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xorand | 6 years ago

I don't quite understand this conflation of mathematics with category theory. This obsession of some programmers with mathematics, actually with a tiny part which is category theory, looks to me very strange. By chance, there is this recent comment of Scott Aaronson, a strong mathematician who is a rising star in quantum computing, which contains what is it probably the more balanced view.

I quote from the source [0] the relevant part: "With some things I don’t understand well (nuclear physics, representation theory), there are nevertheless short “certificates / NP witnesses of importance” that prove to me that the effort to understand them would be amply repaid. [...] And then, alas, there are bodies of thought for which I’ve found neither certificates or anti-certificates—like category theory, or programming language semantics [...] For those I simply wish the theorizers well, and wait around for someone who will show me why I can’t not study what they found."

[0] https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4616#comment-1830447

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