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"A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful, and in a situation where nobody could possibly know in what
by nicoffeine 5y ago
"A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful, and in a situation where nobody could possibly know in what area it would become useful; and there were no general indications that it ever would be so.”
― John von Neumann
- blfr 5y agoIt's not mathematics and, unlike in the atomic era, they're not becoming useful.
- nicoffeine 5y agoAre you seriously claiming that mathematics aren't being used to build fusion reactors and particle accelerators?
- nwah1 5y agoFusion research on one hand is much like a ceremonial money pit where we light a mountain of cash on fire every year. Fusion power itself will likely not have much practical application anytime soon, because other power sources will be far more economical. But if we consider fusion power to be a backdoor way to get funding to research superconductors, plasma physics, and so on, then there is something valuable in the manner of that von Neumann quote, even though their proximate goal is probably all but useless for now.