Marcos wrote circa 11-08-24 01:12 PM: > you've > seemed to eliminated all the personal Glen-as-memeplex set of > possibilities. The only thing that remains then is genetics, yes?
Well, "eliminated" is a strong word. ;-) I have 3 good suggestions: 1) Greg's "it's adopted by standards groups", which I interpret as "many people much smarter than me[*] think it's right to use data as a singular. 2) Greg's, Nick's, and Robert's "it's a non-count noun", which I interpret to mean there is no natural bottom-turtle (e.g. "hints of cinnamon"), no indivisible atomic unit at the bottom. And 3) Eric's delivery format argument, since the usual packaging of data comes in units of one (one zip file, one folder, one experimental context -- e.g. "the tree ring data"). All three will provide tools by which I can assign one of my reflective homunculi(!) to take data when the contexts arise. * In this audience, I suspect "smarter than me" is less of an obstacle to language flow than "smarter than I". ;-) -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, 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
