that they are important and valuable. But I think that most non-DEI math professors take genuine pride in the skills that they have developed over the years and feel genuinely bad about the fact that they are staring obsolescence in the face.

Anyway, I'm not a mathematician but that's how I basically feel. I'm reasonably good at what I do and I enjoy the satisfaction of solving a challenging problem and the respect I get when I do so. It makes me sad that very likely it's about to go away.

For some it’s also “useless” like art: they want to understand and explain to others because they find the logic beautiful (in the exact same way artists find art beautiful).

And if AI obsoletes most human labor, why not keep paying them for that? A global mental health crisis is creating inefficiency and infighting, just look at modern politics.

For some it’s also “useless” like art: they want to understand and explain to others because they find the logic beautiful (in the exact same way artists find art beautiful).

I agree, but here's what I said in another post:

FWIW I have a professional physicist in my family and he is pretty much resigned to the idea of studying physics out of love for learning more about the way the universe works. Which I guess is a good attitude, but if it were me I would be kind of disappointed if I suddenly had effectively no chance of discovering and publicizing something significant. Because the AI is going to beat me to the punch.

And if AI obsoletes most human labor, why not keep paying them for that?

Fundamentally there is no reason not to. It's probably better to be the subsidized artist in your scenario than to be flat out unemployed. But still, I would feel pretty bad about the whole situation.

I myself started a business a few years back based on a creative idea I had had. I put the business together, worked on it night and day, encountered reasonable success, and ultimately sold for a good deal of money. It was a really nice experience to turn my ideas into a reality which the free market rewarded. It was also nice to earn the respect of my peers. Being a subsidized artist would be okay, but for me it wouldn't be the same.

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