What Is a Monoid?
summary
Proposes a two-stage generalization of multicategories that actually makes sequencing and relative-monad examples into monoids: first left-skew multicategory (captures forward and other relative monads), then the new bi-skew multicategory (captures call-by-push-value sequencing and categories on spans). Builds formal definitions, composes dozens of variant composition laws, and proves a coherence theorem that every monoid uniquely extends to an unbiased monoid (a map from the terminal bi-skew multicategory). The constructions and examples in section 5.4 validate the approach.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Monoids in programming and math
- 4:37Category theory basics
- 8:32What is a monoid?
- 11:18Limitations of multicategories
- 14:04Left skew multicategories
- 18:56Monoids in left skew
- 20:00Bi skew multicategories
- 21:26Monoids in bi skew
- 22:29Coherence theorem
- 23:10Operads and abstractions
- 24:12Conclusion
- 24:35Question and answer session
