[munificent]

> We just let them do their thing, essentially treating them as artists and letting them pursue the craft for its own sake.

I think we generally did that because that seemed to be the best known process for maximizing the quantity of useful mathematics that they occasionally stumble upon.

It's not like we treat math as a charity project for eccentrics who like blackboards. What we want is new mathematical discoveries that have a huge positive impact on other areas of the world. It's just that math and/or human brains are such that seemingly the best way to find those discoveries was to let mathematicians wander around randomly in mindspace.

If a more guided structured process produced more results, we'd probably do that. But it doesn't seem to, so we don't. I don't think anyone knows yet what the best process for producing useful mathematics with humans + AIs looks like.

[naruhodo]

> It's not like we treat math as a charity project for eccentrics who like blackboards.

Love it! XD

I agree, and I think, as with physics, mathematical research produces building blocks whose utility won't be realised until later.