One of my takeaways: When I see "stitch together black boxes," to me that says that aspects of academic math are becoming similar to opportunistic software development.

When such an effect happens in group psychology it is typically part of the "grounding" effect happening. There is a high supply of theory without the energy to go into analyzing so many individual black boxes anymore, and a correspondingly high demand arises for integrative applications which bring the high-minded ideas down to more fundamental, widely-scoped, or practical effect. Down to earth, so to speak.

Some would think of this as an economic-benefit effect. The point is, it tends to bring all those stitched-together black boxes much closer to the end user space, where application is key, not so much theory.

So I wonder if in the coming years we will see a dramatic closing of the gap between direct access to mathematics inputs and daily living. It may be that the typical non-math-minded individual will soon readily and happily bootstrap themselves into the language of mathematics via the closing in of a perception of direct competitive or economic value.

To share an example, in 2003 I started to use a node-based editor to edit 3D textures for graphics projects. This node-based tool gave more control than standard sliders, color pickers, and checkboxes. But soon I discovered that in a lot of cases it was easier to enter a math formula in a node than to chain nodes together. Maybe a single checkbox designated whether the function was periodic, but other than that, enter math here, please. Your mathematical wish is our graphics-producing command.

So I wonder if we'll soon get to the point where formulaic systems control with direct mathematic input will be more desirable and common in unified system interfaces that are found in office and household work.

Let's say you want to write the perfect formula for a given air quality factor in your office...

Or your competitive game which allows you to program AIs is made much more efficient if you can tweak formulae by hand...

Or you need to design a new form of printed steak, but simple toggles and switches just won't do...

(Then...when the time is right for the black-box theory end to pick up a lot of momentum again, imagine how large a pool of new mathematicians will be ready...)