amen zwa, esq.
To my naïve #mathematical eyes, most things in #ComputerScience appear to orbit the concept of #monoid.
Oct 30 at 2:29pmWeb
Show threadBoyd Stephen Smith Jr.Oct 30

@AmenZwa If you make your "set" big enough, everything looks like a magma.

If you set includes functions and runtime errors, lambda application can be considered a magma op.

I think it's mostly a mistake to view most things that merely "orbit" monoid concepts through that view.

Show threadamen zwa, esq.Oct 30
@BoydStephenSmithJr True, that. But I request that you not read my use of the term “orbit” in a mathematical context and, instead, discount it by my admitted naïveté and read it as an instance of layman’s parlance.
Show thread⏚ Antoine Chambert-LoirOct 30
@AmenZwa Monoids are everywhere. Basically, every time your iterating an action, the monoid N is there, acting.
Show threadamen zwa, esq.Oct 30
@antoinechambertloir Were I a bolder bloke, I would have stated, “Most things in Nature are monoids”, but I am, by nature, timid.🤣
Show thread⏚ Antoine Chambert-LoirOct 30
@AmenZwa but some stuffs are monoids in several different ways. Eg, rings.
Show threadamen zwa, esq.Oct 30
@antoinechambertloir 👍 Abstract algebra has always fascinated me, although it never featured prominently in my formal education. But speaking as a layman, even the basic, undergrad-level abstract concepts expands and clarifies one's mental imagery of concrete things. I envy you lot—the mathematicians.
Show thread⏚ Antoine Chambert-LoirOct 30
@AmenZwa
There was a time where people believed that abstract concepts from algebra should be taught to every body, this was the “modern math” movement, and unfortunately, it didn't work out as expected. (Most important reason: teachers hadn't be taught this way; second reason: people don't like that their kids be taught things they don't understand.)
Show threadamen zwa, esq.Oct 30
@antoinechambertloir I do recall that controversy that was brewing in the West, in those days. Fortunately for me, I grew up in Burma, where we were taught Mediaeval maths.😀
Show threadDima Pasechnik 🇺🇦 🇳🇱Oct 30
@AmenZwa @antoinechambertloir Kolmogorov presided over and participated in writing such 'modern" textbooks for Soviet high schools, and I was (un)lucky to be right there to be subjected to these textbooks. I didn't like them. Too abstract, too dry, lack of motivation there
Show threadDima Pasechnik 🇺🇦 🇳🇱Oct 30
@AmenZwa @antoinechambertloir I understand that France around the same time had a "Bourbaki for school kids" movement...
Show thread⏚ Antoine Chambert-LoirOct 30
@dimpase @AmenZwa This movement had nothing to do with Bourbaki and happened all over the world at more or less the same time. I attended a talk two weeks ago by Frederieke Lieven where she analysed the movement in France, BRD and DDR. (It came first in DDR.)
Show threadamen zwa, esq.Oct 30

@dimpase @antoinechambertloir In psychology, there is a theory that states that as we age and our brains mature, our thought processes shift from the more concrete to the more abstract. It is true for me, personally. I’ve also noticed this longer-term mental shift in some of those whom I’ve taught or mentored.

But I’m sure this isn’t so much biological, but more an experiential.

Show threadJakobOct 30
@antoinechambertloir @AmenZwa To me the modern math ideas are also very attractive, especially when I read e.g. Dieudonné write about it. But my mom still blames every calculation mistake she makes on the fact that she »suffered« from modern math in elementary school 😅