ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

PRO (category theory)

Ok, let's imagine you have a bunch of different things - like toys, colors, animals, or shapes. Now, imagine you want to organize them into groups or categories based on something they have in common.

For example, you might put all the toys that are cars in one category, and all the toys that are dolls in another category. Or you might put all the animals that live in water in one category, and all the animals that have fur in another category.

This idea of organizing things into categories based on common characteristics is what category theory is all about. In category theory, we call these categories "objects".

But category theory doesn't just stop at organizing things into categories. It also looks at how these categories relate to each other. We call these relations "morphisms".

If you think of categories as boxes full of toys, then a morphism is like a way of connecting boxes to each other. Maybe you have a box full of cars, and another box full of trucks. You can create a morphism between these two boxes by connecting them with a road, because cars and trucks both travel on roads.

The really cool thing about category theory is that it can be applied to all sorts of things - not just toys and animals. Scientists and mathematicians use category theory to help them organize complex ideas and concepts, and to find connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.

So in short, category theory is all about organizing things into categories based on common characteristics, and then finding ways to connect those categories together with morphisms.