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Researchers at universities only have to justify their work in very broad strokes when it comes to mathematics, if at all. It's true that most researchers are
by posix86 4y ago
Researchers at universities only have to justify their work in very broad strokes when it comes to mathematics, if at all.
It's true that most researchers are motivated like you say, because they like it, because if you do it due to utility, you'll have a hard time. But, the research money that was released to the researchers was justified that it might (and probably will) become useful one day. It has paid off many times in the past.
- cubefox 4y agoI'm not sure work in theoretical math has really often turned out to be useful. There are some examples, but it seems likely that Einstein & Co would otherwise have simply come up with concepts from Riemannian geometry themselves, ad hoc, as the need arose. There are in fact several cases where useful math (such as integration) has been reinvented multiple times by scientists who were unaware that it already existed. I think the people who do theoretical mathematics don't even believe themselves in practical applications of their research, they just mention this possibility because it sounds good in their grant applications. This reminds me of a logician who is interested in non-classical logic, and then writes in his research proposal that it might have applications for AI. Of course this would be GOFAI, which doesn't work, but the guys reviewing the grant application wouldn't know. Or a historian who is interested in neolithic culture in India, and now has to justify how this research could be useful. He probably could write something far-fetched, but the truth is that it very probably won't be useful. Which doesn't mean that it isn't of intrinsic interest.