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sankhao • today at 5:55 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

Or maybe we should not let pure mathematicians decide which problems are interesting, but reward the practical applications instead.


Replies

zorgmonkey • today at 6:32 AM

This is wildly shortsighted view of mathematics. Historically many of the subfields of math which are presently most valuable were considered useless for decades or centuries. Number theory, non-Euclidean geometry, group theory, and Boolean algebra, to name a few.

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adrianN • today at 6:00 AM

If you only judge by practical applications you eliminate vast swaths of human endeavor.

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