No label defined (Q4501690)

This is a nice survey paper on recent developments in higher category theory. On the basis of the slogan \textit{never mistake equivalence for equality}, higher category theory is presented as being opposite to the well established habit of studying isomophism classes of objects instead of the category they form. The most notable insights in higher categorical structures come traditionally from topology. Along with Grothendieck's conjecture that a weak form of \(\omega\)-groupoid models all homotopy types, the author develops several conjectures relating higher categorical concepts to topological ones. The easiest example is categorical shifting up and down of the dimension of the cells, which corresponds to topological delooping and looping. For instance, Segal's classifying space of a discrete group is the composite of two constructions: first, a categorical delooping which consists in interpreting the elements of the group as \(1\)-cells (arrows) of a category with unique \(0\)-cell (object); then, a geometrical realization which takes the category to a topological space. This point of view results in several conjectures stated by the author, among which a categorical Freudenthal suspension theorem, and a (yet to be defined) concept of \(k\)-tuply monoidal \(n\)-category modelizing all homotopy \(n\)-types of \(E_k\)-spaces. This second conjecture shows that higher category theory is intimately related to homotopy theory and incorporates at least the complexity of the homotopy groups of the spheres. The survey ends with a summary of the author's and \textit{J. Dolan}'s definition of weak \(n\)-category, based on an iterated use of typed (i.e. coloured) operads giving rise to a new family of basic combinatorial objects, the so called opetopes. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0941.00015].