Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2016
David Hilbert, one of the giants of mathematics, delivered a lecture at the International Congress of Mathematics at Paris in 1900. The first part of the lecture, a preamble to his announcement of the now-famous 23 problems, began with the words:
’Who of us would not be glad to lift the veil behind which the future lies hidden; to cast a glance at the next advances of our science and at the secrets of its development during future centuries? What particular goals will mere be toward which the leading mathematical spirits of coming generations will thrive? What new methods and new facts in the wide and rich fields of mathematical thought will the new centuries disclose?