Eugenia Cheng: An unexpected tool for understanding inequality: abstract math
يوجينيا تشنغ: الرياضيات المُجرّدة: أداة غير متوقعة لفهم عدم التساوي
Eugenia Cheng devotes her life to mathematics, the piano and helping people. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
with divisive arguments,
bigotry, blame, shouting
والتعصُّب، واللوم، والصراخ،
that we are doomed to take sides,
أننا محكوم علينا بالانحياز،
like a race to the bottom,
somebody else's privilege
are the most hard-done-by person
this confusing world of ours,
is like the theory of maths,
هي عادةً كالنظرية الرياضية،
to real problems like building bridges
على المشاكل الحقيقية كبناء الكباري
that pure maths applies directly
تُطبّق بها الرياضيات البحتة بشكلٍ مباشر
to help me with my daily life,
لتساعدني في حياتي اليومية،
to help me understand arguments
ليساعدني على فهم الجدالات
with the entire human world.
على التعامل مع العالم الإنساني بأسره.
the entire human world,
that you might think of
by thinking about the factors of 30.
with bad memories of school maths lessons,
لذكرياتٍ سيِّئة لدروس الرياضيات المدرسية،
school maths lessons boring, too.
أجد دروس الرياضيات المدرسية مملة.
to take this in a direction
from what happened at school.
الثلاثون القسمة عليها.
We'll work them out.
in a straight line.
are also factors of each other
يُمثِّل عاملًا للآخر أيضًا
a bit like a family tree,
like a kind of great-grandparent.
كالجدِّ الأكبر.
is not divisible by three,
in a straight line.
There's a hierarchy going on.
هناك تسلسل هرمي هنا.
two, three and five,
باستثناءهم هم والعدد واحد.
except one and themselves.
this means they're prime.
أنهم أعداد أوّلية.
we have six, 10 and 15,
of two prime factors.
of three prime numbers --
using those numbers instead.
مستخدمةً تلك الأعداد بدلًا من ذلك.
two, three and five at the top,
at the next level,
at the next level
losing one of your numbers in the set.
فقدان أحد أعدادك في المجموعة.
what those numbers are.
something like A, B and C instead,
a وb وc بدلًا من ذلك،
becomes very widely applicable,
قابلة للتطبيق على نطاقٍ واسعٍ جدًا،
three types of privilege:
ثلاثة أنواع من الامتيازات:
we have rich white people.
الأثرياء البيض.
of those types of privilege.
أي من تلك الامتيازات.
the rest of the adjectives for emphasis.
non-male people,
الأثرياء البيض الغير ذكور،
nonbinary people we need to include.
أشخاص عديمي الهوية علينا إدراجهم.
الذكور الأغنياء غير البيض.
الذكور غير الأغنياء البيض،
with the least privilege,
of factors of 30
of different types of privilege.
بين أنواع مختلفة من الامتيازات.
we can learn from this diagram, I think.
يمكننا تعلمها من هذا المخطط.
a direct loss of one type of privilege.
لأحد أنواع الامتيازات.
that white privilege means
أن الامتياز المبني على اللون الأبيض يعني
than all nonwhite people.
black sports stars and say,
السود فاحشي الثراء ويقولون،
White privilege doesn't exist."
لا وجود للامتياز المبني على اللون الأبيض."
of white privilege says.
نظرية امتياز اللون الأبيض،
had all the same characteristics
النجوم الرياضين فاحشي الثراء نفس الصفات
to be better off in society.
أفضل مكانةً في المجتمع.
we can understand from this diagram
where people have two types of privilege,
حيث للناس نوعين من الامتيازات،
that they're not all particularly equal.
أنهم ليسوا جميعًا متساوين بشكلٍ دقيق.
are probably much better off in society
هم على الأرجح أفضل مكانة في المجتمع بكثير
somewhere in between.
هم على الأرجح في المنتصف.
أن نأخد الأمر إلى أبعد من ذلك
between those two middle levels.
بين هذين المستويين المتوسطين.
might well be better off in society
ربما يصبحون أفضل مكانة في المجتمع
examples, like Michelle Obama,
مثل ميشيل أوباما
الرجال الفقراء البيض العاطلين المشرّدين.
than poor, white, unemployed homeless men.
is more skewed like this.
of privilege in the diagram
that people experience in society.
الذي يختبره الناس في المجتمع.
why some poor white men
السبب في أن بعض الرجال الفقراء البيض
in this cuboid of privilege,
في متوازي مستطيلات الامتيازات هذا،
they don't actually feel the effect of it.
فهم لا يشعرون بتأثيرها في الواقع.
the root of that anger
than just being angry at them in return.
من مجرد أن نكون غاضبين عليهم في المقابل.
can also help us switch contexts
يمكن أن يساعدنا أيضًا على تبديل السياقات
are at the top in different contexts.
في سياقاتٍ مختلفة.
our attention to non-men,
non-men are at the top.
الغير رجال البيض الأثرياء في القمة.
a whole context of women,
إلى سياق كامل من النساء،
could now be rich, white and cisgendered.
غني وأبيض ومتوافق الجنس.
that your gender identity does match
أن هويتك الجنسية توافق
occupy the analogous situation
الأثرياء البيض يحتلون الوضع المماثل
in broader society.
في مجتمعٍ أوسع.
why there is so much anger
في أن هناك غضب كبير
of the feminist movement at the moment,
to seeing themselves as underprivileged
كمحرومين من الامتيازات
they are relative to nonwhite women.
مقارنة بالنساء الغير بيض.
لتساعدنا على أن نوازن بين الأوضاع
to help us pivot between situations
and less privileged.
ذوي امتيازات أكثر وذوي امتيازات أقل.
that as an Asian person,
أنني كشخص آسيوي،
the most privileged of nonwhite people,
ضمن ذوي الامتيازات الأكثر من غير البيض
between those two contexts.
أن أوازن بين هذين السياقين.
who don't have to work.
الغير مضطرين للعمل.
situation to be in
or working at minimum wage.
أو يعملون لقاء الحد الأدنى من الأجور.
from other people's points of view,
من وجهات نظر الأشخاص الآخرين،
possibly surprising conclusion:
الذي ربما يكون مفاجئًا:
is highly relevant to our daily lives
ذات صلة وثيقة بحياتنا اليومية
and empathize with other people.
على فهم الآخرين والتعاطف معهم.
to understand other people more
mathematical thinking
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Eugenia Cheng - Mathematician, pianistEugenia Cheng devotes her life to mathematics, the piano and helping people.
Why you should listen
Dr. Eugenia Cheng quit her tenured academic job for a portfolio career as a research mathematician, educator, author, columnist, public speaker, artist and pianist. Her aim is to rid the world of math phobia and develop, demonstrate and advocate for the role of mathematics in addressing issues of social justice.
Her first popular math book, How to Bake Pi, was published by Basic Books in 2015 to widespread acclaim including from the New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and she was interviewed around the world including on the BBC, NPR and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Her second book, Beyond Infinity was published in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment ScienceBook Prize. Her most recent book, The Art of Logic in an Illogical World, was published in 2018 and was praised in the Guardian.
Cheng was an early pioneer of math on YouTube, and her most viewed video, about math and bagels, has been viewed more than 18 million times to date. She has also assisted with mathematics in elementary schools and high schools for 20 years. Cheng writes the "Everyday Math" column for the Wall Street Journal, is a concert pianist and founded the Liederstube, a not-for-profit organization in Chicago bringing classical music to a wider audience. In 2017 she completed her first mathematical art commission, for Hotel EMC2 in Chicago; her second was installed in 2018 in the Living Architecture exhibit at 6018 North.
Cheng is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and won tenure in Pure Mathematics at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is now Honorary Fellow at the University of Sheffield and Honorary Visiting Fellow at City University, London. She has previously taught at the universities of Cambridge, Chicago and Nice and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Her research is in the field of Category Theory, and to date she has published 16 research papers in international journals.
You can learn more about her in this in-depth biographic interview on the BBC's Life Scientific.
Eugenia Cheng | Speaker | TED.com