"BH: ...suppose we start with something like process–no particles, just activity, just energy. Then the first battle was: what the hell do you mean? I started r

"BH: ...suppose we start with something like process–no particles, just activity, just energy. Then the first battle was: what the hell do you mean? I started reading. I read Grassmann, for example, and Grassmann was saying that mathematics was not about things in space and time, but it was about thought–it was about the order of thought. And he obtained his Grassmann algebra from that kind of consideration. And I read Clifford‘s original books, original papers, and it was all about process. Two times three is equal to six–it’s not two objects times three. It’s the doubling of three objects. It’s a process." This is the key idea behind category theory, that equality is an arrow (a process). I think this neatly summarizes why I suck at algebra. I write code, my brain works in algorithms & processes. 1+1=2 just doesn't parse. If I can convert whatever mathematical concept into an algorithm then yeah I get it. Otherwise it's just a bunch of symbols.