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How does figuring out the halting behavior of ever larger Turing machines help humanity? What's the payoff here? I would rather someone of the intellectual ca
by optimalsolver 2y ago
How does figuring out the halting behavior of ever larger Turing machines help humanity?
What's the payoff here?
I would rather someone of the intellectual calibre you describe work on problems more relevant to improving the world.
- qayxc 2y ago> What's the payoff here? Personal happiness? It's also more than short-sighted to assume that just because there is no immediately obvious overall benefit, that no such thing exists. The techniques and insights developed and found during the pursuit of such fundamental and elusive problems can have profound side effects that may materialize only decades or even centuries later.
- mywittyname 2y agoRight. Why is it a smart person should be expected to use their capabilities for "the betterment of humanity"? There's a level of entitlement that goes with statements like that.
- reaperman 2y agoIt might be worth flipping the question and asking what we can do to entice smart people to use their powers for the betterment of society!
- messe 2y agoWould you also ask "what could we do to entice artists away from art to instead use their powers for the betterment of society?"
- generic92034 2y agoOne could voice the opinion that ("good") art is already a means for betterment of society. ;)
- reaperman 2y agoI think we already do pressure artists into “productive” work - it’s very hard to make a living as an artist. I personally would like more art around my life!
- sn9 2y agoCuriosity-driven basic research is the most reliable way of bettering society in unpredictably transformative ways.
- kevinventullo 2y agoWhat’s the payoff of writing a poem?
- RaftPeople 2y agoBeing done with it
- lmm 2y agoChicks dig it
- Etheryte 2y agoAt the time when they were first explored, you could've easily said the same thing about subatomic particles, imaginary numbers and many other concepts of the like. Scientific advancement isn't always linear and the value of many discoveries is often only apparent after the fact, often after a considerable amount of time has passed.
- programjames 2y agoEh, imaginary numbers were invented to be useful. Cardano needed them as intermediary steps when plugging in his cubic formula.
- _zoltan_ 2y agoone could argue that they weren't invented, merely found. nothing is invented, just discovered in math :-) also the modern complex plane definition is not from Cardano.
- karmakaze 2y agoI would classify advancing the state of the art knowledge in math/computers/science to be a noble feat in itself that doesn't need any justification (especially to those who have done less).
- utensil4778 2y agoThis is just the same extremely poorly thought out argument against any type of pure research. Pursuing knowledge for knowledge's sake always results in improvement down the line, even if it's impossible to predict when and how. Do you think Benjamin Franklin expected a payoff from the experiments that led to the discovery of electricity? Or Newton researching gravity? Much of our knowledge about the universe comes from researchers picking at a topic just for the hell of it. > I would rather someone of the intellectual calibre you describe work on problems more relevant to improving the world. Impressive amount of entitlement here. Nobody owes you anything, and people are free to do anything they want. Not everyone wants to be a hero or great inventor, even if they have the skill for it. Nor is it some universal moral obligation for skilled people to spend their lives producing something profitable or beneficial to society. Do you have hobbies? If so, you should feel bad because you're wasting your talents on useless unprofitable activities. Better go out and solve the world's problems.
- jiggawatts 2y agoCategory Theory was called abstract nonsense by theoretical mathematicians, but it has helped improve type theory for computer language design. G.H. Hardy was a British mathematician who expressed pride in the "uselessness" of his work, believing that pure mathematics was an art form that should not be tainted by practical applications. Ironically, his contributions to analytic number theory now underpins modern cryptography. It’s weirdly difficult to study something for years - no matter how abstract — and successfully avoid any practical applications!
- pathsjs 2y agoI am not aware of any result of Hardy with applications to cryptography, but I'd be curious to be found wrong
- jiggawatts 2y agoHe made significant contributions to the theory of elliptic curves.
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- dwaltrip 2y agoI’m sure he cares very little what you think he should do.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]