no joke

["Joyal, André" <joyal.andre@uqam.ca>]

Dear John,

>But I never really thought of it as a piece of "terminology"
>that I "introduced".  I've never used in any published paper,
>for example.  I've always thought of it as a JOKE.

>In the future I'll try to avoid telling this joke in the presence of
>people who find it upsetting. 

I am not offended personally.
You are free to repeat the "joke" ad nauseum, but who is laughing?
Some of your followers are taking the "joke" quite seriously:

http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/evil

You wrote:

>I'm not working on pure math anymore, except for a few
>projects that I'm trying to finish up. 

You are a good mathematician. 
You have made important contributions to higher category theory.
I am sure you can make further contributions.
I hope you will not leave math. 
Everybody likes your web pages on maths and physics.

You wrote:

>I'm working environmental issues.

I applaude to your involvement:

http://www.azimuthproject.org/azimuth/show/Azimuth+Project

I agree that the planet is presently heading for an ecological disaster.
You wrote that the situation about climate change is hopeless.
I can understand your pessimism, but how do you really know?
You also wrote that not all human beings will die.
Is this a source of optimism?
Who should be saved? Who can be abandoned?
You also wrote that we should consider using geo-engineering.
How different is your position from Bjorn Lomborg's?

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521138567

http://climateprogress.org/2010/09/01/the-lomborg-deception/

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/08/a-biased-economic-analysis-of-geoengineering/

Best,
André



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