Recently I discovered by accident that Bourbaki issued in 2012 a radically expanded version of their 1958 Chapter 8 Modules et anneaux semi-simples (like other chapters, initially in French) within the treatise Algebre: see webpage. Like others, I've assumed that the Bourbaki writing project ended decades ago, but this new edition published by Springer-Verlag adds some 300 pages to the modest 189 pages of the old Hermann edition I have. The earlier 13 sections, followed by an appendix on rings without unity, have now grown to 21 sections with four appendices. I have no inside information, but this raises a natural question:
Was the expanded edition of Chapter 8 written recently? (More broadly, does this presage some kind of revival of the Bourbaki writing project)?
This particular chapter has always struck me as more readable than average among those in algebra, partly because it is relatively self-contained and less opaque in its arguments than many other parts of their treatise. Naturally the choices made by Bourbaki in their foundational books (algebra, commutative algebra, general topology, ...) have been controversial, e.g., their avoidance of categories and functors. But it's clear that they had a far-reaching program in mind for replacing what they found in the literature of their time with a carefully organized and rigorous presentation. As the group evolved over the years, they also wrote usefully about more specialized matters, notably Lie theory. But much of their ambitious agenda remains incomplete. By now the ongoing activity seems to center almost exclusively on their Paris seminar.
P.S. I've edited the question to clarify the intent. I realize of course that the Bourbaki group has always operated anonymously, even though many past members became identifiable. The source of my question is partly curiosity about the future (if any) of the unfinished treatise on Lie groups and Lie algebras.
