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He's referencing "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" by the physicist Eugene Wigner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unrea
by memexy 6y ago
He's referencing "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" by the physicist Eugene Wigner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreasonable_Effectiveness_of_Mathematics_in_the_Natural_Sciences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreasonable_Effectiveness...).
> In the paper, Wigner observed that the mathematical structure of a physical theory often points the way to further advances in that theory and even to empirical predictions.
I think it's a good analogy since it applies exactly how Wigner meant it except in this case it is a branch of mathematics being applied to mathematics instead of physics. Representation theory has been "unreasonably useful and effective" which is what the original article was about.
- klyrs 6y agoHi, I'm a woman. We still exist in tech spaces. Please use "they" when you don't know somebody's gender, or "she" for me now that you know. Thanks
- hanche 6y agoIn Frederik Pohl’s The years of the city, gendered pronouns are completely gone. Instead of he or she, there is “e”. His/her is “er”, and him/her is “um”. Too bad it didn’t catch on.
- memexy 6y agoNoted. But I don't pay much attention to user names so if we run into each other again I'm likely to make the same mistake.
- klyrs 6y agoI don't care if you remember me. Remember this. > Please use "they" when you don't know somebody's gender
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]