Riehl, Bradley, Cheng, Dancstep, and Lugg: 'Category theory outreach panel'

Topos Institute Colloquium, 16th of March 2023.
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Category theory is a wonderful subject, deep and broad, spanning the breadth of mathematics and having applications throughout science, engineering, technology, and the arts. But for people outside of academia, it can be a difficult subject to learn. Topos Institute is hosting a panel discussion, moderated by Emily Riehl, featuring panelists who are actively involved in producing category theory books and videos for a non-expert audience. The panellists will discuss their philosophy and techniques, and provide support and encouragement for others to join in this important work. They will also take questions from viewers to help people get a better handle on how they may begin to learn the subject and to help category theorists understand what they can do to facilitate this process.

[wryltxw]

Thanks for posting this video. It’s great that you guys are trying to grow category community.

[zyansheep]

Awesome panel! Wish it went on a bit longer, but maybe it could be a more periodic thing? It would be really cool to watch something like a "Category Theory Show". i.e. listening to energetic people talk about various aspects of category theory (and answering questions from chat). Maybe even some friendly debate? I would definitely tune in for something like that!

[pmcgee]

Bartosz Milewski had also made a great contribution to getting into the area, through his blog, book, and videos ... Category Theory for Programmers.

[grannard]

Paul Dancstep is spot on. As a non-mathematician learning category theory speaking to different category theory mathematicians is like speaking to multiple language teachers. You need to research many sources and like Paul says 'triangulate' all the information to get to a point where you can peice it together to understand the key concepts.

[christopherblevins]

This is a fantastic panel. I was introduced by stumbling to Pauls Universal library talk and have been able to apply it to my work in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science where I think of relationships between entities. I would describe myself as very weak in Math, but find Category theory the most interesting subjects in Math and it has driven me to learn other maths. Thank you to all the panelists.

[pmcgee]

15:30 "One doesn't so much learn Category Theory, as absorb it over a period of time". Richard Bird. 🔥

[Nico-vjjc]

34:00 I agree that the people on math stackexchange are absolutely hostile.

[djgreyjoy]

I had done an undergraduate degree in math, and I didn't understand any of it until I did category theory ... and then I suddenly understood the whole of it 😝

[robertvarner]

My exposure to "Category Theory" was from Algebra, Third Edition by MacLane and Birkhoff. Didn't understand a goddamn thing. Still don't understand a goddamn thing. I guess because my degrees are in molecular biology and not math.

[pmcgee]

A lot of good people on Twitter too, with maths / maths adjacent areas of interest (for following and / or asking qns)

[Alan-zftt]

missed it ... (navely ... )
Just an afterthought ... is what is being modeled here part of mathematical behavior or part of human behavior?
add-ons: I think I see a 'C' connection in the sense that if there are existing libraries in C that do for all manner of things then it makes sense to track where these libraries are formally useful?

[djgreyjoy]

More Category Theory and less Calculus! 😝

[vicsummers]

Mathematicians are the most susceptible to ideological possession.

[paulostipanov]

It's worrying how much Eugenia wants mathematics to be political.