> However, math problems are really there to solve a real world problem.

this is ABSOLUTELY not how actual mathematicians see their field. A problem in mathematics is just that: its interest to a pure mathematician is not related to any applications in other disciplines.

I don't really understand what makes a mathematical problem "interesting" because of my bias as an engineer. Nothing is interesting to me unless I can use it to solve a "real world problem". But, I'm willing to concede that "solving real world problems" is really not how mathematics advances.

Things like complex numbers or quaternions were often thought about way outside of the context of their modern applications in physics and engineering. When Hamilton thought about quaternions I really doubt he cared that it would make some programmer's life easier 200 years later:

> Every morning in the early part of October 1843, on my coming down to breakfast,

> your brother William Edwin and yourself used to ask me:

> "Well, Papa, can you multiply triples?"

> Whereto I was always obliged to reply, with a sad shake of the head,

> "No, I can only add and subtract them." [1]

If we go back further, Pythagoreans weren't trying to solve "real problems" either, they were like a weird religious cult.

My point is, the practice of "real" mathematics is really something that odd people feel driven to do, not unlike painting or playing an instrument. All the applied stuff is just a byproduct (not unlike ad billboards or elevator music).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_quaternions

> this is ABSOLUTELY not how actual mathematicians see their field

While this might be true, I think this is the big pivot that will need to happen. Math, as a human endeavor, will all be applied. We will use LLMs to do the math and discover the math, and humans will apply it to whatever problem they are working on (likely using another LLM to integrate it).

Thanks for building the elevator though, guess I'll hit the gymn(asion) now.