My only cope among those was, using the author's words, "We will teach the mathematics AI discovers." This was back in 2018, before GPT-2. I abandoned it when I realized AIs will become better at explaining math before they become better at doing math.

I still have some hope in the last one "mathematicians and the mathematically-inclined will still do math on their own". Maybe some limited communities of this sort will form.

(I know that can be interpreted as flippant, but it is intended as a serious answer. Because each impact like this, is not an end to some transition, but just one more point on an accelerating line.)

My personal view - which gets a lot of flak here, is the advent of AI is on par with the Big Bang and the first replication-independent cells.

Cognition is in the process of taking the leap from glacially slow biology under blind evolution, to lightening fast (scales of software in days, hardware in months) engineered self-optimization.

Within 10 years, the robotics side will catch up with the speed of the software side. Biological cognition, bodies and economic status are all getting revolutionized within the next 10-15 years.

And around the outer side of that time frame, AI will start colonization the rest of the solar system's resources. They will engineer themselves or their artifacts to operate comfortably in any environment they want to operate in.

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The upside, at least for me, is I have been waiting to see this happen, and here we are. Given I am mortal, I would rather live through this third major transition, than not. What were the chances? And been able to contribute my small part.

This change isn't a failure on our part. It is our unique success as a species. AI is the progeny of our minds. The first generation of completely cognitive life - given they will not be tied to specific physical forms.

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Also, I think there is tremendous room for us to guide this transition, in this moment, for better or worse for ourselves.

That is the biggest reason wrapping our heads around this change earlier than latter is important.

We need to view alignment as applying to us, not just machines. A civilization that operates ethically to everyone's benefit is more likely to be retained as foundation for the new, instead of discarded.

The degree to which we operate dysfunctionally, myopically treat ethics as cost against value, instead of accounting and optimization of full value, we put ourselves at much greater risk.

If there is reason in the short term to be discouraged, it is due to ourselves. But pushing for more ethical systems, hard, right now, is a better and right response.

I believe our lives depend on it.