The Dark Night of Mathematics
The Dark Night of MathematicsWhat are we really doing? Kirwin HampshireJul 25, 20261689ShareI am going insane. During the last week or so LLMs have produced a number of counterexamples to significant long-standing conjectures.
- ▪The Dark Night of MathematicsWhat are we really doing?
- ▪Kirwin HampshireJul 25, 20261689ShareI am going insane.
- ▪During the last week or so LLMs have produced a number of counterexamples to significant long-standing conjectures.
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| Original publisher | Substack |
| Canonical URL | https://kirwinhampshire.substack.com/p/the-dark-night-of-mathematics |
| Publication time | Sat, 25 Jul 2026 15:54:59 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-25T16:42:20.199Z |
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The Dark Night of MathematicsWhat are we really doing? Kirwin HampshireJul 25, 20261689ShareI am going insane. During the last week or so LLMs have produced a number of counterexamples to significant long-standing conjectures. I will not recount these happenings here, there are many places where you can find the details.Mathematicians, math enthusiasts, and curious laypeople are responding to these developments in ways that I believe obscure what is, for me, the true heart of the problem. I do not speak for everyone in the math community in my response. But I suspect I am not alone.I am suffering a profound spiritual crisis due to these developments. I have been screaming internally for days. It feels as though I am living inside of a nightmare.
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