> OK. So perhaps you might be willing to change your question to: > "Given > an INcomplete math representation of a button, how would you derive a > math representation of a button hole?" If you did that, then we might > be able to formulate an answer. However, although that modified > question is well-formed, it is too vague. We'd need to see an example > math representation of the button to know what's there and what's > missing. [ph] As I was saying, my interest in using math to explore the environment rather than represent it. So my use of the math would be to frame the question and point to where the answer might be found more than provide the answer. I was just posing the classic question of a simple physical object that is easy to describe but in a description that is stripped of our cultural associations as math is, the description of the object itself would not contain any reasonable hint of what it is for. The question then might be rephrased, what kinds of mathematical descriptions contain a hint of what the thing described is for, linking it to it's context?
The main one I use is the continuity of a thing's changes, because how something changes over time connects it with its context. The curious thing is that the math of history curves is thought to be mathematically more or less meaningless but, potentially, accomplishes the bridge across the gap that makes 'meaningful' math self-referential and disconnected from reality. It's not 'buttons' we're so concerned with, but networks as complex systems, that when described as a stand-alone diagram are abstracted from their context, but as a history of developments are connected to their context. > > -- > glen e. p. ropella, 971-219-3846, http://tempusdictum.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
