I don’t see a mechanism whereby I get a benefit within my lifetime by investing in cold fusion, in the off chance that it is eventually invented and implemented.
Well, if you think there’s a decent probability for cryonics to turn out then investing in pretty much anything long-term becomes much more likely to be personally beneficial. Indeed, research in general increases the probability that cryonics will end up working (since it reduces the chance of catastrophic events or social problems and the like occurring before the revival technology is reached). The problem with cold fusion is that it is extremely unlikely to work given the data we have. I’d estimate that it is orders of magnitude more likely that say Etale cohomolgy turns out to have a practical application than it is that cold fusion will turn out to function. (I’m picking Etale cohomology as an example because it is pretty but very abstract math that as far as I am aware has no applications and seems very unlikely to have any applications for the foreseeable future).
You don’t think it likely that etale cohomology will be applied to cryptography? I’m sure there are papers already claiming to apply it, but I wouldn’t want to evaluate them. Some people describe it as part of Schoof’s algorithm, but I’m not sure that’s fair. (or maybe you count elliptic curve cryptography as whimsy—it won’t survive quantum computers any longer than rsa)
Yeah, ok. That may have been a bad example, or it may be an indication that everything gets some application. I don’t know how it relates to Schoof’s algorithm. It isn’t as far as I’m aware used in the algorithm or in the correctness proof but this is stretching my knowledge base. I don’t have enough expertise to evaluate any claims about applying Etale cohomology to cryptography.
I’m not sure what to replace that example with. Stupid cryptographers going and making my field actually useful to people.
Well, if you think there’s a decent probability for cryonics to turn out then investing in pretty much anything long-term becomes much more likely to be personally beneficial. Indeed, research in general increases the probability that cryonics will end up working (since it reduces the chance of catastrophic events or social problems and the like occurring before the revival technology is reached). The problem with cold fusion is that it is extremely unlikely to work given the data we have. I’d estimate that it is orders of magnitude more likely that say Etale cohomolgy turns out to have a practical application than it is that cold fusion will turn out to function. (I’m picking Etale cohomology as an example because it is pretty but very abstract math that as far as I am aware has no applications and seems very unlikely to have any applications for the foreseeable future).
You don’t think it likely that etale cohomology will be applied to cryptography? I’m sure there are papers already claiming to apply it, but I wouldn’t want to evaluate them. Some people describe it as part of Schoof’s algorithm, but I’m not sure that’s fair. (or maybe you count elliptic curve cryptography as whimsy—it won’t survive quantum computers any longer than rsa)
Yeah, ok. That may have been a bad example, or it may be an indication that everything gets some application. I don’t know how it relates to Schoof’s algorithm. It isn’t as far as I’m aware used in the algorithm or in the correctness proof but this is stretching my knowledge base. I don’t have enough expertise to evaluate any claims about applying Etale cohomology to cryptography.
I’m not sure what to replace that example with. Stupid cryptographers going and making my field actually useful to people.