The Fourier transform predates functional analysis by a century. I don't see the point in downplaying its significance just because 'duh it's simply a unitary linear operator on L2'.

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NewsaHackO a day ago | parent [-]

But is it the deepest insights ever made?

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badlibrarian a day ago | parent [-]

The Fourier Transform isn't even Fourier's deepest insight. Unless we're now ranking scientific discoveries based on whether or not they get a post every weekend on HN.

The FFT is nifty but that's FINO. The Google boys also had a few O(N^2) to O(N log N) moments. Those seemed to move the needle a bit as well.

But even if we restrict to "things that made Nano Banana Pro possible" Shannon and Turing leapfrog Fourier.

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lispisok a day ago | parent [-]

>Unless we're now ranking scientific discoveries based on whether or not they get a post every weekend on HN.

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed there is a weekly (or more) post on what Fourier transform is.

	▲	chemotaxis 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's really getting in the way of all the daily AI opinion pieces I come here to read. More seriously, there are tens of thousands of people who come to HN. If Fourier stuff gets upvoted, it's because people find it informative. I happen to know the theory, but I wouldn't gatekeep.