Why are we even doing all this?

[This is a guest post by Rikab Gambhir. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] First, they came for the artists, and I did not speak out, because I was not an artist. Then, they came for the mathematicians, and I did not speak out, because I was not a mathematician. Then, they came for the physicists, and it was actually really cool and they gave me free tokens and promised to solve my entire field for me and now I can finally devote myself to the important work of publishing papers instead of doing physics In early October, OpenAI fulfilled every mathematician’s childhood dream. I am not a mathematician myself (merely a theoretical particle physicist, which some argue barely counts as a scientist either), so I can’t 100% say for certain what inspires someone to pursue mathematics. But, I imagine this dream is common to all academics: Looking up at the stars in wonderment, or enjoying a complex puzzle game, or being inspired by an…