"I’m relieved the journalist didn’t try to explain what a topos was, or indeed anything mathematical." Why would anyone object to journalists doing exactly those things? Do we want to keep mathematics a dark secret, or what? A topos is simply one of many possible generalization of sets and their functions that allows many other mathematical objects besides sets to be imbued with some of the essential properties that make sets so valuable in mathematics. For example graphs and their maps form a topos with very similar properties to sets and their functions, such as having the notion of a power set. But not all properties, for example the law of the excluded middle, which holds for sets but not graphs. Vaughan Pratt On Sun, Sep 1, 2024 at 1:16 PM Wesley Phoa <doctorwes@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks - I saw this! I’m relieved the journalist didn’t try to explain what a topos was, or indeed anything mathematical.
Sent
On Aug 31, 2024, at 1:13 PM, Paul Taylor <categories@paultaylor.eu> wrote:
An article about Alexander Grothiendieck has just appeared in the Guardian online newspaper. Be warned, it contains some seriously weird stuff! Toposes get a mention, though "not as we know them", along with Huawei, AI and Olivia Caramello. Beyond that, I'm not going to comment!
Since Microsoft mangles web addresses, here is the address with the punctuation removed:
www theguardian com science article 2024 aug 31 alexander-grothendieck-huawei-ai-artificial-intelligence
Paul Taylor.
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