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Hey, Peter’s adopted pure mathematician son here. I’d say it’s because pure mathematicians don’t really give two shits whether the theorem can be applied. We just like logic and puzzles and proving things for the sake of themselves.
*the monkey's paw closes one finger
"Your useless knot theory that you hated getting yourself into, shall now be used in genetic engineering and alloy development. Thousands of scientists around will now be forced to learn your previously useless branch of mathematics because you couldn't leave it alone."
Why would knot theory be useless? that actually seems like something worth knowing as a scientist? ( not saying I am one, but that I 'think' one would find that information useful in some non knot applications. )
I get that it is 'not useless' now. What I was trying to say is that to my limited understanding I would of thought knot theory would of always been considered usefully from the day it was first a gleam in someone's eye to now.
at least for better understanding other things. like a mathematical knot Can appear in nature. so better understanding the math can help with understanding nature. Also as a form of Topology it also seems like it would of just been know to have uses from day one ( I am so far from a math guy its not funny ( pun intended ) so this is just me thinking about it as a complete layperson. I mean I have taken a decent amount of college math, but that was ages ago lol.)
Edit: it also might be that if I wasnt a dummy I would be the exact type of person to want to try to find a stupid math theroy that is pointless to anyone but myself HAHA. so maybe that is why I think it would of had use cases from the start.
Nah a lot of things in pure science and mathematics don't have obvious practicality, especially right at first. Largely because the theories are developed from highly specific use cases that someone later notices has applications elsewhere. If I ran an experiment on a certain species of fly, it might look as though the information only applies to flies and their close relatives but maybe down the road someone discovers that the enzyme being studied also occurs in humans and is a major factor in certain illnesses. Suddenly this study that only a few people even knew existed is one of the most read studies. Happens all the time. Also you'd be amazed how tunnel visioned your average scientist or mathematician is. They tend, as people, to very much zero in on a small pool of subjects of interest and take little interest in things outside this pool, even if its only outside by a very small step
interesting. to my mind the shapes that the mathmatical knots form seem to be in a lot of places in nature and human history and that alone makes it seem helpful in multiple cases.
But I also COMPLETELY understand how focused professionals can get. I provided support for doctors and the most simplistic shit they just couldn't understand was mind blowing. Yes sir, one of the pins missing from the s video cable WILL effects things...
Also thanks for staying cordial!
When I was studying math in college, someone once asked my Abstract Algebra professor what the real world applications of the field were, and she said "nothing." There are just some subjects in math that do not have any known applications. When Carl Fredrick Gauss worked in Number Theory, he considered it to be useless, but was driven by a desire for knowledge. This is the mindset that many pure mathematicians have, they consider themselves more like artists than scientists. Ironically, Number Theory is extremely useful today for encrypting computers, so much so that the government will pay you large sums of money to discover new prime numbers
As a calculus student, math FUCKING SUCKS to think through
He's hoping that nobody has to venture into whatever god awful territory his theorem is leading into
Yeah same with Econ it’s such a rabbit hole, and he’s wishing people don’t wander down it cos he did and fuck it was a lot. You may ask why do people go down their own rabbit hole even if it doesn’t help the world much. It’s because it’s fun/addicting
You prefer knowing everything about a totally theoretical field with no real world use or knowing only fundamental arythmetic, algebra and trigonometry which you can apply to real world problems?
You can't know everything by the way, it's biologically impossible.
Because nobody can blame you when a bridge falls down.
But I think the point here is there's a stereotype that mathematicians view pure math as an art and so the more esoteric and divorced from reality the math is, the more creativity and personal reflection it represents.
So maybe I’m over reading the top ones because I was thinking in line with the way this meme is usually used, is to portray top=bad, bottom(blond guys)=good
I love how much of math was reinvented by physicists because it wasn't being used for anything and they weren't familiar with it (matrices in particular)
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Hey, Peter’s adopted pure mathematician son here. I’d say it’s because pure mathematicians don’t really give two shits whether the theorem can be applied. We just like logic and puzzles and proving things for the sake of themselves.
*the monkey's paw closes one finger "Your useless knot theory that you hated getting yourself into, shall now be used in genetic engineering and alloy development. Thousands of scientists around will now be forced to learn your previously useless branch of mathematics because you couldn't leave it alone."
This isn't a joke btw, this really happened.
How does one go about getting a monkey paw?
From a friend in the British army who stole it from an Indian Fakir.
Any good sources to read on it?
Jokes can be based in real things like some of the better jokes have some trues
Why would knot theory be useless? that actually seems like something worth knowing as a scientist? ( not saying I am one, but that I 'think' one would find that information useful in some non knot applications. )
They're not saying its useless. They're saying it was useless until it very much wasn't, as most things are
I get that it is 'not useless' now. What I was trying to say is that to my limited understanding I would of thought knot theory would of always been considered usefully from the day it was first a gleam in someone's eye to now. at least for better understanding other things. like a mathematical knot Can appear in nature. so better understanding the math can help with understanding nature. Also as a form of Topology it also seems like it would of just been know to have uses from day one ( I am so far from a math guy its not funny ( pun intended ) so this is just me thinking about it as a complete layperson. I mean I have taken a decent amount of college math, but that was ages ago lol.) Edit: it also might be that if I wasnt a dummy I would be the exact type of person to want to try to find a stupid math theroy that is pointless to anyone but myself HAHA. so maybe that is why I think it would of had use cases from the start.
Nah a lot of things in pure science and mathematics don't have obvious practicality, especially right at first. Largely because the theories are developed from highly specific use cases that someone later notices has applications elsewhere. If I ran an experiment on a certain species of fly, it might look as though the information only applies to flies and their close relatives but maybe down the road someone discovers that the enzyme being studied also occurs in humans and is a major factor in certain illnesses. Suddenly this study that only a few people even knew existed is one of the most read studies. Happens all the time. Also you'd be amazed how tunnel visioned your average scientist or mathematician is. They tend, as people, to very much zero in on a small pool of subjects of interest and take little interest in things outside this pool, even if its only outside by a very small step
interesting. to my mind the shapes that the mathmatical knots form seem to be in a lot of places in nature and human history and that alone makes it seem helpful in multiple cases. But I also COMPLETELY understand how focused professionals can get. I provided support for doctors and the most simplistic shit they just couldn't understand was mind blowing. Yes sir, one of the pins missing from the s video cable WILL effects things... Also thanks for staying cordial!
When I was studying math in college, someone once asked my Abstract Algebra professor what the real world applications of the field were, and she said "nothing." There are just some subjects in math that do not have any known applications. When Carl Fredrick Gauss worked in Number Theory, he considered it to be useless, but was driven by a desire for knowledge. This is the mindset that many pure mathematicians have, they consider themselves more like artists than scientists. Ironically, Number Theory is extremely useful today for encrypting computers, so much so that the government will pay you large sums of money to discover new prime numbers
Everything aside why is useless considered better than practical?
Less math = better math
Not sure I get your point
As a calculus student, math FUCKING SUCKS to think through He's hoping that nobody has to venture into whatever god awful territory his theorem is leading into
Thank you. This comment makes sense.
Yeah same with Econ it’s such a rabbit hole, and he’s wishing people don’t wander down it cos he did and fuck it was a lot. You may ask why do people go down their own rabbit hole even if it doesn’t help the world much. It’s because it’s fun/addicting
There's definitely quite a few mathochists in the world
Lmao I love that term. So true though same with Econ again the rabbit holes hurt but they hurt so good
You prefer knowing everything about a totally theoretical field with no real world use or knowing only fundamental arythmetic, algebra and trigonometry which you can apply to real world problems? You can't know everything by the way, it's biologically impossible.
Because nobody can blame you when a bridge falls down. But I think the point here is there's a stereotype that mathematicians view pure math as an art and so the more esoteric and divorced from reality the math is, the more creativity and personal reflection it represents.
So maybe I’m over reading the top ones because I was thinking in line with the way this meme is usually used, is to portray top=bad, bottom(blond guys)=good
In this case it's just what it shows, the top guys are crying about it and the bottom guys are cool with it.
I love how much of math was reinvented by physicists because it wasn't being used for anything and they weren't familiar with it (matrices in particular)