Everything worthwhile in math was known 200 years ago. The stuff today is pointless.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-09 19:24
Maybe it'll take 300 years or more for the stuff the mathematicians churn out today to find a use in science&engineering. But it might turn out to be useful one day, so I say go for it.
And even if it doesn't, heck, it's art. Exploring the purest realms of logic, and the consequences thereof. The one discipline that can actually claim with a straight face to deal with absolute, eternal and universal truths. It's a puzzle of perfection, which doesn't just look at the shadows of the conceptual world, but dive headfirst into it, and which bring even chaos itself under unbreakable law. There's a beauty to that.