Remark 16.1.1.
In the category \(\LRS\) of locally ringed spaces, the affine scheme \(\Spec R\) corresponding to \(R \in \Ring\) has the following universal property: for every \(X \in \LRS\text{,}\) homomorphisms \(R \to \Gamma(X, \calO_X)\) correspond to morphisms \(X \to \Spec R\) via taking global sections. In other words, \(\Spec\) is right adjoint to the global sections functor \(\LRS \to \Ring^{\op}\text{.}\)
Of course we can also construct other interesting objects in \(\LRS\text{:}\) topological manifolds, smooth (\(C^{\infty}\)) manifolds, real analytic manifolds, complex analytic manifolds, complex analytic varieties, adic spaces, etc. We can carry this further by replacing \(\LRS\) with our new category \(\LCRS\) of locally condensed ringed spaces. In that category we have the solid adic spaces introduced in Section 13.
While the adjunction property of \(\Spec\) tells us exactly how these other objects map to affine schemes, it does not explain how they map to more general schemes. In fact this is quite an interesting matter!