HN is such an experience nowadays. This has to be some form of LARP; insinuating the ineffectiveness of the inventor of the semaphore, 'not succeeded enough'.
What basic science does is open up new areas and new ideas. And you and I benefit from those foundations.
Dijkstra's proof methods derived from higher math sophistication than most programmers before, and today, have. Like, in one short essay he showed what invariants mean. He made formal theory accessible to mere non-pure-math mortals. You and I today know what invariants are. That's just one example.