Andrew Stacey wrote:
All this discussion about a "well kept secret" has gone a bit over my head. I'm not sure what the secret is!
We could tell you... ... but then it wouldn't be a secret, now, would it? Seriously, I think the so-called "secret" is the power and glory of category theory. And I think some of the older category theorists on this mailing list have a different attitude than youngsters like you and me. They fought to convince the world that category theory was worthwhile. Some feel they lost that fight. We came along later and are a bit puzzled by that attitude: if you look around at the landscape of mathematics today, categories are everywhere! From Grothendieck to Voevodsky to Lurie, etc., much of the most exciting mathematics of our era would be inconceivable without categories. I don't think I'll try to tell you the old war stories: others are better qualified. But I hope the veterans of those wars take heed of your comments and realize many young mathematicians naturally find categories interesting, exciting, and/or useful. Certainly there is much about categories that these youngsters don't understand. But they can learn it if you explain it.` Best, jb [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]