full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Eugenia Cheng: How abstract mathematics can help us understand the world

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The world is awash with divisive arguments, conflict, fake news, viiomhctod, exploitation, prejudice, bigotry, blame, shouting and minuscule atieotntn spans. It can sometimes seem that we are doomed to take sides, be stuck in echo crmbaehs and never argee again. It can sometimes seem like a race to the bototm, where everyone is calling out somebody else's privilege and vinyg to show that they are the most hard-done-by person in the conversation. How can we make sense in a world that doesn't?

I have a tool for understanding this confusing world of ours, a tool that you might not expect: abstract mathematics.

Open Cloze


The world is awash with divisive arguments, conflict, fake news, __________, exploitation, prejudice, bigotry, blame, shouting and minuscule _________ spans. It can sometimes seem that we are doomed to take sides, be stuck in echo ________ and never _____ again. It can sometimes seem like a race to the ______, where everyone is calling out somebody else's privilege and _____ to show that they are the most hard-done-by person in the conversation. How can we make sense in a world that doesn't?

I have a tool for understanding this confusing world of ours, a tool that you might not expect: abstract mathematics.

Solution


  1. vying
  2. chambers
  3. victimhood
  4. agree
  5. attention
  6. bottom

Original Text


The world is awash with divisive arguments, conflict, fake news, victimhood, exploitation, prejudice, bigotry, blame, shouting and minuscule attention spans. It can sometimes seem that we are doomed to take sides, be stuck in echo chambers and never agree again. It can sometimes seem like a race to the bottom, where everyone is calling out somebody else's privilege and vying to show that they are the most hard-done-by person in the conversation. How can we make sense in a world that doesn't?

I have a tool for understanding this confusing world of ours, a tool that you might not expect: abstract mathematics.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rich white 6
white privilege 4
white men 4
pure maths 3
white people 3
male people 3
poor white 3
abstract mathematics 2
daily lives 2
mathematical thinking 2
entire human 2
school maths 2
straight line 2
bottom level 2
white male 2
abstract structures 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
poor white men 2
rich white men 2

Important Words


  1. abstract
  2. agree
  3. arguments
  4. attention
  5. awash
  6. bigotry
  7. blame
  8. bottom
  9. calling
  10. chambers
  11. conflict
  12. confusing
  13. conversation
  14. divisive
  15. doomed
  16. echo
  17. exploitation
  18. fake
  19. mathematics
  20. minuscule
  21. news
  22. person
  23. prejudice
  24. privilege
  25. race
  26. sense
  27. shouting
  28. show
  29. sides
  30. spans
  31. stuck
  32. tool
  33. understanding
  34. victimhood
  35. vying
  36. world