Joseph Howlett in Quanta:
In 2023, a mathematician named Anton Bernshteyn published a deep and surprising connection between the remote mathematical frontier of descriptive set theory and modern computer science.
He showed that all problems about certain kinds of infinite sets can be rewritten as problems about how networks of computers communicate. The bridge connecting the disciplines surprised researchers on both sides. Set theorists use the language of logic, computer scientists the language of algorithms. Set theory deals with the infinite, computer science with the finite. There’s no reason why their problems should be related, much less equivalent.
“This is something really weird,” said Václav Rozhoň, a computer scientist at Charles University in Prague. “Like, you are not supposed to have this.”
More here.
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