Eugenia Cheng: An unexpected tool for understanding inequality: abstract math
Eugenia Cheng: Un outil inattendu pour comprendre les inégalités : les maths abstraites
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,
d'arguments contradictoires,
bigotry, blame, shouting
d'intolérance, de reproches, de cris
that we are doomed to take sides,
nous sommes condamner à prendre parti,
like a race to the bottom,
à un nivellement par le bas,
somebody else's privilege
les privilèges des autres
are the most hard-done-by person
qu'ils sont les plus laissés pour compte
this confusing world of ours,
ce monde déroutant qui est le nôtre,
probablement pas :
en mathématiques pures.
is like the theory of maths,
sont la théorie des maths,
to real problems like building bridges
concernent les problèmes réels
faire voler des avions,
that pure maths applies directly
les maths pures s'appliquent directement
to help me with my daily life,
pour améliorer ma vie quotidienne,
to help me understand arguments
pour m'aider à comprendre les débats
with the entire human world.
le monde des humains dans sa totalité.
the entire human world,
that you might think of
que vous considérez sûrement
by thinking about the factors of 30.
with bad memories of school maths lessons,
des cours de maths à l'école,
school maths lessons boring, too.
les cours de maths ennuyeux, moi aussi.
to take this in a direction
que nous allons suivre une direction
from what happened at school.
de ce que vous faisiez à l'école.
We'll work them out.
Retrouvons-les.
in a straight line.
sur une ligne droite.
are also factors of each other
sont aussi diviseurs des autres
comme un arbre généalogique,
a bit like a family tree,
like a kind of great-grandparent.
un peu comme un arrière-grand-parent.
is not divisible by three,
n'est pas divisible par 3,
que quelques nombres en ligne droite.
in a straight line.
There's a hierarchy going on.
Il y a une hiérarchie.
two, three and five,
except one and themselves.
excepté 1 et eux-mêmes.
this means they're prime.
we have six, 10 and 15,
of two prime factors.
de deux facteurs premiers.
of three prime numbers --
de trois nombres premiers :
using those numbers instead.
en n'utilisant que ces nombres-là.
two, three and five at the top,
se retrouvent tout en haut,
at the next level,
à l'étage en-dessous,
at the next level
à l'étage suivant.
losing one of your numbers in the set.
la perte d'un nombre dans un ensemble.
what those numbers are.
something like A, B and C instead,
par A, B et C, par exemple,
becomes very widely applicable,
à beaucoup d'autres choses
n'importe quoi.
three types of privilege:
we have rich white people.
on a les hommes blancs et riches.
of those types of privilege.
n'ayant aucun de ces privilèges.
the rest of the adjectives for emphasis.
des adjectifs pour préciser.
non-male people,
blancs mais pas mâles,
nonbinary people we need to include.
les personnes non-binaires.
riches, mais pas blancs.
with the least privilege,
avec le moins de privilèges,
of factors of 30
du diagramme des facteurs de 30
of different types of privilege.
des différents types de privilèges.
apprendre de ce diagramme, je crois.
we can learn from this diagram, I think.
a direct loss of one type of privilege.
la disparition d'un des privilèges.
that white privilege means
que le « privilège blanc » signifie
than all nonwhite people.
s'en sortent mieux que les autres.
black sports stars and say,
de sportifs noirs super-riches et disent :
White privilege doesn't exist."
le privilège blanc n'existe pas. »
of white privilege says.
la théorie du privilège blanc.
had all the same characteristics
riche avait les mêmes caractéristiques
to be better off in society.
dans notre société.
we can understand from this diagram
de ce diagramme
where people have two types of privilege,
où les gens ont deux des trois privilèges,
that they're not all particularly equal.
particulièrement égaux.
are probably much better off in society
sont probablement plus avantagées
somewhere in between.
sont probablement entre les deux.
between those two middle levels.
entre les deux niveaux du milieu.
might well be better off in society
ni mâles sont probablement plus avantagés
examples, like Michelle Obama,
comme Michelle Obama,
than poor, white, unemployed homeless men.
que des SDF blancs pauvres au chômage.
is more skewed like this.
est encore plus déséquilibré que ça.
of privilege in the diagram
de ce diagramme
that people experience in society.
vivent dans la société.
why some poor white men
des hommes blancs mais pauvres
contre la société aujourd'hui.
in this cuboid of privilege,
dans ce cube des privilèges,
they don't actually feel the effect of it.
ce qu'ils vivent et ressentent.
the root of that anger
la cause de cette colère
than just being angry at them in return.
être en colère contre eux en réponse.
can also help us switch contexts
nous aider à changer le contexte
are at the top in different contexts.
au sommet dans différents contextes.
our attention to non-men,
qui ne sont pas des hommes,
non-men are at the top.
non-mâles sont en haut.
a whole context of women,
un contexte purement féminin,
could now be rich, white and cisgendered.
être riche, blanche et cisgenrée.
that your gender identity does match
de votre genre est la même
occupy the analogous situation
blanches, et cis à la même place
in broader society.
dans la société.
why there is so much anger
pourquoi il y a tant de colère
of the feminist movement at the moment,
certains mouvement féministes,
to seeing themselves as underprivileged
plutôt comme défavorisées
they are relative to nonwhite women.
combien elles sont favorisées
to help us pivot between situations
ces structures abstraites
entre les situations
and less privileged.
favorisés que les autres.
that as an Asian person,
qu'en tant qu'asiatique,
the most privileged of nonwhite people,
privilégiés des personnes de couleur,
between those two contexts.
entre ces deux concepts.
who don't have to work.
au point de ne plus travailler.
situation to be in
or working at minimum wage.
ou travaillant au salaire minimum.
from other people's points of view,
les choses du point de vue des autres,
possibly surprising conclusion:
conclusion, peut-être surprenante :
is highly relevant to our daily lives
sont tout à fait pertinentes
and empathize with other people.
à comprendre les autres
to understand other people more
de comprendre davantage les autres,
qu'ils se trompent.
mathematical thinking
mathématique abstraite
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