4 ms·

Wonderful bit of synchronicity- seeing this on the front page of HN right after I got back from being (deliberately) lost in the Fells reservation north of Camb

Wonderful bit of synchronicity- seeing this on the front page of HN right after I got back from being (deliberately) lost in the Fells reservation north of Cambridge. (In this case, of course, my algorithm was made simpler via access to a GPS oracle, when it started to get dark. :) ) > It was included in a list of 12 problems described by the mathematician Scott W. Williams as "million buck problems" because he believed that the techniques involved in their resolution will be worth at least a million dollars to mathematics. Does that mean it would be worth that much via (perhaps indirect?) applications, or worth that much to mathematicians? What does it even mean to say that a non-applied mathematical theorem is “worth” some sum of money? (Absent a rich mathematician willing to pay a bounty, at least.)

derefr 8y ago
> What does it even mean to say that a non-applied mathematical theorem is “worth” some sum of money? The aggregate increase in lifetime earnings of the set of of maths grad students who earn their Ph.D off of a dissertation in the subfield built on the back of the knowledge gained from the solution to the problem?
- maweki 8y ago
  Then a million dollars is nothing. That's not even one graduate's earnings.
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago
    That's the total salary, not the amount that the discovery changes the salary by.
phyzome 8y ago
It's hard to get too lost in the Fells when you can hear the highways. :-P
mrtnmcc 8y ago
Hope they didn't lock the gate on you at the Sheepfold parking lot. Had to chop down a tree after sunset once..
TFortunato 8y ago
I assumed it was a riff off of the millennium prize problems (which do have a bounty of $1M each), as a way of saying "here are some other very interesting unsolved problems" http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/millennium-prize-problems http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/millennium-prize...

derefr 8y ago

> What does it even mean to say that a non-applied mathematical theorem is “worth” some sum of money? The aggregate increase in lifetime earnings of the set of of maths grad students who earn their Ph.D off of a dissertation in the subfield built on the back of the knowledge gained from the solution to the problem?

maweki 8y ago
Then a million dollars is nothing. That's not even one graduate's earnings.
- daveFNbuck 8y ago
  That's the total salary, not the amount that the discovery changes the salary by.

phyzome 8y ago

It's hard to get too lost in the Fells when you can hear the highways. :-P

mrtnmcc 8y ago

Hope they didn't lock the gate on you at the Sheepfold parking lot. Had to chop down a tree after sunset once..

TFortunato 8y ago

I assumed it was a riff off of the millennium prize problems (which do have a bounty of $1M each), as a way of saying "here are some other very interesting unsolved problems" http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/millennium-prize-problems http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/millennium-prize...