WEBVTT

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The world is awash
with divisive arguments,

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conflict, fake news,

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victimhood,

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exploitation, prejudice,
bigotry, blame, shouting,

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and minuscule attention spans.

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It can sometimes seem

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that we are doomed to take sides,

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be stuck in echo chambers,

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and never agree again.

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It can sometimes seem
like a race to the bottom,

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where everyone is calling out
somebody else's privilege

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and vying to show that they

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are the most hard-done-by person
in the conversation.

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How can we make sense

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in a world that doesn't?

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I have a tool for understanding
this confusing world of ours,

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a tool that you might not expect:

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abstract mathematics.

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I am a pure mathematician.

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Traditionally, pure maths
is like the theory of maths,

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where applied maths is applied
to real problems like building bridges

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and flying planes

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and controlling traffic flow.

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But I'm going to talk about a way
that pure maths applies directly

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to our a daily lives as a way of thinking.

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I don't solve quadratic equations
to help me with my daily life,

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but I do use mathematical thinking
to help me understand arguments

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and to empathize with other people.

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And so pure maths helps me
with the entire human world.

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But before I talk about
the entire human world,

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I need to talk about something
that you might think of

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as irrelevant schools maths:

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factors of numbers.

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We're going to start by thinking about
the