The plenary talk on Tuesday morning was by Avi Wigderson, on the nature of TCS.
Now if you haven't attended an Avi Wigderson plenary before, you should imagine yourself lying in a nice warm tub of water with soothing bath salts massaging your aching limbs. Avi's talks are balm for the poor persecuted theoretician who comes to STOC to remember that there people in the world who don't insist on demanding practical value for every darn theorem you prove.
His talk was not technical, and not even particularly informative for anyone who's been paying attention to TCS the last 40 years. What it was, was a love song to TCS, sung by a bard with +5 charisma who makes you feel like you have purpose and meaning in your life once again.
His slides will be up soon, and you can see them for yourself. But if there's anyone who can make the argument for the universality, depth and reach of TCS at its highest conceptual level, it's Avi. I'll link them when they're available and if you care at all about the field, you should take a look.
No comments:
Post a Comment