18:52:41 From Paolo Saracco : Hello everybody 18:53:34 From Tim Hosgood : Hello! 19:01:44 From vickibloomquist : Professor Baez, what are the chances of finding a mathematical theory of consciousness? 19:17:28 From Refurio Anachro : \o/ 19:41:09 From Phillip Helbig : Of course, too much plastic is already a big environmental problem. 19:49:27 From Jin-Cheng Guu : Has applied category theory come up with some useful insight on how Global warning can be tackled? Or it is still in its "framework-building" phase? 19:51:52 From david spivak : maybe this is the answer? 19:52:13 From Daniel Plácido : this is like a cute Petri net 19:52:37 From david spivak : “circular supply chain” 19:53:16 From ingo.blechschmidt@unipd.it : We also made the experience that mathematical thinking (being able to focus, to divide problems into subproblems, to not give up in the face of failure, ...) is very worthwhile for organizing direct actions for climate justice (such as protests, panel discussions with politicans, symbolically blocking coal infrastructure for one day, ...). Most students and lectureres here in Augsburg which are involved in climate activism are mathematicians, for some reason. 19:53:27 From Thomas Hunter : is it wise to think that "collapse of the system" is not a possibility? 19:53:43 From Paul Taylor : When was the begining of the "anthropocene"? Even the ancients were aware that humans affect the environment, eg silting up harbours. (Sorry, can't remember a citation, could even be Herodetus Herodotus.) 19:55:54 From Lee Mondshein : Growth of nervous system -- great idea -- leads into understanding of evolutionary processes 19:56:34 From Refurio Anachro : I'm afraid that policy building is too volatile. We should cement good deeds in infrastructure, because that's much harder to undo than laws. 19:58:05 From Phillip Helbig : The point of the anthropocene is not that humans have effects, but that their effects dominate, e.g. to a first approximation, all mammals are humans or farm animals. 19:58:36 From Refurio Anachro : applause! 19:58:40 From janet singer : Also from Nature’s perspective there is no collapse of “a system”, there is just reconfiguration of dynamics 19:58:42 From Matthias Hutzler : Thank you for the talk! 19:59:10 From Refurio Anachro : Nice background image, John :-> 19:59:11 From Valeria de Paiva : clap! clap! clap! 19:59:33 From Daniel Plácido : clap clap 20:07:13 From ingo.blechschmidt@unipd.it : @Mark: My advice would be to do whatever kind of mathematics you like, but do climate activism on the side 20:08:42 From Mark Ettinger : @ingo Don't you think that even, say, pursuing chemistry might be more productive? 20:09:26 From Refurio Anachro : No, mathematics is great. As M. you're qualified for a lot of jobs, often close to decision processes. 20:09:46 From Refurio Anachro : Many climate, environmental, or rousrce management jobs need mathematicians. 20:10:13 From Refurio Anachro : You can also do great work optimizing current processes. 20:10:59 From Refurio Anachro : Analyzing the state of affairs is important. Good writing skills are great for communicating science, or politicial agendas. 20:11:10 From Anna Knörr : @Mark I think studying math, physics or similar subjects first gives you a very good "problem solving mindset". As was commented, doing climate activism on the side can go a long way and you can still enter politics, for example, with your problem-solving mindset after uni ;) 20:11:14 From ingo.blechschmidt@unipd.it : @Mark Personally, no I don't think so, because all the required solutions are already known and technologically viable. What we're missing is political will! This can be generated by political activism 20:12:31 From Refurio Anachro : Some proficiency in logic will help during political debate. So I wholeheartedly agree with John, that mathematicians might play an important role in changing the world. We just need to want to. So share the maths, help people do better thinking, get jobs close to decision processes, try doing things better, more critically, ... you get the idea. 20:12:52 From Gabriel Goren : Talking about politics, I think mathematicians tend to be idealistic and think that social / economic systems can be designed from scratch, or that they come into existence by the will of some agent, when a lot of the time it's social forces / trends that are independent of individual wills (even the "willful design" of social networks can be thought of this way). In that sense it would be interesting to understand the mathematics of how preexisting systems transform rather than how "better" systems can be designed from thin air 20:13:34 From Refurio Anachro : Political will is currently strongly deformed by discrediting science, and having better problem solving skills, affliction to science, and similar will help people to partake in better political will building. 20:13:37 From Mark Ettinger : As a first order model, isn't one's environmental footprint best estimated by the total money spent by all one's descendants (and oneself)? 20:14:37 From Refurio Anachro : Nice point, @Lee Mondshein! 20:14:54 From Phillip Helbig : It also depends on what one buys with the money. 20:15:25 From Mark Ettinger : @Phillip. Indeed but that is 2nd order. 20:16:12 From ingo.blechschmidt@unipd.it : Yes, indeed Mark! However, note that the term "environmental footprint" has been coined by the oil industry (BP to be specific, citation: https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham). Individuals can affect only so much CO2 reduction in their own private life. Politics can do much more, for instance effect infrastructure changes which allow people to use public transport or their bike for commuting. 20:16:51 From Refurio Anachro : First order: people doing the right thing, Second order, telling people to do the right things, 3rd order: tell people to tell people to do the right thing. Obviously at some point we'll get diminiishing returns... 20:17:51 From Refurio Anachro : Re disagreement: That's because politicians exploit this. It doesn't have to be like this. 20:21:30 From jimstutt : Hi, engineers (except programmers) disappeared from thr Azimuth front page. Yet "categoricoal engineering" is the obvious term for many "systems of systems" solutions to the environmental crisis. As an example ow is the Metron air sea rescue project going? 20:22:13 From Hendrik Boom : A few links bout the design of social networks: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/11/05/Taiwan-Crowdsourcing-Everyone-Wins-Democracy/ https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/01/12/0334241 http://www.participatedb.com/tools/331 20:22:44 From jimstutt : */ow/how/ 20:32:23 From jimstutt : Wrt comaputer-assisted proofs, have any of the fols here come across , Kevin Buzzard's Xena project at Imperial College in the UK with the Lean language which has 1st yr undergrads doing original work and which might fit you points 4) and 5)? 20:34:20 From ingo.blechschmidt@unipd.it : Yes, I have. Project Xena is truly awesome and a huge gift. You can start by playing this fun Lean game (no installation required): https://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/~buzzard/xena/natural_number_game/ I'm only a bit sad that the Lean community is heavily embracing classical logic. Their hard work can only be reaped in the standard topos Set, but in next to no other toposes! 20:34:49 From Hendrik Boom : The long term is addressed in A.C. Clarke's science-fiction book The City And The Stars. 20:35:28 From Phillip Helbig : Great book. No machine is allowed to have any moving parts. :-) 20:35:46 From Hendrik Boom : Yes! 20:36:03 From Phillip Helbig : Asimov was better for the mid-term, Clarke for the short term and the long term. 20:36:16 From Amin Karamlou : The Xena Project is very interesting! I remember thinking it sounded impossible 5 years ago but it’s already come a long way. 20:36:33 From jimstutt : Great to hear Ingo :) I'd never even heard of perfectoid spaces before! 20:37:00 From Phillip Helbig : Although he didn’t call it that, Clarke described the internet and hand-held mobile devices decades ago. He even wrote a story about people using the bandwidth for porn. :-) 20:37:49 From Phillip Helbig : A good example of Clarke’s vision is the very event we are taking part in right now. 20:41:21 From Hendrik Boom : The social-network links I provided are about how Taiwan used social network structured so as to lead to consensus instead of division. 20:45:44 From Phillip Helbig : https://theconversation.com/grounded-aircraft-could-make-weather-forecasts-less-reliable-138067 20:49:16 From Refurio Anachro : Looking at it, @Phillip Helbig. Thanks, looks interesting. 20:53:00 From Refurio Anachro : I cannot quantify the effect that would have, but apparently you're right. They're using it to augment pressure measurements in the upper layers of the atmosphere. The techonology is called AMDAR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Meteorological_Data_Relay#cite_note-1 And here's a link from the article you posted: https://www.eumetnet.eu/working-together-to-minimise-the-impact-of-covid-19/ 20:53:34 From Refurio Anachro : Try turning off video, Hendrik! 20:53:52 From Cytia Beata : Or maybe type the question in the chat 20:54:07 From Hendrik Boom : It's in the chat/ 20:54:50 From Refurio Anachro : Hendrik said: The social-network links I provided are about how Taiwan used social network structured so as to lead to consensus instead of division. 20:55:29 From Hendrik Boom : And it's not bandwitdh; it's repeatly dropped ppp links. 20:55:30 From Hendrik Boom : Repeat likks about Taiwan's use of social network to produce consensus: 20:56:34 From Konstantin Lindström @VolvoCars : Great talk thanks!! 20:56:35 From Hendrik Boom : Links about Taiwan using a social network to produce consensus. https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/11/05/Taiwan-Crowdsourcing-Everyone-Wins-Democracy/ https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/01/12/0334241 http://www.participatedb.com/tools/331 20:56:38 From Refurio Anachro : NIce to meet you all! /me waves to Hndrik, and John! 20:56:44 From Cytia Beata : thank you !