Just a note --I've never liked that old saw about the black cow --mathematicians are always working with generalizations. Scientists are the ones who claim to be working strictly with observations. ________________________________________ From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of sarbajit roy [sroy...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 1:15 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Palenque, Chichen Itza and Katyn
Hi Where would one place say the Taj Mahal in the context of the Mughal (alternatively Indo-Islamic) civilisation's ascendancy? Or the Eiffel Tower in the context of French (alternatively Gallic) civilisation? Mr Sabloff's observation reminds me of the old saw, "A priest, a scientist and a mathematician are travellng on a train through France and spot a black cow in the distance. Priest: "Behold God hath colored all cows black. Scientist: You're wrong, only some cows are black. Mathematician: Somewhere in a field in France there exists at least one cow at least one of side of which is black.." On 4/29/10, Pamela McCorduck <pam...@well.com> wrote: >> >> >> Grandiosity of civilizations is easily observed but that same >> grandiosity >> applies to Buildings architecture as well as death circuses. >> The Human need for Grand Gestures may be at the root of civilization. > > Jerry Sabloff, the president of the Santa Fe Institute, whose > specialty is the archaeology (and thus the life) of everyday Mayan > civilization, gave a little talk in late December to a small group > where he mentioned in passing that the great architectural monuments > of a civilization are nearly always erected early in that > civilization's ascendancy--the Egyptian pyramids, the Mayan ziggurats, > etc. ============================================================ 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
