[PRL] IOP and disjoint unions

[Felix S Klock II]

On Apr 29, 2005, at 8:57 AM, Doug Orleans wrote:

> William D Clinger writes:
>> Obviously A+A is not equivalent to A in category theory.
>
> I don't get this.  I don't know anything about category theory, but it
> seems like "an apple or an apple" is always the same as "an apple".

But, "an apple in my left pocket or an apple in my right pocket" is not 
the same as "an apple"; there's extra information being carried around 
in the former case.

Of course, I'm sure you'd rather have the apple that hasn't been in my 
pocket.  But given any apple, you can turn it into an apple in my left 
pocket.  (I have very big pockets.)

-Felix, father of many other ill-conceived analogies.

----
Miss Stephanie, I'd rather
gargle dirt than stay mad at you.