Originally Posted by mr fantastic

There was a time, not that long ago, when the study of prime numbers was seen as pretty useless from a commercial application and benefit point of view ....

(The British mathematician G. H. Hardy (http://www.robertnowlan.com/pdfs/Har...y%20Harold.pdf) remarked:

"Nothing I have ever done is of the slightest practical use."

"No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world."

Of interest: prime numbers | How the Queen of Sciences is put to work )