From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5344 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Joyal=2C_Andr=E9?= Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?RE=A0=3A_A_well_kept_secret?= Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:51:58 -0500 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Joyal=2C_Andr=E9?= NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1260494292 7028 80.91.229.12 (11 Dec 2009 01:18:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:18:12 +0000 (UTC) To: "Paul Taylor" , "categories list" Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Fri Dec 11 02:18:04 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NIu8v-0007tO-C4 for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:18:01 +0100 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1NItbj-0002lO-PZ for categories-list@mta.ca; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:43:43 -0400 Thread-Index: Acp5q55Uap2bVlU0QrOLqysbtDXdJQAAiPI6 Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5344 Archived-At: Dear Paul, I thank you very much for your insightful comments. >Anybody in my generation or younger can cite lots of examples of "well = known"=20 > "folklore" results that were supposedly discovered in the 1970s but = have=20 > never been written up. =20 You are completely right.=20 I have my share of responsabilities here. I will not try to explain what happened, because it may be = counterproductive. I apologise to you and to everyone who may have suffered from not = getting=20 access to the information they wanted from me. I am planning to correct the problem by publishing all my "secret" = notes,=20 papers and books during 2010, starting this December.=20 Best,=20 Andr=E9 -------- Message d'origine-------- De: Paul Taylor [mailto:pt09@PaulTaylor.EU] Date: jeu. 10/12/2009 09:49 =C0: categories list Cc: Joyal, Andr=E9 Objet : A well kept secret =20 I'm not too sure what the context was, but Andre' Joyal said on 7=20 December, > Category theory is a powerful mathematical language. It is extremely = good > for organising, unifying and suggesting new directions of research. I completely agree. > It is probably the most important mathematical developpement of > the 20th century. It is too early to tell. [Comment attributed to Zhou Enlai (Chinese Communist leader 1949-76) when asked his opinion of the French Revolution.] > But we cant say that publically. I think we should be wary of slapping ourselves on the back too much. The fact is that category theory alienated the rest of the mathematical world. Since the damage had been done in the 1970s, well before my=20 time, I have never managed to work out how this happenned, or who was=20 responsible. ... [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]