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Things that provide no insight now may have theoretical or even practical applications in the future. https://mathoverflow.net/questions/116627/useless-math-th
by ilitirit 9y ago
Things that provide no insight now may have theoretical or even practical applications in the future.
https://mathoverflow.net/questions/116627/useless-math-that-became-useful/ https://mathoverflow.net/questions/116627/useless-math-that-...
I'm not saying that this is the same of Mochizuki's work, but I would not dismiss it solely on the basis that it's "useles".
- moomin 9y agoI don't think anything on that list was bereft of insight, even at the time. This is a context issue: the problem with Mochizuki's work is that no-one has managed to point to a single insight other than the abc conjecture. Whilst it's possible to prove certain results by brute force manipulation, it's not common. High profile results tend to be accompanied with subsidiary insights. The applicability of these insights to real world problems is, for the purposes of this discussion, beside the point. Anyway, I'm basically repeating what people have already said. So I'll stop.