Thus spake Steve Smith circa 10-02-10 10:54 AM: >> And that is? Can you describe "that very same road"? I'm serious. >> As far as I can see its near-random.
I thought we would have learned from biology that successful strategies involve a large sampling of the possibilities. So, it's not the seemingly random sampling Google's doing that befuddles me. That seems totally rational, even if it is random. What confuses me is why humans insist that various processes (from biological pathways to organisms to corporations) always must have some single teleologically constricted purpose. Why does everything always have to boil down to some pigeon-holed agenda? Why do we have to divine THE cause, THE goal, THE motivation? Why can't it be complex? And I'm serious, here, too. I can't tell you how often I get completely baffled looks when I describe what Tempus Dictum does. Those linear thinkers who seem to dominate investment forums immediately write me off and stress that if a business doesn't FOCUS, it will surely fail. I make some attempts to describe breadth-first search and the surprising efficacy of large variance sampling; but I always fail in that description. [grin] -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.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
