this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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There have been a number of Scientific discoveries that seemed to be purely scientific curiosities that later turned out to be incredibly useful. Hertz famously commented about the discovery of radio waves: “I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application.”

Are there examples like this in math as well? What is the most interesting "pure math" discovery that proved to be useful in solving a real-world problem?

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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

That's a perfect example of a typical interaction between a Technology Management Consultant and somebody from a STEM area.

Techies with an Engineering background who are in Tech and Tech-adjacent companies are often in the receiving end of similar techno-bollocks which makes no sense from such "Technology" Management Consultants, but it's seldom quite as public as this one.