Maths Should be Free

Edward Frenkel, a mathematics professor at Berkeley, agrees fully with the US Supreme Court ruling on this topic:

“A scientific truth, or the mathematical expression of it, is not a patentable invention.”

Additionally, he also feels that:

“This inherent democracy has always been the mark of mathematics: It belongs to us all, even if people are not aware of it.”

That is why he is so incensed with the notorious NSA (the US agency that was revealed to be spying on pretty much everyone) for intentionally undermining encryption algorithms used world over. (After all, if they can’t decrypt, how can they spy?)

Parts of our Internet communication are encrypted (which is why we are willing to enter our card details on the Net). Frenkel tell us that many cryptosystems are based on sophisticated mathematical objects called “elliptic curves” (don’t worry: we don’t need to know anything other the term itself for this blog). But here’s the catch:

“It turns out that there are some elliptic curves that look random but actually allow for easy decryption; that's an example of a backdoor.”

It turns out that the NSA has been pushing US encryption standards institutes and various vendors to use such “compromised” elliptic curves. This makes it easy for the NSA to crack the code. Additionally, others may independently find ways to do the same in future:

“You can hide a formula, but you can't prevent others from finding it… And once the secret is out in the open, it’s not just Big Brother that will be watching us—other “brothers” will be spying on us, intercepting our messages, and hacking our bank accounts.”

Frenkel points out that all this may not have been a big deal in the pre-Internet world. But today, he says:

“Encryption is now woven in the very fabric of our daily lives. That’s why creation of secret means for breaking commonly used cryptosystems by the government is so troubling.”

So he urges other mathematicians to introspect, sort of the way physicists did after the creation of the atomic bomb:

“We need to find mechanisms to protect the freedom of mathematical knowledge that we love and cherish. And we have to help the public understand both the awesome power of math and the serious consequences that await all of us if that power is misused.”

GH Hardy was so wrong when he thought that maths can ever be pure, i.e., without practical uses.