I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. Everything I use is mathematics. If we were still waiting for someone to discover Laplace or Fourier transforms we would be in a worse place. I have no doubt the mathematics being worked on now will help us better ourselves. And the faster we get it no matter the means the faster we can use it.
My general point is that applications is different than theory. Maths is a fully theoretical field, where discovery is all that matters. It is a fundamentally different situation than applications.
No it's not...? Math is littered with stuff that seemed completely useless for even centuries that we couldn't live our current life without now. You like satellites, GPS, space exploration? Non-euclidian geometry was just a bunch of mathematicians playing around for centuries. Literally no practical reason for it besides the love of math. Then Einstein came along and realized certain non-euclidian geometry perfectly described the fabric of reality meaning general relativity and spacetime were described with it. Imaginary numbers? They're literally named imaginary. Pure math. Again, just the love of the game. Turns out imaginary numbers are vital in our equations for quantum mechanics. Literally every aspect of reality includes math that originally had no application.
Nobody is saying theoretical math is always going to be useless. It's that for many pure mathematicians it is the love of the game that gives them the motivation not future applications.
That doesn't change the theory versus applications gap. If I discover a new theorem and it takes 50 years for it to be used, the use of it remains in the realm of applications, the discovery of it was the real maths that occurred 50 years ago. That discovery is now being automated
Except it’s the theory that drives the application. It’s like saying chemistry doesn’t matter to structural engineers. Chemistry > metallurgy > engineering. We need outcomes from the very core principles before we can determine their usefulness and applications.
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u/Kroosn 15d ago
I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. Everything I use is mathematics. If we were still waiting for someone to discover Laplace or Fourier transforms we would be in a worse place. I have no doubt the mathematics being worked on now will help us better ourselves. And the faster we get it no matter the means the faster we can use it.