Timeline for How does the work of a pure mathematician impact society? [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
48 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 30, 2017 at 6:26 | vote | accept | Joaquín Moraga | ||
| Apr 8, 2015 at 16:37 | history | edited | user9072 |
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| Jul 18, 2014 at 11:16 | comment | added | Victor | This is a very deep question in fact! Everybody impacts somehow society. Mathematicians solve problems, so they somehow try to achieve and deepen "mathematical enlightenment", so they increase the mental ability of society. Still, of course, all that is still nothing to do with Reality, so mathematicians increase collective thinking mind, which is a slightly finer that rough physical world, yet a phantom. At least, while a mathematician solves a problem he doesn't do a physical crime, which is already quite good. But Universe would love us to do something more valuable... | |
| Sep 10, 2013 at 13:01 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Sep 10, 2013 at 13:42 | |||||
| Sep 9, 2013 at 12:58 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Sep 9, 2013 at 13:09 | |||||
| Jul 21, 2013 at 4:53 | comment | added | Terry Tao | Tangentially related: mathoverflow.net/questions/2556/… | |
| Jul 20, 2013 at 23:00 | comment | added | Jonathan Beardsley | Are you familiar with Gunnar Carllson's company Ayasdi, which is using algebraic topology to solve real world problems successfuly? | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 22:58 | comment | added | The Masked Avenger | You might consider reading Ayn Rand's "Philosophy: Who Needs It?" (Her answer in brief: everyone. I imagine some of her tenets will aid the original poster. While it is good to have apparent utility to show an outsider, it should be remembered that utility is not always approached on strictly utilitarian paths. Emphasizing exploring the fringes of the known as well as the unknown is also important.) | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 22:58 | comment | added | Will Jagy | @AndyPutman, see, there is a bright side. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 22:42 | comment | added | Andy Putman | @WillJagy : Not only that, but I am able to support myself without having to work on wall street and destroy the world. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 22:20 | comment | added | Will Jagy | Most of us don't murder people. I think that's a start. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 22:18 | history | closed |
Yemon Choi David White Bill Johnson user6976 Andy Putman |
Opinion-based | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 20:53 | comment | added | user9072 | In case the need for extended meta-discussion shoudl arise, please use meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/511/… | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 20:42 | answer | added | The User | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 20:38 | answer | added | Name | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 20:37 | comment | added | The User | …active in pure mathematics. People emphasising these stories when talking about mathematics are lying. I do not want to blame them. Maybe they have to lie because a commercially oriented system expects them to tell such stories. But if there is a possibility to avoid such lies, then I would take it. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 20:34 | comment | added | The User | Who wants you to give such an explanation? I mean, why are they fixed on this “commercial applications, companies working with it” stuff? I think it is a very bad idea to do such advertisemnt. Science (like arts) is not about commercial applications, especially pure mathematics mathematics. I think there is something wrong when people get encouraged to study mathematics who are not motivated by its beauty or by some pursuit of insight at all, but by the idea ”hm, there seem to be some companies using it”. These nice stories about GPS and automotive designs are not the reasons why people are… | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 19:55 | comment | added | Todd Trimble | I share that ambivalence, Yemon (although I haven't yet voted to close). Some of what appears below is a bit too rambling for my taste, and probably more than half the answers make me go "meh". | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 19:55 | history | edited | Ricardo Andrade |
changed tags
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| Jul 19, 2013 at 18:58 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 21:44 | |||||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 18:40 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | Despite being ambivalent towards the original question, I am now leaning towards the view that it should be closed, and have voted accordingly. My reason: I am now not so sure that the post will attract more good/accurate answers than poor/half-baked ones | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 18:16 | answer | added | JB King | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 18:10 | answer | added | Tommi | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 16:46 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by François G. Dorais | ||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 13:37 | answer | added | mindplay.dk | timeline score: -4 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 13:25 | answer | added | Piyush Grover | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 13:18 | answer | added | Joseph O'Rourke | timeline score: 19 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 13:10 | answer | added | Eric Rowell | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 12:54 | comment | added | André Henriques | Related question: mathoverflow.net/questions/56547/applications-of-mathematics | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 11:18 | answer | added | Brendan Murphy | timeline score: 26 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 10:44 | comment | added | Vít Tuček | The title of this question is wrong. Consider changing it to e.g. "Commercial(?) applications of recent(?) pure mathematics" Also, the tag career seems to be unfounded. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 9:40 | answer | added | Shahrooz | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 9:05 | answer | added | Henri Johnston | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 7:45 | answer | added | Matthias Ludewig | timeline score: 14 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 7:21 | answer | added | Anthony Quas | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 7:07 | history | reopened |
Daniel Litt Peter Michor Alexander Chervov Andrey Rekalo Dan Petersen |
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| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:52 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 7:08 | |||||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:34 | comment | added | Will Jagy | crosspost math.stackexchange.com/questions/447063/… | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:32 | comment | added | Ricardo Andrade | [This is a comment I removed earlier.] This is just a short comment to relay my honest, yet useless, opinion. It does not help in the least with your predicament. It appears that impact assessments like the one you describe are increasingly required for guaranteeing funding for research in mathematics. However, this feels like a losing battle, as most contemporary mathematicians will recognize that modern pure mathematics is not widely geared towards applications. Any wider societal impact, if it comes, will likely be rare, far in the future, and completely unpredictable. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:32 | history | closed |
Andrés E. Caicedo Steven Landsburg Daniel Moskovich Igor Rivin Will Jagy |
Opinion-based | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:27 | answer | added | Scott Carter | timeline score: 21 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:17 | answer | added | mkreisel | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:14 | comment | added | Gunnar Þór Magnússon | ... the point being that pure mathematics is one of those things that doesn't benefit society today. But if you give it a couple of decades, very limited parts of it might be quite useful to society tomorrow. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:13 | comment | added | Gunnar Þór Magnússon | Riffing on Ricardo's comment (which used to be here), if I was in your position I'd mention instances of past useless pure mathematics that became very useful only years (sometimes a lot of years) after their invention. Examples include the RSA code (basically no applications before internet commerce), whatever kind of Fourier transform drives MRI machines, the least squares method and asteroid orbit prediction, the kind of algebraic geometry now being applied in chemistry and biology, all of theoretical computer science (invented before computers, mostly) ... | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 3:01 | review | Close votes | |||
| S Jul 19, 2013 at 3:37 | |||||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 2:55 | history | edited | Ricardo Andrade | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
corrected grammatical and typographical mistakes
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| Jul 19, 2013 at 2:51 | review | First posts | |||
| S Jul 19, 2013 at 3:37 | |||||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 2:33 | history | asked | Joaquín Moraga | CC BY-SA 3.0 |