I gave a talk for an online discussion group giving a summary of some of the things I’ve posted on this blog. The talk was on some of my experiences and opinions on category theory flavored things programmed for real computers with a focus on calculating answers rather than proving things. It was the Wednesday right after the election, kind of a nerve wracking time.

Rough Outline:

  • Language Choice. Haskell vs Theorem provers vs Python vs Julia
  • Computer functions as categories.
  • Linear operators as a category
  • Automatic differentiation
  • Relations
  • Linear relations
  • Optimization problems as a category

These topics are discussed in much greater detail in blog posts, which are linked in the notes below.

It is very embarrassing to watch oneself in a video, so I haven’t. Edit: ok I did. Here’s a fun game. Do a shot every time I say the word interesting. You’ll get 2 minutes in before you die.

Thanks to Jules Hedges for organizing!

This is the notebook for the talk. It is not entirely compiling or correct code, but more for giving a flavor. You’re probably better off clicking this link, since wordpress embeds notebooks kind of weird. https://github.com/philzook58/cybercat_talk_2020/blob/main/talk.ipynb