Esteban Montero and Brandon Baylor wrote A Categorical Defense of Our Future and work with the Holon Labs Foundation. I asked them what category theory is and how it connects to complexity-based safety.
Systems and change
Esteban and Brandon unpack modern systems theory and why we have to embrace change. They turn to digital technology and the challenges of interoperability and scalability.
Safety in relationships
Safety depends on the relationships between system components. The guests explore how to analyze those relationships. They face the problem of infinite safety possibilities with finite resources, and explain the System Theoretic Accident Model and Processes, STAMP, for accident causation.
Data and sensemaking
Context has to travel with data. The guests describe data as a constellation of sets, schemas and interpretations. They look ahead at storing data in DNA and other biological systems. Active inference helps them connect perception and category theory into a richer account of sensemaking.
Category theory gives a formal language for relationships, and orientation is built from relationships.
Where does your data lose the context that gave it meaning?
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No Way Out on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@nowayoutpodcast
Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.