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"The LMFDB makes visible the connections predicted by the Langlands program. "

The Langlands program is mathematicians version of "string theory". And what this guy is doing with google cloud is comparable to the LHC: searching for new particles (of mathematics) in order to find the deeper unity therein.

I think it has to do with public key cryptography - in particular, elliptic curve cryptography[0], which was mentioned by Schneider to be one of the key topics on NSA's agenda[1].

[0] https://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/a-relatively-easy-t... [1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/10/why_is_the_ns...

I'd like to know, too. Not intending to sound irreverent, but does any of that math matter? (I'm not rude, I'm ignorant:)

There is always the existential "Does anything really matter, everybody dies in the end?". This could have direct application, or as with many math concepts, in 50-100 years we could find an application for it. Despite all of that it doesn't have to matter, the process of exploration can have value in and of itself.