-- Before our moderator cuts us off, here's the note I sent to Ross: With an average snowfall of 93 inches(236 cm)/season, we did get an all time record amount of snow. We had no snow in November (almost a record), and no snow in December, until...the evening of December 24, when it started and didn't stop until it had deposited 83 inches (211 cm) in the city by December 29 (!). White Christmas indeed. Thanks to the National Guard and outside contractors who put 500 pieces of equipment in service to supplement our 40, we are digging out and hauling the stuff away. But really, a snowstorm even like this is merely an inconvenience, nothing like the ice storm Montreal had a few years ago where Mike Barr ended up living in his Math Department office, much less a flood or a hurricane or burning houses, or even terrorists mailing mad cow disease. In Buffalo (as quoted in the New York Times) we say "fuggedaboudit !". Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! Jack Incidentally, I'm going to take John Isbell to "A Beautiful Mind" tomorrow. He was at Princeton with Nash and was consulted by the author of the book on which the film is (apparently, quite loosely) based. Can any of you who have already seen it tell me exactly where in the film the conversation with the student which ends with the notorious "functors..(two or 2-)categories" line comes? I would like to be ready to try to play very close attention when it comes!
I just this minute got back from seeing the movie. It's after Nash asks his friend (the one who beats him at Go) if he can hang around Princeton. There'll be a long pause and his friend will ask if Nash will be needing an office. It will happen soon after that in the library. The student will say: "The functor {bite of sandwich} two categories as he's pointing." It happens fairly late in the movie. It has something to do with covering spaces, so I'm guessing it's t-w-o categories. This would be just the group to be hallucinating 2-categories, that's for sure! The show was sold out in Harvard square by the way. The audience liked it & applauded at the end. It's really well acted, but I feel emotionally abused by the experience. Saul Youssef
Incidentally, I'm going to take John Isbell to "A Beautiful Mind" tomorrow. He was at Princeton with Nash and was consulted by the author of the book on which the film is (apparently, quite loosely) based. Can any of you who have already seen it tell me exactly where in the film the conversation with the student which ends with the notorious "functors..(two or 2-)categories" line comes? I would like to be ready to try to play very close attention when it comes!
i haven't seen the "beautiful mind" movie yet, but i did attend the DIMACS workshop on algorithmic mechanism design in october, and got a chance to speak to john nash! each and every talk went on about the nash equilibria and nash bargaining and nash this and nash that --- with nash in the second row all the time. i imagine he'll go to see the movie as well, and perhaps comment about the importance of go and functor two categories in his way. life is a big place, sometimes. -- dusko PS btw, i think the upshot of the SGA4 exercise cited by lambek and scott is that the argument given there shows that the polynomial category S[x^A] in Locally CCC is (equivalent to) S/A. funny enough, the polynomial category in CCC can then be viewed as the subcategory spanned by the second projections (which is, of course, isomorphic with the kleisly for the Ax(-) comonad) PPS i was surprised no one mentioned categories in "waking life".
-- Many thanks to the many people who replied to my tangential query: Incidentally, I'm going to take John Isbell to "A Beautiful Mind" tomorrow. He was at Princeton with Nash and was consulted by the author of the book on which the film is (apparently, quite loosely) based. Can any of you who have already seen it tell me exactly where in the film the conversation with the student which ends with the notorious "functors..(two or 2-)categories" line comes? I would like to be ready to try to play very close attention when it comes! Fortunately, the information in Peter's original post turned out to be sufficiently precise for me to carefully listen when the scene occurred. The student says to Nash, "Galois extensions are really the same as covering spaces!" . Immediately afterward, the student (with a sandwich in his mouth) mumbles "functor(?)...two categories". Clearly, from the context he is explaining exactly what he means by "really the same", i.e., a (dual) equivalence of two categories, which is, of course, true. Of course, it would be amusing to have a line about 2-categories appearing in a Holywood film, but alas, we'll just have to wait. John was not feeling well at the afternoon time of the film, so I'll take him to it later if he still wants to go. But for this and the terrible weather he was quite enthusiastic to see it. Steve Schanuel, in particular, tells me how much he liked the film. It's certainly worth seeing. At the very least, it's a fascinating film cleverly exploring the contrast between a paranoid schizophrenic's view of reality and the rest of the world's view , even if it is only marginally related to, i.e., only " inspired by", actual events in John Nash's life. Incidentally, and off topic, does anyone know anything about this "presentation of fountain pens" tradition at Princeton? Best regards, Jack
also sold out in suburban Philadelphia! ticket cashier seemed pleasantly surprised
It's really well acted, but I feel emotionally abused by the experience.
as a mathematician or as a human being? insulin shock is not pleasant nor is paranoia .oooO Jim Stasheff jds@math.unc.edu (UNC) Math-UNC (919)-962-9607 \ ( Chapel Hill NC FAX:(919)-962-2568 \*) 27599-3250 http://www.math.unc.edu/Faculty/jds On Sat, 5 Jan 2002, Saul Youssef wrote:
I just this minute got back from seeing the movie.
It's after Nash asks his friend (the one who beats him at Go) if he can hang around Princeton. There'll be a long pause and his friend will ask if Nash will be needing an office. It will happen soon after that in the library. The student will say:
"The functor {bite of sandwich} two categories as he's pointing."
It happens fairly late in the movie.
It has something to do with covering spaces, so I'm guessing it's t-w-o categories. This would be just the group to be hallucinating 2-categories, that's for sure!
The show was sold out in Harvard square by the way. The audience liked it & applauded at the end. It's really well acted, but I feel emotionally abused by the experience.
Saul Youssef
Incidentally, I'm going to take John Isbell to "A Beautiful Mind" tomorrow. He was at Princeton with Nash and was consulted by the author of the book on which the film is (apparently, quite loosely) based. Can any of you who have already seen it tell me exactly where in the film the conversation with the student which ends with the notorious "functors..(two or 2-)categories" line comes? I would like to be ready to try to play very close attention when it comes!
participants (4)
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Dusko Pavlovic -
JAMES STASHEFF -
John Duskin -
Saul Youssef