Reviving Pythagorean Tradition in the Age of AI — AfterMath Presents #1

Video Description

How do we restore balance between logic and intuition, math and music, Apollo and Dionysus? In the first installment of his new series "AfterMath Presents" mathematician and UC Berkeley professor Edward Frenkel talks about reviving the Pythagorean tradition, which combined a mathematical understanding of nature with a vision of human destiny pointing far beyond the visible world — a perfect union of logic (Apollo) and intuition (Dionysus). Alas, since the time of Pythagoras we've been mostly embracing the logic side while largely ignoring the intuition side, creating an imbalance that has affected our society in profound ways. And this imbalance has intensified in the age of Artificial Intelligence, a technology based on numbers and mathematics. On a special evening at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (founded in 1903), an attempt was made to reunite these two threads. The event began with a talk by Edward Frenkel, author of the book "Love and Math" (published in 20 languages) who considers himself a modern Pythagorean, and it was followed by a ceremony — a rooftop dance party led by DJs: Anna Fedorova (as DJ Wilder) set the tone, followed by Edward Frenkel (as DJ Moonstein) playing back-to-back with Cihat Fitzgerald (as DJ Chi). This video features the full talk along with highlights from the musical performance that concluded the evening. The audio recording of the Chi + Moonstein music set is on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/chi-moonstein/commonwealth-club This event took place in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club of California on October 17, 2025. Organizer: George Hammond Editing of the original video: Spencer Campbell Additional editing: Didi Kailing LINKS: •⁠ ⁠Edward Frenkel's Official Website: https://edwardfrenkel.com • Edward Frenkel's X/Twitter: https://x.com/edfrenkel •⁠ Edward Frenkel's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfrenkel/ •⁠ Edward Frenkel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edfrenkel •⁠ Edward Frenkel's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edfrenkel/ •⁠ ⁠Edward Frenkel’s book “Love and Math”: https://amzn.to/4evbBkS •⁠ ⁠Edward Frenkel talks about string theory with Curt Jaimungal at his TOE podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLGUjzV-Uqc •⁠ Anna Fedorova’s SoundCloud (DJ Wilder): https://soundcloud.com/af-wilder •⁠ Cihat Fitzgerald’s SoundCloud (DJ Chi): https://soundcloud.com/chidj •⁠ Edward Frenkel’s SoundCloud (DJ Moonstein): https://soundcloud.com/moonstein •⁠ Chi + Moonstein SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/chimoonstein