Dare to interpret?

[Alex K]

If I had to guess it's that any maths of this type will have some application in cryptography. More generally, once you have such a formula, you can use it to prove other theorems etc.
I dare you to recognize the next huge development in communications technology when it is still a little theorem in coding theory or number theory. Do you know how RSA works?

[Cato]

If I had to guess it's that any maths of this type will have some application in cryptography. More generally, once you have such a formula, you can use it to prove other theorems etc.
I dare you to recognize the next huge development in communications technology when it is still a little theorem in coding theory or number theory. Do you know how RSA works?

I general yes, but I don't see what that has to do with BBP. I seriously doubt a twenty year old algorithm will be the next biggest thing in encrypted communications. Pointing to other useful algorithms doesn't keep BBP from being useless. My criticism was aimed at BBP, the topic of the OP, not general mathematics in and of itself. In no way was I challenging the utility of pure mathematics.

I don't have any issue with knowledge of this sort, but have yet to hear of any specific practical use; i.e., of what possible value is there in knowing the 4,192nd digit of pi?

[Alex K]

I don't know what the concrete use of knowing pi to extreme precision is (though I'm sure one could cook up something like using them as random numbers or something), and I guess calculating pi to great lengths is more like a sport. But I've read that the bbp formula is used in some compilers to evaluate transcendental functions. But again, having a representation of pi can always serve as the basis of new theorems with not forseeable applications.