This question was posed by, Lara, a visitor to Quora to which I offered the following response.
Lara, it all depends upon how you want to live. Modern science and technology stands on a foundation of mathematics developed by high IQ mathematicians. Among these high IQ mathematicians were those who developed the computer technology, including George Boole, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, John von Neumann, and John Mauchly. However, there are people who believe that, in spite of all our medical advances, space exploration and computer technology, we would be better off living a simpler life.
However, a study of history reveals that life was not idyllic in the past. As philosopher Thomas Hobbes observed in 1651, “the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” We can witness this quality of life today in parts of the world where there is no technology and people walk miles to get a pitcher of fresh water and where people suffering from disease have no access to treatment.
While it may seem that the high IQ mathematicians are complicating everything, it’s quite the opposite; they are attempting to build a language that helps us unravel the complicated world in which we live. Today, quantum physicists are attempting to understand the laws that underpin the clockwork of the universe and the language they need to aid their explorations is mathematics. And medical science, exploring cures for a variety of diseases and life-compromising ailments is advancing on the shoulders of the technologies and the mathematicians who helped create them.
