The Ever-Receding Pocket
A software developer expresses existential anxiety regarding the rapid advancement of AI, specifically its ability to solve complex mathematical problems. The author questions the long-term economic value of human labor in a world increasingly dominated by LLMs.
Why it matters
It captures the growing sentiment of professional displacement and existential dread among tech workers facing rapid AI integration.
I'm having an existential crisis. The latest Claude model just disproved the Jacobian conjecture .
There's a Neil deGrasse Tyson quote about God being an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on. So AI got good at coding. Then it got good at math. Then AI is better at everything I can do. I am now the ever-receding pocket.
I'm not asking whether humans have value. (That's a philosophical question.) This is something narrower. Like, do I still have economic value?
I just feel so, I don't have the word for it. I look at the people around me. They're living their lives. They're browsing TikTok. The Jacobian conjecture is not important to them. Which is perfectly reasonable because people have their own priorities. Work is stressful. Everything is expensive. Life is hard. Who still has any brainpower left to think after work.
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