The idea that math is not necessary is absurd, foolish, and dangerous. I have a specific example: in Portugal the distribution of teachers in public schools used to be done by hand. A regular software company was hired to write some software that would distribute the teachers according to a set of rules.
The company produced thousands of lines of code, and yet failed to write the software --- there was a mistake somewhere but they did not know where.
A different company, which employed Mathematicians specialised in specification and verification (yes, that is an area in Theoretical Computer Science), was hired to fix the mess that this previous company made. Of course, where "software heuristics" failed, mathematical argument succeeded,
but not before several millions of euro where spent on these "software and system engineers".
I have nothing against these people, but it is absurd to say that Mathematics is unnecessary. When it comes to real work --- millions of euro kind of work --- it does matter.
It's an interesting attempt at scaring people into not using file sharing applications.
It's pretty pointless, though, when you look at what technologies like freenet allow you to do.
I yearn and fear for the day when what I choose to do when online will be as anonymous as my thoughts. It will be a whole new world of possibilities, some good, some bad.
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The idea that math is not necessary is absurd, foolish, and dangerous. I have a specific example: in Portugal the distribution of teachers in public schools used to be done by hand. A regular software company was hired to write some software that would distribute the teachers according to a set of rules. The company produced thousands of lines of code, and yet failed to write the software --- there was a mistake somewhere but they did not know where. A different company, which employed Mathematicians specialised in specification and verification (yes, that is an area in Theoretical Computer Science), was hired to fix the mess that this previous company made. Of course, where "software heuristics" failed, mathematical argument succeeded, but not before several millions of euro where spent on these "software and system engineers". I have nothing against these people, but it is absurd to say that Mathematics is unnecessary. When it comes to real work --- millions of euro kind of work --- it does matter.
It's an interesting attempt at scaring people into not using file sharing applications. It's pretty pointless, though, when you look at what technologies like freenet allow you to do. I yearn and fear for the day when what I choose to do when online will be as anonymous as my thoughts. It will be a whole new world of possibilities, some good, some bad.