The wording is quite misleading. Tymoczko used "string theory" math... i.e. Geometric Topology (the article tries to play with "orbifolds" - fancy manifolds).
Doesn't mean that string theory and music theory are intrinsically related in the physical world (which they are for the obvious OTHER reason), but rather, they can be expressed by the same monsters in the world of mathematics.
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The wording is quite misleading. Tymoczko used "string theory" math... i.e. Geometric Topology (the article tries to play with "orbifolds" - fancy manifolds). Doesn't mean that string theory and music theory are intrinsically related in the physical world (which they are for the obvious OTHER reason), but rather, they can be expressed by the same monsters in the world of mathematics.