Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation

Peter, If that's what you saw in their discussion then that's fantastic. It's a common either a right brain thinking sign of an approaching "ah ha" moment to come to a real impasse, often a sign of an approaching new realization. Either that or of dumping the whole mess and being given the

Re: [FRIAM] The Black Swan

Taleb's writing style is very personal. He likes telling stories. Chapter 9 "The Ludic Fallacy" contains what I would consider the essence of his message. It's fun reading--and it's online

[FRIAM] Digital Urban: NetLogo to 3DMax: Complex Models and 3D Visualisation

Nice post on Netlogo being used to drive more sophisticated visualization: http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2008/11/netlogo-to-3dmax-complex-models-and-3d.html .. I note one of us responded! I'm curious: how many of us have done this? .. I.e. used netlogo or other similar modeling environment

Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation

Exactly the point that stuck out to me is two experts ( Top Rated ) from different disciplines saying " This is scary we really /_don't know_ /and should find out " instead of heck lets just build it and see if the humans live ( We don't even do that to amphibians or reptile pets ) this from a

Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation

So very many Berliner's seem to rate the city above Paris, London and NY. I'm wondering how you might not be aware of the status so many people see in living there! Your second comment goes right to the point though, that the Jekyll & Hyde feature of feedback loops is their special beauty and mys

Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation

Guerin - I'll see your Strogatz and raise you a Smolin! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lee_smolin_on_science_and_democracy.html This talk by Lee Smolin while at TED addresses obliquely a lot of the talk about science, politics and religion (or at least world view). - Steve Nice video

Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation

Who said that cities are thriving places for humans? I live in Berlin, which is not as big as London or Tokio, but it is loud, crowded and polluted enough. It is more exhausting than exciting to live here. Lots of carcinogenic and pathogenic substances in the air. You meet every day different peop

Re: [FRIAM] The Black Swan

I'd agree Taleb does not communicate his main insights consistently, and uses fuzzy generalities that you need to "grok" to make sense of. I don't think one needs to deal with all that to get the main point, though. The reasons why *statistical analysis fails for subjects of increasing non-homoge

Re: [FRIAM] Strogatz and Ratti video conversation

The idea offered that why cities become such thriving places for humans is because of the intensity of noise in the connections is somewhat fantastic. That's really what Storgatz & Ratti are proposing, as traditional science has always proposed to explain what is inexplicable to it's method. To t

[FRIAM] Oops theory... ?

"Every great idea involves a little bit of a slip up." is the idea. Perhaps that's a way to open up a discussion of the rule following/breaking aspects of change, a creative "slip ups" feature of both mental creativity and independent learning systems exploring their environments. The rules

Re: [FRIAM] Racism Emerges As Europe Reacts To Obama : NPR

AP story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iEyLuiVkdd-f1RM5wnoR0kF4WbvgD94FHP480 --Doug -- Doug Roberts, RTI International [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 11:12 AM, Owen Densmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

[FRIAM] The Black Swan

I am currently trying to read Taleb's "Black Swan". Paul and Glen mentioned it earlier a few weeks ago, and Russ said it has some nice points. So I read the first chapter and thought "well, interesting". Then I read the second about Yevgenia Krasnova, a fictional character which embodies his ang