On 12/11/2013 03:56 PM, uga...@talktalk.net wrote:
Self-similar (fractal) recursion, sounds complex, I am guessing this is like linear recursion but simultaneously in more than one dimension? Curious business really. Wonders, if I may be a closet programmer, or something,
It is not complex, or rather not *difficult* in itself; kids get it rather easily (I speak from experience). But it contradicts several assumptions of our common way of thinking (especially reductionisms of all kinds, that analysing something into little bits permits understanding the whole, as if a whole were a sum of bits; a really weird belief, that nearly every one believes. For instance, one cannot understand the principle of regulation without comtemplating the whole form [a negative feedback loop], undertanding the parts does not help much; each time they are different, but the whole schema remains. Similar schemes with self-similarity: each case is different, but the general category of self-similar forms remains: this is what we funnily call recursion in programming. Why do we call it so, instead of self-similarity or just self-call? No idea.)
Denis _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
