re: A well kept secret

[Robert Seely <rags@math.mcgill.ca>]

Well, we might not say that, but Voevodsky did.  Link on the triples
page: http://www.math.mcgill.ca/triples/  (or directly
http://claymath.msri.org/voevodsky2002.mov) where he says "Categories:
one of the most important ideas of 20th century mathematics".

BTW - the Farmelo book, The Strangest Man, is one I recommend to my
students - it's well worth looking at.  But one thing that struck me
was how *little* Farmelo plays the "strange man" theme - Dirac was
indeed strange, but that's not what makes him worth reading about, nor
was it what made him a great theoretician.  Farmelo doesn't (IMO) make
the same mistake so many documentary producers do ...

-= rags =-


On Mon, 7 Dec 2009, Joyal, André wrote:

> Category theory is a powerful mathematical language.
> It is extremely good for organising, unifying and suggesting new directions of research.
> It is probably the most important mathematical developpement of the 20th century.
>
> But we cant say that publically.
>
> André Joyal

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