DSLs and Towers of Abstraction by Gershom Bazerman.
From the description:
This talk will sketch some connections at the foundations of semantics (of programming languages, logics, formal systems in general). In various degrees of abbreviation, we will present Galois Connections, Lawvere Theories, adjoint functors and their relationship to syntax and semantics, and the core notion behind abstract interpretation. At each step we’ll draw connections, trying to show why these are good tools to think with even as we’re solving real world problems and building tools and libraries others will find simple and elegant to use.
Further reading:
logicmatters.net/resources/pdfs/Galois.pdf
dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~martin/Research/Publications/2007/hp07.pdf
tac.mta.ca/tac/reprints/articles/5/tr5abs.html
If your mind has gotten flabby over the summer, this presentation will start to get it back in shape.
You may get swept along in the speaker’s enthusiasm.
Very high marks!