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Comment by Chance-Device | Hacker News Reader

You’re sort of saying that’s because your thesis had no value to begin with, because it’s mainly a teaching exercise. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have value by the way, I’m sure it was good, that’s just my read of your post.

It’s an interesting subject. Makes me want to vibe code a PhD generator just like in the tweet. Maybe I will.

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They are saying that the value of most PhDs was in the learning the student got in the process, not in the PhD itself. Groundbreaking PhDs exist, but they are far, far, from the norm or expectation. Exceptional people doing exceptional work will always exist.

> your thesis had no value to begin with, because it’s mainly a teaching exercise

And that’s the problem in your understanding. Thinking that a teaching exercise has no value while OP was saying that IS the value. It’s missing the forest for the trees. The point of homework isn’t to solve the problems. I bet you the teacher assigning the homework already knows the answers. Just like the point of a marathon isn’t to travel 26 miles because you could just take a bus.

Well no, it’s a problem in your understanding of what I’ve written. The thesis and what’s learned along the way are separate objects with separate value, and you’ve decided to misread me in order to have something to be indignant about. However, to expand on a point I didn’t originally raise: learning itself is likely also reduced with AI assistance. That’s a fairly natural consequence of having to do less work yourself, we don’t retain information we don’t need to retain.

Pretty sure I understood you just fine as you’re just doubling down on your misunderstanding.

The value of the exercises you do in school (from sums to PhDs) is the learning you get from them. Good, because you need people to learn stuff, because the people that know stuff will be dead in a few years and you need to replace them.

Except, if machines can do the exercises up to the PhDs, you probably don't need those brains in the future, at least not as many as before. You might need only the brightest ones, and who knows for how long? The next ten years?

Yes, that at least is a valid argument. I do’t really agree with it though. Humans need meaning and purpose in life. Intellectual pursuit is that meaning or purpose for a lot of people. The Educational institutes might change drastically from how they have been in the last few centuries, but people will never seize learning. The act of learning is in itself incredible rewardig to many people.

> at least not as many as before. You might need only the brightest ones, and who knows for how long? The next ten years?

Then those with power will keep it and pass it on to their heirs, and some without will try to finesse it but the masses will be told “we don’t need you”. I think in a lot of ways, this is similar to how feudal societies were. Maybe humanity will pass through another phase of that. Maybe we already are. But I think it won’t last either.

I think they were saying the "largest" output was the training, which I agree with. But it's also the case that they nudge forwards thinking in various areas through the outputs of the research process, whether that's papers, talks or the thesis itself.

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