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We may be the last generation of mathematical heroes. A generation from now, the mathematician may no longer be anyone’s idea of a hero. In our era, physicists and mathematicians have had a certain hero charm. AI is taking it away, and fast. I should know. I’m one of those heroes. For most of history, math was for nerds. Basic calculations may have been essential to commerce, but the advanced, esoteric stuff, like number theory, algebraic topology, and blackboards covered with the chalk squiggles you see in movies, was never sexy. That changed in the late 1600s, when mathematicians.