We may be the last generation of mathematical heroes

A generation from now, the mathematician may no longer be anyone’s idea of a hero. In our era, physicists and mathematicians have had a certain hero charm. AI is taking it away, and fast. I should know. I’m one of those heroes. For most of history, math was for nerds. Basic calculations may have been essential to commerce, but the advanced, esoteric stuff, like number theory, algebraic topology, and blackboards covered with the chalk squiggles you see in movies, was never sexy. That changed in the late 1600s, when mathematicians like Newton and Leibniz became heroes of the Enlightenment. Later came Gauss, Riemann, and Cantor. Their discoveries drove innovation. Their math could explain the orbits of the planets, predict eclipses, and help design the machines of the Industrial Age. Generations later, physicists joined the pantheon. Einstein gave the world the general theory of relativity. Oppenheimer led the effort that produced the atomic bomb. Turing developed the mathematical foundations on which the modern computer is built. Shannon’s information theory powers today’s mobile phones, the internet, and satellite communications. I wasn’t even one of the nerds. I was the sporty kid…