[somewhereoutth]

I agree that much of the motivation comes from real world imperatives, but, for example, P=NP is of deep mathematical interest in its own right, and if/when mathematicians solve it, they will move on and let us sort out the details.

We can actually build stuff (beyond some somewhat blessed prototypes) often only when we've understood the mathematics behind it - edit: or is that the other way around??

I'm not sure that any rigorous discipline can consider itself outside or unbound by mathematics.

[lisper]

> P=NP is of deep mathematical interest in its own right

Sure. Computation and math are closely related, but they are not identical. Physics is described almost exclusively by differential equations, but differential equations and physics are nonetheless two distinct fields of study.