The theory of simultaneous equations
Tom Leinster ( University of Glasgow )
- 14:00 10th March 2010 ( week 8, Hilary Term 2010 )Lecture Theatre A, Computing Laboratory
I will present a categorification of the elementary theory of linear simultaneous equations. Linear combinations become colimits. The idea, then, is that we have a family of objects, each described as a colimit of the others. From one point of view, this theory is about recursion (and I will say a few things about recursive type definitions). From another, it is about topology and self-similarity. Indeed, one of the first nontrivial examples of the theory is Freyd's coalgebraic characterization of the real interval, which I will explain.
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