Academic Blog of Zurab Janelidze

work in progress I propose here a theory of human function, which I have been developing based on introspection. In this theory, human function is represented in terms of exchange of information of four agents, which I call the spirit , the mind , the soul and the body . Although these are surely familiar terms, having a variety of scientific, pseudo-scientific, religious, philosophical and other usage, I do not assume any insight derived from such usage. The essence of each of these agents will be revealed through the roles that they play in human function. Matching of this essence with any of the existing definitions of these entities is unintentional and may well be coincidental. The four agents are organizes in the following directed graph: We call it the Human Function Scheme ( HFS for short). The arrows represent directions of information flow from one agent to another. Postulate 1.  Human function is marked by internal information processing within each of the four agents as

Link to a plenary talk on noetherian forms at a BRICS conference (2021): slides of the talk , recording of the talk . Link to a talk on noetherian forms at the PALS seminar (2020): written summary , recording of the talk . Noetherian forms are mathematical structures defined by self-dual axioms, that include all lattices, Janelidze-Marki-Tholen semi-abelian categories and Grandis exact categories. They can be seen as a realization of Saunders Mac Lane's hypothesis from his 1950 paper on Duality for Groups that self-dual axioms can be found to treat isomorphism theorems for non-abelian groups, as this is realized for abelian groups with the notion of an abelian category. Abelian categories are actually given by the overlap of semi-abelian and exact categories. The term "noetherian" refers to the fact that these forms can seen as a fulfilment of Emmy Noether's program to "disregard the elements and operations in algebraic structures in favor of selected

These are notes for my online discussion with Georgian Student Parliament on Tuesday 7 December, 2021, organized by Nina Tsatsanashvili. All photos in this post are from Wikipedia.  If you look up the word "structure" on the Google Dictionary , you will find the following definition: the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex. When the "parts or elements" are subject to specific interpretation, we have at hand an "abstract structure". For example, consider a painting, which can be seen as an arrangement of colors. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa : This is not an abstract structure, since its constituents are specific colors that can be found on a specific poplar wood panel that currently resides in a gallery of the Louvre Museum in Paris. In contrast, Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise  is an abstract structure, since the sounds that make up this musical piece are dependent on the interpretation of