Eugenia Cheng: An unexpected tool for understanding inequality: abstract math
Eugenia Cheng: Una herramienta inesperada para entender la desigualdad: las matemáticas abstractas
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,
de argumentos divisivos,
bigotry, blame, shouting
de intolerancia, de culpa, de gritos
de concentración minúscula.
that we are doomed to take sides,
estamos condenados a tomar partido,
like a race to the bottom,
una carrera hacia el abismo,
somebody else's privilege
el privilegio de los otros
are the most hard-done-by person
son las personas más merecedoras
this confusing world of ours,
este confuso mundo nuestro,
is like the theory of maths,
se ve como la teoría de la matemática,
to real problems like building bridges
se aplica a problemas reales
de puentes y de volar aviones
that pure maths applies directly
la matemática pura se aplica directamente
to help me with my daily life,
para ayudarme con mi vida diaria,
to help me understand arguments
para ayudarme a entender razonamientos
with the entire human world.
con todo el mundo humano.
the entire human world,
that you might think of
que tal vez se imaginen
by thinking about the factors of 30.
los factores del número 30.
with bad memories of school maths lessons,
las clases de matemáticas de la escuela,
school maths lessons boring, too.
de matemáticas también me aburrían.
to take this in a direction
de que vamos en una dirección
from what happened at school.
en la escuela.
We'll work them out.
Vamos a calcularlos:
in a straight line.
en una línea recta.
are also factors of each other
también son factores entre sí
a bit like a family tree,
como un árbol genealógico,
like a kind of great-grandparent.
como una especie de bisabuelo.
is not divisible by three,
no es divisible por 3,
las esquinas de un cubo,
in a straight line.
en una línea recta.
There's a hierarchy going on.
Hay una jerarquía en marcha.
two, three and five,
except one and themselves.
this means they're prime.
que son números primos.
we have six, 10 and 15,
tenemos 6, 10 y 15,
of two prime factors.
de dos factores primos.
of three prime numbers --
using those numbers instead.
este diagrama usando esos números.
two, three and five at the top,
y 5 en la parte superior,
at the next level,
en el siguiente nivel,
at the next level
en el siguiente nivel.
en la parte inferior.
losing one of your numbers in the set.
pérdida de uno los números del conjunto.
what those numbers are.
cuáles son esos números.
something like A, B and C instead,
algo como A, B y C, en su lugar
becomes very widely applicable,
se vuelve ampliamente aplicable,
cualquier cosa.
three types of privilege:
tres tipos de privilegios:
we have rich white people.
tenemos gente rica blanca.
blancos y masculinos.
of those types of privilege.
sin ninguno de esos privilegios.
the rest of the adjectives for emphasis.
de los adjetivos para recalcarlo.
blanca, no masculina,
non-male people,
nonbinary people we need to include.
no binarias que necesitamos incluir.
with the least privilege,
no blancas, no masculinas.
of factors of 30
de factores del número 30
of different types of privilege.
de diferentes tipos de privilegios.
we can learn from this diagram, I think.
aprender de este diagrama.
a direct loss of one type of privilege.
pérdida directa de un tipo de privilegio.
that white privilege means
que el privilegio blanco significa
than all nonwhite people.
que todos los que no son blancos.
black sports stars and say,
super ricas del deporte negro y dicen:
White privilege doesn't exist."
El privilegio blanco no existe ".
of white privilege says.
la teoría del privilegio blanco.
had all the same characteristics
deporte tuviera las mismas características
to be better off in society.
mejor situados en la sociedad.
we can understand from this diagram
entender de este diagrama
where people have two types of privilege,
quienes tienen dos tipos de privilegios,
that they're not all particularly equal.
son particularmente iguales.
are probably much better off in society
quizás están mucho mejor en la sociedad
somewhere in between.
están en algún punto intermedio.
llevarlo más lejos
between those two middle levels.
entre esos dos niveles medios.
might well be better off in society
no son hombres les puede ir mejor
examples, like Michelle Obama,
extremos, como Michelle Obama,
than poor, white, unemployed homeless men.
pobres, blancos, desempleados y sin hogar.
is more skewed like this.
el diagrama es más sesgado.
of privilege in the diagram
privilegio en el diagrama
that people experience in society.
experimentan en la sociedad.
why some poor white men
por qué algunos hombres blancos pobres
en este momento.
in this cuboid of privilege,
de este cuboide de privilegios,
they don't actually feel the effect of it.
en realidad no sienten el efecto.
the root of that anger
than just being angry at them in return.
solo estar enojado con ellos.
can also help us switch contexts
puede ayudarnos a cambiar contextos
are at the top in different contexts.
la parte superior en diferentes contextos.
estaban en la parte superior,
our attention to non-men,
la atención a los no hombres,
están en la parte superior.
non-men are at the top.
a whole context of women,
a todo un contexto de mujeres,
could now be rich, white and cisgendered.
serían ser ricas, blancas y cisgénero.
that your gender identity does match
que su identidad de género coincide
occupy the analogous situation
y blancas ocupan una situación análoga
in broader society.
en la sociedad más amplia.
why there is so much anger
por qué hay tanta ira
of the feminist movement at the moment,
del movimiento feminista de hoy,
to seeing themselves as underprivileged
a sí mismas como desfavorecidas.
they are relative to nonwhite women.
en relación con las mujeres no blancas.
to help us pivot between situations
abstractas para ayudarnos a pivotar
más privilegiados y menos privilegiados.
and less privileged.
that as an Asian person,
como una persona asiática,
the most privileged of nonwhite people,
privilegiados de las personas no blancas,
between those two contexts.
entre esos dos contextos.
who don't have to work.
los que no tienen que trabajar.
situation to be in
que están sufriendo,
or working at minimum wage.
o trabajan por un salario mínimo.
from other people's points of view,
desde los puntos de vista de los demás,
possibly surprising conclusion:
posiblemente sorprendente:
is highly relevant to our daily lives
altamente relevante en nuestra vida diaria
and empathize with other people.
y empatizar con otras personas.
to understand other people more
de entender más a otras personas
que están equivocados.
mathematical thinking
matemático abstracto
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