Well, this should pretty much be the end of math

[Markbnj]

http://vimeo.com/109405701

 

[jagec]

Cute. Will it do partial differential equations?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

So ripped off from Big Bang Theory

 

[Ruptga]

Optical character recognition + WolframAlpha-like functionality on a phone. It's a great idea, for those of us doing math in the real world.

Even when I was in school in the 90's and calculators weren't literally everywhere, teaching students to do math by being the calculator seemed idiotic. I can guarantee I will never do long-hand calculation outside of a class that requires it, unless I get sucked through a time vortex to 1750. Either I can do it in my head or I use a machine, anything else is an error-prone waste of time.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Cute. Will it do partial differential equations?

If wolfram alpha can do it, probably yes.

PDE's are easy.

 

[Sonikku]

Let us use it during the SAT and we're all set.

 

[master_shake_]

So ripped off from Big Bang Theory

you are aware that the big bang theory is not a documentary right?

 

[kranky]

Reminded me of software I had on a original Tablet PC 10 years ago - you could write problems on the screen with the pen and it would solve them. MathJournal by xThink. More than one engineer was astounded when I showed them that.

But the PhotoMath app only handles printed problems, not handwritten.

 

[Paratus]

Is this real or for a kickstarter campaign?

 

[zinfamous]

that is jeanius.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's awesome. Reminds me of when I wrote a program to do my math for me. We had this homework with like over 100 problems of all the same concept. I did like 10 of them or so to make sure I understand how to do it, but they were very tedious. Don't recall what it was. Once I knew I understood it enough I found it pointless to do every single one or I would have been up all night, so I wrote a program that would do it for me and show the work. It was awesome.

I had figured out that writing the program to do it would take less time than it would take to do it. Now that is real world math I can bank on!

 

[CraKaJaX]

That's awesome. Reminds me of when I wrote a program to do my math for me. We had this homework with like over 100 problems of all the same concept. I did like 10 of them or so to make sure I understand how to do it, but they were very tedious. Don't recall what it was. Once I knew I understood it enough I found it pointless to do every single one or I would have been up all night, so I wrote a program that would do it for me and show the work. It was awesome.

I had figured out that writing the program to do it would take less time than it would take to do it. Now that is real world math I can bank on!

Reminds me of using Matlab to solve tons of repetitive questions in school.. Even charged some students for me to put in their homework numbers

This though.... Is pretty amazing. I'm sure this could turn into a great tutor type program, but 90% of students will just fast forward to the final answer and call it done.

 

[Ruptga]

I'm sure this could turn into a great tutor type program, but 90% of students will just fast forward to the final answer and call it done.

That same 90% would be half-assing it either way though. Most people don't bother to master tasks, and those that do still have their limits.

 

[moonbogg]

Can I be serious for a minute? I believe education will be completely obsolete before long, especially things like math. It would be ludicrous to invest time and energy learning something that a machine can do infinitely faster and better.
In the future, I expect knowledge to be accessible in the same way information is accessible via google.

 

[DaTT]

Can I be serious for a minute? I believe education will be completely obsolete before long, especially things like math. It would be ludicrous to invest time and energy learning something that a machine can do infinitely faster and better.
In the future, I expect knowledge to be accessible in the same way information is accessible via google.

As someone who has taken plenty of math courses, and a few college level engineering math courses, you aren't really being taught to solve the equation, more when and how to USE the equation.

 

[brianmanahan]

i didnt see any integrals, derivatives or summations

 

[moonbogg]

As someone who has taken plenty of math courses, and a few college level engineering math courses, you aren't really being taught to solve the equation, more when and how to USE the equation.

I was dying in anticipation of a response just like yours. You expect the "human factor" to remain relevant. It won't. First comes computation, then comes simulated reasoning, and then reasoning. The time will come, relatively shortly, when we will be DONE thinking on the job.
Education in the future, at least in the traditional sense, will be obsolete. I'm talking about raw, functional knowledge that people take forever to acquire. It will come without effort. How anyone can fail to see the writing on the wall genuinely puzzles me.

Also, people will have to do different things to differentiate themselves from one another than they do today. In many ways, the playing field will be leveled with regard to the things that separate us as elite and common.

 

[brianmanahan]

I was dying in anticipation of a response just like yours. You expect the "human factor" to remain relevant. It won't. First comes computation, then comes simulated reasoning, and then reasoning. The time will come, relatively shortly, when we will be DONE thinking on the job.
Education in the future, at least in the traditional sense, will be obsolete. I'm talking about raw, functional knowledge that people take forever to acquire. It will come without effort. How anyone can fail to see the writing on the wall genuinely puzzles me.

computers will never be able to comprehend a420 threads

 

[sandorski]

Damn.

 

[moonbogg]

computers will never be able to comprehend a420 threads

Imagine how you would feel if all around you, amazing progress was being made. Huge scientific achievements came in regular frequency and the world's technology and overall rate of innovation skyrocketed. The only problem with this picture, is you feel eerily irrelevant and no longer feel like you are a part of that progress.
The last time any person made a significant contribution was about 50 years ago, and even that was a rare stretch. Here you are, in the year 2114 and the world is more amazing than ever, but sadly, you feel less and less like its your world. You feel like everything is handed to you, like a spoiled rich kid who knows nothing about the feeling one gets when they genuinely earn something.
No sense of accomplishment. No sense of reward. No sense of importance, and just about completely now, no sense of purpose or relevance.

Our successors won't have any need to attack us, or to annihilate us in order to further themselves. We will simply stand there, jaws agape as we watch them innovate themselves further and further away, well beyond our grasp, we will be left behind. Like a lonely ray of light which will never know the eye of an observer, for the ceaseless expansion of the universe is too great for it to ever overcome. So too will be our destiny.

 

[Ruptga]

It's going to be a long time before machines can fully replace humans. People have been saying that same luddite crap since, well, Ned Ludd, at least.

Also, in my experience, most math courses exist to make humans into calculators, not to teach humans how and when to use equations. In fact, I just dropped a calculus course that was doing just that. I'm going to try another school that actually lets us use calculators.

 

[rh71]

Can I be serious for a minute? I believe education will be completely obsolete before long, especially things like math. It would be ludicrous to invest time and energy learning something that a machine can do infinitely faster and better.
In the future, I expect knowledge to be accessible in the same way information is accessible via google.

While it may take a year or two to learn + - X and / in school, it is still very much useful and quicker than pulling out a calculator. For instance we're doing our bathrooms and sometimes have had to do on-the-fly calculations for tile or spacing. Measuring and dividing or even adding a few numbers in our head is much faster than putting down a tape measure to punch in numbers. I can't imagine not knowing how to do something like figuring out how many 9" bullnose tiles I need to fill 96" of vertical wall space in my head. Surely you can do that faster than doing it on a calculator.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Okay, listen up you feckless droids. Learning math isn't about learning how to solve equations no matter how complex. The purpose is to enable you to envision and estimate a larger world view. To raise the level of of your understanding and perception of the world around you. The possibilities made available through understanding the math is something no machine will ever be able to do. They can order the possibilities in any manner the programmer can envision but, will NEVER, be able to use intuition, combining unrelated facts, to create new maths or tools to solve a new type of problem.

 

[moonbogg]

Okay, listen up you feckless droids. Learning math isn't about learning how to solve equations no matter how complex. The purpose is to enable you to envision and estimate a larger world view. To raise the level of of your understanding and perception of the world around you. The possibilities made available through understanding the math is something no machine will ever be able to do. They can order the possibilities in any manner the programmer can envision but, will NEVER, be able to use intuition, combining unrelated facts, to create new maths or tools to solve a new type of problem.

Holy shit, I love you. That attitude is so bold and in your face. Its unapologetic and fearless. Too rare, far too rare.

I disagree that machines will never replace humans, because humans are biological machines that have assembled themselves, according to natural laws, over billions of years. Replace the carbon with silicon and I don't see a problem. Conscious life is mysterious in some ways, but it happened, at the very least once, and nothing in nature happens once IMO. We can be replaced and improved upon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ShvYrYnxo

Uploading of memories has been accomplished in mice. Its real and it works. Primates are next, then Alzheimer's patients, then..."The vacation you never had". So hard to imagine uploading the memory of having learned math, engineering or language?

 

[Leros]

Let us use it during the SAT and we're all set.

I took the SAT and AP exams the last year that they allowed TI-89s. I felt like I was cheating when I took the calculus AP test. The calculator did everything for me and I got a perfect score. I must not have been the only person considering that they stopped allowing TI-89s that year.