Why is it that nobody can ever give a straight answer to "why is pure mathematics worthwhile?"

Why is it that nobody can ever give a straight answer to "why is pure mathematics worthwhile?"

You'd think that having to write out entire essays to defend your field would be a big red flag that your field is complete bullshit.

Just a way for white bitches to pat themselves on the back for thinking about bullshit while people of color are getting gunned down in the streets by cops and lead poisoning from corrupt governments.

or is it that blacks lack the mental capabilities for such abstract thinking?

what is the answer, A or B....fight out next time on

Veeky Forums

How straight of answer do you want? Are examples like cryptography not convincing enough?

Because the applied mathematician or physicist can apply it to other fields.

Let's be honest, the vast majority of pure mathematics will never see any practical applications. So is pure mathematics worthwhile? Not usually, no. At least, it's no more worthwhile than something like art or philosophy.

>Let's be honest, the vast majority of pure mathematics will never see any practical applications. So is pure mathematics worthwhile? Not usually, no. At least, it's no more worthwhile than something like art or philosophy.
Let's be honest, the vast majority of businesses will never generate profit. So is business worthwhile? Not usually, no. At least, it's no more worthwhile than something like art or philosophy.

Exactly. Most businesses will fail within the first year. So is business worthwhile? Not usually, but it is sometimes. It's the same with mathematics.

And just like in business, you can't tell beforehand which parts of pure maths will be useful, so the only solution is to do it all.

Is anything really useful?

Is anything really?

Kek.

Is anything?

You clearly don't know anything about philosophy. Value theory alone is enough to consider philosophy not only practical but damn near necessary.

Do you even have any idea as to what is "worthwhile"?

Define worthwhile.

Protip: you can't.

Methods you create to solve problems in pure maths can be used in other problems or even fields. You can find out something helpful. But this is not why people do it. They do it because they like it and it is fun for them.

"'Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.'"

Same is with pure math

Just because only 1 single reason.
It can be applied now or It might be applicable in future.
Math is only useful when it can be applied.
>Specially in Physics, Economics & Engineering.
>"Filthy" Electrical Engineering Student Speaking.
>Try to deny it. Pro tip: you can't.
>Applied Math >>> Pure

is?

Why is an infant worthwhile? All it does is lays and cries and is absolutely useless in any practical sense. Moron.

Who cares?
Most successful mathematicians are jews and they die when they are very old, almost 100 years old, just look at Polya, Halmos and Erdos to name a few.

...

>cryptography

Pure math isn't applied to anything. If it was, it would be applied math.

>anti-breeding Jewish social propaganda spotted.

>Math is only useful when it can be applied.
>Something is only useful if it gets used

Who woulda thought? fuck.

I'm gonna go back to my math books now. Maybe Ill think about applications but probably not.

?

>advocating manual labour over abstract thinking
You'll never make it.

because any job I want 300K starting.

Pure math is better than science b/c pure math will never kill millions of people. It's the scientists who should be on the defensive here.

How many people do you think died due because of the Enigma and due to its codes being cracked?

>but liberal arts degrees are worthless and stupid, I laugh at liberal arts majors

business does not exist for the sake of business and to employ people

that is an American fallacy

Cryptography is applied number theory. Number theory is pure math, it is the act of applying it that is applied math.

Without number theory there would be no cryptography.

...

i think that mathematics is a tool used to prove our theories of how the universe works through logic and reasoning

also in order to achieve goals

Pure math is important because if you go to another universe that operates under different physical laws and somehow survive, you can still solve mathematical problems, whereas all your physics knowledge would be useless!

Checkmate

Its worthwhile because it gives structure to what was arbitrary.

it's fun

There's two reasons. The most pragmatic ""pleb"" reason is just the copious amounts of times research in pure mathematics has provided practical stuff, and that you can't really predict what will be useful in the future. Applied math isn't really that good at breaking barriers and investigating in depth new areas. Applied math can give you a bunch of tools, but pure math can grab all these tools and find the unifying principles behind which facilitate it's study massively.

The second one is the more ""pure"" approach. Which like any high art, the pursuit only exists to elevate humanity and gain better understanding of our world. If we live in a world where we can spoil ourselves and we don't have to be worried about basic survival needs, why shouldn't we spend some time investigating our world in a rigorous way?

Don't soil mathematics by associating it with the mundane world

I will give you the simplest. And while Hardy does not mention this in his essay directly, this is basically his point:

Pure mathematics is a hobby for genetically superior human beings who are at least 10 tiers above everyone else. In other words, non mathematicians are disgusting pig subhuman monkeys. But luckily for you disgusting pig monkeys, as we are so superior sometimes what we do for fun turns out to actually be a fundamental law of the universe, and then for enough money we will write you a "for dummies" version, usually known as engineering textbooks, so that your little pig brain can comprehend at least the message of our achievements.

Now back to the coal mines.

it's because the word "worthwhile" is
vague and open-ended, like the phrase
"big red flag" in your shitpost

>Nobody can answer "why is math worthwhile"
>People have written essays on why is math worthwhile
???

An essay isn't my idea of a "straight answer."

Does it need to be less than six words so you can pay attention?

Give me a straight answer for why electricity is useful. One sentence go.

You can't know for sure whether any particular bit of pure math will be used. Also, of all the ways to spend a life, are you really going to dog on pure mathematicians for being shitty? Really now?

You can't reply to this post without using a device that requires electricity to work.