Sadly, perhaps the most accurate answer may be: "If you have to ask, you don't have a high enough security clearance", followed by: "If I told you, I'd have to kill you", which is a most unfunny joke too often told by govt officials. There was a mild attempt post-Snowden by the mathematical community to mount some sort of protest. However, since the % of non-govt- sponsored mathematical research is vanishingly small, that protest went nowhere. It was ever thus. Archimedes used his talents against the Romans, and he died for it, even though the Roman general Marcellus had his own Operation Paperclip to save scientific assets like Archimedes. At 05:28 AM 3/7/2018, Joerg Arndt wrote:
Thanks for the fine answers!
A little background: I did run an exhibit room for something called "Long Night of Science" here in Germany. It was about plane-filling curves, with lots of big posters and other exhibits like puzzles made of acrylic glass. So some kind of (non-theoretical) beauty was staring in your face wherever you looked.
There are many applications of those curves indeed, see the patents mentioning Gray codes, the Peano curve, or the Hilbert curve. I did run through those (and many more) initially, taking much of my time, increasingly growing tired of it, and finally somewhat annoyed. Hence the message on top of this thread.
Visitors could be (very roughly) divided into two groups, either saying something like "oh, nice" (and not asking that darn question), or looking around with the blankest of expressions in their face (and asking).
By the way, it's only ever adults who ask.
Guess I will just have to live with this (there is much worse, for example, the onslaught of weapon-grade loonies for apparently every single person teaching relativity).
Thanks again and best regards, jj
Hmm..., I could put a piggy bank in one corner of the room. When anyone asks about applications, I reply "I am making money out of it, as we speak!", pointing them to said piggy bank, which has a sign on it "You asked about applications, kindly leave one dollar." As an exercise in excruciating diplomacy, I could actually name applications before the request. Am I brilliant or what?
* Joerg Arndt <arndt@jjj.de> [Mar 07. 2018 12:46]:
Anyone being annoyed by this question when you presented something you found beautiful in its own? I certainly have. Plus, being a bit diplomatically challenged (ask Neil!), I'd like to hear a way of answering that question without appearing to be rude. "I don't care one bit" does not work, as I verified empirically.
Best regards, jj