This is what happens when the mathematicians spend too much time thinking without any practical applications. Madness!
Just like they did with that stupid calculus that… checks notes… made possible all of the complex electronics used in technology today. Not having any practical applications currently does not mean it never will
I’d love to see the practical applications of someone taking 360 pages to justify that 1+1=2
The practical application isn’t the proof that 1+1=2. That’s just a side-effect. The application was building a framework for proving mathematical statements. At the time the principia were written, Maths wasn’t nearly as grounded in demonstrable facts and reason as it is today. Even though the principia failed (for reasons to be developed some 30 years later), the idea that every proposition should be proven from as few and as simple axioms as possible prevailed.
Now if you’re asking: Why should we prove math? Then the answer is: All of physics.
The idea that something not practical is also not important is very sad to me. I think the least practical thing that humans do is by far the most important: trying to figure out what the fuck all this really means. We do it through art, religion, science, and… you guessed it, pure math. and I should include philosophy, I guess.
I sure wouldn’t want to live in a world without those! Except maybe religion.