From: James (james@lab6.com)
Date: Sun Jul 27 2003 - 02:13:10 MDT
On Sun, Jul 27, 2003 at 01:13:30PM +0930, Emlyn O'regan wrote:
> > I would be proud to work in materials science or molecular biology, or
> > any other field with direct high-tech applications, but maths
> > is what I
> > like and it's what I'm best at. Pure mathematics research is
> > as much as
> > I'm capable of in the short term future, and I don't see it
> > contributing
> > much to anything besides a few intellectual bragging rights.
> > Aside from
> > the fact that I would very much enjoy teaching, the best
> > contribution I
> > can hope to make to the extropian "cause" (if you'll excuse the cult
> > language) is education: an educated mind possesses more
> > extropy than an
> > uneducated one. Besides the innumerable benefits of having more smart
> > people around, there's a chance that a few of the thousands of
> > impressionable young minds I'll be in contact with will go on
> > to become
> > the superstar researcher that I'm not willing or able to be.
> >
> > --
> > James
> > james@lab6.com
> >
> > http://james.lab6.com
>
> Nice stuff James.
>
> btw, don't write off maths as useless. All the applied stuff finds its roots
> in the purely theoretical. All our great technology bases on a mathematical
> legacy reaching back thousands of years. I think we undervalue pure research
> now, which is a pity.
Oops, I guess I came across as writing off pure maths research as
useless :) I really didn't mean that: I think it's terribly important.
Unfortunately, I see research as a journey down a fractally branching
path of ideas, each of varying utility. It pains me to write off any
branch as 'useless', but some have more extropian applications than
others, or at least (and this is what it always boils down to, isn't
it?) the probability of having extropian applications is low for maybe
the majority of branches. I'm sure there are some fundamental and
extropically vital theorems waiting to be discovered, but the chance of
me happening upon the branch that leads to them is much, much lower than
that of 'wasting' my time researching things of peripheral importance. I
guess I'm just selfish. I want these theorems to be discovered, but if I
only have a 1/1000 chance of doing it, I'd rather spend my time on
something with a higher probability of generating results (that
something being teaching).
The other side of the coin is that I'm not entirely convinced an
Extropian future will materialise. If this all turns out to be hype, I'd
like to find myself doing something which is still worthwhile.
-- James james@lab6.com http://james.lab6.com
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