Seems like everybody, including Owen, has violated the thread rules already, and that was only three posts ago. So dont know in what sense they are rules.
Can somebody explain to me why so many people treat this list as a sort of zero-sum game in which one thread crowds out another? it just doesnt make any sense to me. Is it the belief that we are all obligated to read everything that is posted? If so, I will give my whole policy a rethink.
Can somebody explain to me (give me some examples of how) one can do things with respect to applied complexity without making some effort to understand what we are applying?
thanks,
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 7/12/2009 3:55:20 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Philosophy, Mathematics, and Science
@Owen:
Yes, let's have more Applied Complexity, that is what a lot of us are here for (among other things since it definitely ain't the *coffee*). And I for one am taking your VSI challenge (see my reply of 7/2)... but I'm slow to order up books... I mention them to my wife and she often finds them in one of the many streams of used books she swims in. Maybe you can loan your copies to/through the self-organizing Library at sfX?
@Nick:
I'm happy with the Philosophy of Science, Language, Perception, and Mind discussions you generate. I think you did a meritable job many months ago of trying to take these types of discussions offline in a creative way with what I remember you calling "Noodles" on a Wiki Page. Sadly, I think you and I and maybe only one other took to it. A shift of venue/form seems difficult here. I'd be game to try again if you can remind/resurrect the effort. We can take our noodles (marbles?) off in the corner and play with them by ourselves! Maybe others will join us this time. The noodler's corner might very well be it's own summary, no?
@Tory
Thanks for wading into this testosterone-infused kaffe klatch during a food fight... we can be a rowdy crowd in our own egg-headed way.
@Stephen:
Thanks for moderating the food fight at the FRIAM cafe... let's go construct some cool stuff. Got photons and bits?
@Doug:
Welcome back... let's have a beer and air out our spark plugs. I'll give Pirsig a call and see if he wants to join us.
@All:
Thanks for your patience with my own long-winded philosophical interjections...
Now, let's go butcher some hogs (algorithmically), write some sonnets (in JavaScript so they can go mobile and feral on the nets), plan an invasion (of AOL?), change some diapers (our own?), comfort the dying (Fortran, Pascal, SGI, etc.), take some orders (how about some fries with those drinks?), give some orders (quiet down over there, you, you, you... philosophers!), cooperate (nah!), act alone (hah!), solve some equations (Reimann Zeta Functions anyone?), write a proof (Goldbach's conjecture before breakfast!), pitch manure (oops, already done that one), program a computer (old hat!), fight efficiently (food only), and die gallantly (or at least dramatically)!
Happy Babbling...
- Steve
OK... so, I'm having waaaayyy too much fun. I think it might be the heat. Or the mint-juleps.
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