On 11/1/24 11:16 AM, glen wrote:
I suppressed a reaction to "wuwei for code" in relation to anastomosis
before ... because believe it or not, I try not to be too negative.
8^D But anastomosis is antithetical to wu wei. Anastomotic structures
are a result of violent forcing, a very slow explosion. I'm ignorant.
But as I understand it wu wei is more about going with the (mostly
laminar) flow, with some gentle nudging. They seem like complete
opposites. But what do i know?
I think this is a useful/interesting point... my suggestion that this
all relates to stationary action and Onsager relations is probably also
contradicted by the "slow explosion" metaphor/analogy/model. I think
the "eruption of emergence" is a "slow explosion" (e.g. Cambrian
Explosion)? But as you point out, I'm not offering a demonstration or
estimation of scale so this thought might "ought to be ignored".
Onsagers are defined on "near equilibrium" systems so OK... very wuwei,
not anastomosing. And Lagrangian formulated stationary action might be
totally irrelevant/tangential?
Your hermit crab and tree-of-liberty examples are (to me) good examples
of exaptation based adaptation?
Thanks for the pointer to (non) distance-edged hypergraphs... they
deserve a fresh mulling in this context.
Re hierarchies. I share your belief (to whatever degree I understand
you) that strict hierarchies are an abstraction, especially in the
organization of the structure and dynamics of real world systems. I am
still entranced (ensorcled?) by the idea that the *evolution* of systems
yields a constant (but not monotonic?) march into increased complexity
with something like "levels" of abstraction being established? As
implied by your examples, the "exaptation" that occurs not only drives
this complexity "forward" but perhaps also breaks the (strict) hierarchy
sometimes? Likely this is just me "over-reifying"...
Thanks also for the Frantz Fanon reference which sends me on other
tangents which I will suppress (here) for the moment. Your breadth of
awareness of such things is always a treat.
- Steve
In the context of the polity, by anastomosing an idealist slab poured
over the grass, I'm trying to channel something like Frantz Fanon ...
or maybe Jefferson's tree of liberty, blood of patriots majiggy. The
hermit crab doesn't gently go with the flow of acidification, warming,
and pollution. She stigmergically, forcibly, occupies the cracks that
exist in *all* ideologies, re-claims or newly claims parts of the
built environment for herself. Same with my new mushroom crop out in
the yard. They're not going with the flow. They're trying to forcibly
reclaim their territory from the stupid grass and fertilizer the last
owner paved them over with.
This is similar to Trump's gaming of the NYC code. And it's why I
thought Gorard's non-distance edged hypergraphs in relation to
Sabine's distance-based edges were in context. She started her essay
saying that all graph-based representations of physics must be
discretizations and that all such discretizations fail. And ended it
by admitting that this discretization might work ... "life will find a
way" ... and physics proceeds one funeral at a time. Cheers to Sabine
for changing her mind, even if her bar is unreasonably high.
And, yes, strict hierarchies are a myth, which is why I object so
strongly to the concept of levels. The closest we can really get is to
the decoupling approximations, where we demonstrate (we have to
demonstrate it) that when we ignore some fine-grained process, that
ignorance has a small impact on the larger *scope*. If you don't
demonstrate it or if you don't explicitly address the size of the
impact, we can/should ignore what you've said.
On 11/1/24 08:56, steve smith wrote:
I love it when Glen (or anyone) introduces new terms which offer
nuanced alternatives to the more simple/obvious/direct/blunt terms.
i.e. Anastamosis vs
Resectioning/Bypassing/Self-Healing/Network-Refactoring/Adaptivity?
I think this is the ideation behind my questions about the emergent
BRICS+ vs NATO+ structure/dynamics:
If we look at political structures, they too struggle with
over-reification. Systems idealize permanence, but political reality
reveals itself in shifting alliances, the ebb and flow of influence,
and the redirection of resources in response to new pressures. As
software structures grow in complexity, they parallel political and
social constructs, often calcifying in ways that resist needed
changes. In this context, anastomotic computing could offer a sort of
“wuwei for code,” emphasizing responsiveness and transience over
rigid structure, letting code act in harmony with shifting needs
rather than forcing it into premature stasis.
I can't help but believe that this over-reification is part of the
ever-active wheel of evolution... the "over" reification is
relative to the parts/subsystems of the emerging "system" but this
stasis is what provides the stability for the higher level (more
aggregate?) system to now explore a whole qualitatively new suite of
"adjacent possible affordances".
I don't know if Glen is parsing this as convoluted word-salad
nonsense but if there were one implication I hope he weighs in on or
elaborates it is cryptic references to "levels" in the past which *I*
was only able to catch the gist of but suspect is relevant to my
hypo-thesis above?
Tx to SG for (re?)introducing wuwei, have we discussed here (or only
over tequila at TVM) the Wuwei vs Stationary Action? Are the ebb and
flow of money and power and commodities among the NATO+/BRICS+
superorganisms describable as Onsager relations? Are our global
geopolitical-economics a near-equilibrium system (before the Nukes
actually fly?).
On 11/1/24 3:32 AM, Santafe wrote:
I have to say, that qualifies as art.
The idealists will never stop idealizing and then reifying their
ideal. To Engineer is Human. But those of us who know (or merely
confidently believe) reality is made up of a diverse non-wellfounded
set of ... what? ... urges? ... nano-agents? ... IDK, whatever, will
always anastomose that built environment ... or at least reclaim it
like a hermit crab squatting in a tin can.
I like the visual and deeper concept, Glen. A kind of wuwei attitude.
sequeing impermanence of political structures to over-reified software:
Today at lunch, John Zingale lamented that the residence time of
code in the system seems to be decreasing. Perhaps Anastomotic
Computing is the next big thing.
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