Which frontiers of mathematics would probably be the most useful for us to make progress in in order to improve our science and technology?
for example, say the government wanted to try and streamline and optimise mathematics research so that more research were being done into the areas that would probably be most useful for science and technology, which areas of mathematics would be given more funding?
would most of the funding go to analysis? how much funding would go to algebraic geometry or number theory? What reasoning or evidence would be used to try and judge how 'rich' a field of mathematics is in terms of how much benefit it will provide to science and technology?
I think a lot will go to analysis of PDE, numerical methods, probability theory, optimization. And rightfully so.
Jacob Kelly
wouldn't many of those only make us slightly better at what we can already do rather than yielding a big breakthrough or insight that lets us do something completely different?
Brayden Rogers
pretty much yea, but applications generally have a higher return on investment.
Brayden Ramirez
money is afterall the biggest motivator for anything a country does, but i think its reasonable to infer that (OP) is talking about game changing shit. id say focus on solving millenium problems
Xavier Clark
yeah I meant more like what kind of mathematics could help us get "scifi"-like technology.
things that can really improve our ability to manipulate the world to our benefit the way calculus and differential equations greatly improved our engineering and ability to describe electricity and magnetism, or like how group theory ended up so useful in describing quantum physics.
Do you think number theory or algebraic geometry is going to 'strike gold' in this way? What is the most sensible way to reason or estimate about what field is going to have more useful future findings?
Josiah Ross
>Which frontiers of mathematics would probably be the most useful for us to make progress in in order to improve our science and technology? I really like this question, so I'll lurk for it.
Wyatt Allen
You seem to forget that mathematics are themselves 'science'. Many results without a 'direct' application are still fundamental in order to prove other mathematical results that eventually find a 'concrete' application. The actual question would be what in mathematics is utterly useless, and you would hardly find an answer.
>for example, say the government wanted to try and streamline and optimise mathematics research so that more research were being done into the areas that would probably be most useful for science and technology, which areas of mathematics would be given more funding?
Your idea of progress seems naive and silly. It's not like milking a cow.
Cooper Rogers
I have said this before and I will say it again. Number Theory. Whoever created this universe clearly did not want us to learn about number theory. Just look at how there is a strong form of Godel's incompleteness theorems JUST for number theory. Clearly, someone didn't want us to find the secrets behind numbers.
So I say fuck them. Prove the Riemann Hypothesis. I bet if we get to that point whoever is out there will have to come to us.
Aaron Butler
Mathematics are not themselves 'science'
Hudson Torres
>You seem to forget that mathematics are themselves 'science'. No, mathematicians do not use the scientific method.
Benjamin Barnes
funny memes ain't no argument
Then all those results deduced from empirical evidence through mathematical reasoning are not science, because they're not themselves empirical.
Thomas Long
I bet user is from an east Asian village.
Jace Reyes
I'd actually say topology, it is currently having massive success being applied to physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and 'big data '/data analysis (broadly speaking, this is a big one). PDE and functional analysis have sort already found their homes, while topology is finally being applied to all these fields.
Jacob Gomez
The most obvious answer is: fund the fields that have been useful in the past (PDE, linear algebra, differential geometry...).
The problem is that a field may unexpectedly become relevant. This dumb strategy is the reason for why math as a whole is totally neglected in the funding realm. If mathematicians were rewarded according to the value of their work they would easily be making six figures.
Christopher Hughes
Nice contribution there! You might as well have said that you farted.
Justin Edwards
Way to many white people in math. Need to decolonize that shit.
Carson Walker
The GAGA principle can be used to make really good lasagna. Like, scifi-tier good.
Cameron Cruz
a spiral is how I visualize perfectoids. who is this guy?
Chase Powell
Hard science doesnt deal in mathematical reasoning to substantiate their theories, it is strictly results oriented.
James Hill
... ... How exactly do you tell the results?
We have this new jet and it delivers more power.
How much more?
A lot more.
Yay.How efficient is it?
Well, the previous has less power, but uses lots of fuel. This one has more power, but uses lots of fuel.
Yay! So can it break through the fishbowl?
No, it is less power than break fish bowl.
Boo!
Asher Butler
t. idiot "The scientific method" is obviously not what you think it is. Where deductions can be made with certainty, it's allowed. If you have an empirical observation that there are 40 geese flying overhead today and there were 20 yesterday, you are allowed to deduce that there are twice as many today. I suggest you plebs read this for starters. maartens.home.xs4all.nl/philosophy/Dictionary/R/Reasoning Newtons Rules of.htm
Kevin Lopez
Wrong, we science don't math.
I saw all gooses yesterday, and I could not see all today. Twice is number, gooses not number. There are more gooses not more number. Get out of class more geek.
Alexander Gomez
You need to stop posting.
Luis Jones
Creator of horror mangas. He's a god.
Nicholas Walker
Psychologic horror* Search for it, it's cool as fuck.
Connor Ramirez
Machine learning
Ayden Carter
...
Matthew Collins
I was couching my point in the theorist vs experimentalist. I should have expanded though as it is not particularly clear. To use your example, I create an ingenious mathematical model for geese observation which correctly predicts geese obs for a lengthy period of time. It is then then discovered, repeatably, that there are situations where it is incorrect. My theory is then thrown out despite its perfect mathematical logic because it simply doesnt reconcile with results, regardless of the logical consistency of the results.
Logan Wood
I just farted
Julian Hill
Perfect Autist bait
Ryder Carter
Nice. What did it smell like?
Luis Gray
ass
Mason Moore
Still optimization and statistical learning type research. That gets us better AI which will in turn invent ftl technology after it's done murdering us.
Jayden Morales
>"The scientific method" No such thing.
Grayson Howard
...
Carson Barnes
Chaos theory I guess. Being able to get accurate weather forcasts would be cool.`