Aren't some modern digital cryptography methods based on exactly that?
I do agree on the view that science often discovers useful phenomena. What I tried to stress was that basic research does not, by definition, aim for such utility. Especially with pure math, whether there are any applications for new, even groundbreaking discoveries, is often very unclear. And when there are, they might be only utilized decades or centuries after the initial discovery.
I do agree on the view that science often discovers useful phenomena. What I tried to stress was that basic research does not, by definition, aim for such utility. Especially with pure math, whether there are any applications for new, even groundbreaking discoveries, is often very unclear. And when there are, they might be only utilized decades or centuries after the initial discovery.