Eugenia Cheng: An unexpected tool for understanding inequality: abstract math
Judžinija Čeng (Eugenia Cheng): Neočekivano sredstvo za razumevanje nejednakosti - apstraktna matematika
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
netrpeljivosti, okrivljavanja, vikanja
that we are doomed to take sides,
da zauzimamo stranu,
like a race to the bottom,
somebody else's privilege
are the most hard-done-by person
da su prošli najgori tretman
this confusing world of ours,
ovog našeg zbunjujućeg sveta,
is like the theory of maths,
je kao teorija matematike,
to real problems like building bridges
upotrebljava za stvarne probleme
that pure maths applies directly
na koji se čista matematika
u našem svakodnevnom životu
to help me with my daily life,
da mi pomognu u svakodnevnom životu,
to help me understand arguments
da bi mi pomoglo da razumem argumente
with the entire human world.
sa čitavim svetom ljudi.
the entire human world,
o čitavom svetu ljudi,
that you might think of
o nečemu što možda smatrate
by thinking about the factors of 30.
with bad memories of school maths lessons,
na časove matematike u školi,
school maths lessons boring, too.
da su časovi matematike dosadni.
to take this in a direction
da ćemo sa ovim otići u pravcu
from what happened at school.
od onog što se odvijalo u školi.
kojima je broj 30 deljiv.
We'll work them out.
in a straight line.
are also factors of each other
su takođe činioci jedni drugima
nalik porodičnom stablu,
a bit like a family tree,
like a kind of great-grandparent.
kao neki pradeda.
brojeve dva, tri i pet.
is not divisible by three,
nije deljiv brojem 3,
od gomile brojeva na pravoj liniji.
in a straight line.
There's a hierarchy going on.
Postoji hijerarhija.
two, three and five,
osim broja jedan i samim sobom.
except one and themselves.
this means they're prime.
da su prosti brojevi.
we have six, 10 and 15,
of two prime factors.
dva prosta činioca.
of three prime numbers --
using those numbers instead.
ovaj dijagram koristeći ove brojeve.
two, three and five at the top,
dva, tri i pet na vrhu,
at the next level,
at the next level
na sledećem nivou
losing one of your numbers in the set.
pokazuje gubitak jednog broja u skupu.
what those numbers are.
something like A, B and C instead,
recimo, sa A, B i C,
becomes very widely applicable,
vrlo široko primenjivo,
three types of privilege:
tri vrste privilegija:
we have rich white people.
of those types of privilege.
od tih privilegija.
the rest of the adjectives for emphasis.
radi naglašavanja.
koji nisu muškarci,
non-male people,
nonbinary people we need to include.
koje moramo uključiti.
koji nisu bele rase.
a nisu belci ni muškarci,
belci su i nisu muškarci
a muškog su pola.
with the least privilege,
nisu belci i nisu muškarci.
of factors of 30
of different types of privilege.
različitih vrsta privilegija.
we can learn from this diagram, I think.
sa ovog dijagrama, rekla bih.
a direct loss of one type of privilege.
direktan gubitak jedne vrste privilegija.
that white privilege means
da privilegije belaca podrazumevaju
than all nonwhite people.
od svih koji nisu belci.
black sports stars and say,
koji su veoma bogati crnci i kažu:
White privilege doesn't exist."
Belačke privilegije ne postoje.“
of white privilege says.
teorija o privilegijama belaca.
had all the same characteristics
sportska zvezda imala iste osobine,
to be better off in society.
bolji položaj u društvu.
we can understand from this diagram
uvideti sa ovog dijagrama
where people have two types of privilege,
gde ljudi imaju dve vrste privilegija,
that they're not all particularly equal.
da nisu svi naročito jednaki.
are probably much better off in society
verovatno mnogo bolje prolaze u društvu
somewhere in between.
su verovatno negde između,
between those two middle levels.
između ta dva srednja nivoa.
might well be better off in society
i nisu muškarci možda bolje ide u društvu
examples, like Michelle Obama,
kao što su Mišel Obama
than poor, white, unemployed homeless men.
nezaposleni muškarci beskućnici,
is more skewed like this.
više iskrivljen ovako.
of privilege in the diagram
that people experience in society.
koje ljudi doživljavaju u društvu.
why some poor white men
zašto su neki siromašni beli muškarci
in this cuboid of privilege,
u ovom kvadru privilegija,
they don't actually feel the effect of it.
zapravo ne osećaju efekat toga.
the root of that anger
izvora tog besa mnogo produktivnije
than just being angry at them in return.
can also help us switch contexts
nam može pomoći i da promenimo kontekst
are at the top in different contexts.
na vrhu u različitim kontekstima.
our attention to non-men,
na one koji nisu muškarci,
koji su beli i nisu muškarci.
non-men are at the top.
a whole context of women,
could now be rich, white and cisgendered.
sada mogu biti bogati, beli i cisrodni.
that your gender identity does match
da se vaš rodni identitet poklapa
occupy the analogous situation
zauzimaju sličnu situaciju
in broader society.
u širem društvu.
why there is so much anger
zašto je toliko besa usmereno
of the feminist movement at the moment,
feminističkog pokreta trenutno,
to seeing themselves as underprivileged
da sebe vide kao manje privilegovane
they are relative to nonwhite women.
u odnosu na žene koje nisu bele rase.
to help us pivot between situations
ove apstraktne strukture
and less privileged.
that as an Asian person,
kao osoba azijskog porekla,
the most privileged of nonwhite people,
u grupi ljudi koji nisu belci,
between those two contexts.
između ta dva konteksta.
who don't have to work.
koji ne moraju da rade.
situation to be in
or working at minimum wage.
ili rade za minimalnu platu.
from other people's points of view,
sa stanovišta drugih ljudi,
possibly surprising conclusion:
iznenađujućeg zaključka,
is highly relevant to our daily lives
izuzetno značajna za naš svakodnevni život
and empathize with other people.
da razumemo druge i saosećamo sa njima.
to understand other people more
da bolje razumeju druge ljude
mathematical thinking
matematičko razmišljanje
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