Do you know anyone else working on this? In thinking over what the measure of 'distance' between nodes in networks means (the nominally 5 degrees of separation for people and 19 degrees for web pages) it's occurred to me there are two very different sides of connection. Natural system networks tend to be exceptionally well connected *as a whole* , but the trade-off is that their sub-nets become exceptionally self-centered *as parts*. Thinking of highly connected nodes as 'hubs' explains how large complex systems can work as a whole, but thinking of the regions they connect as 'hives' explains how they can retain their independence as parts. What we seem to have in the scale-free design of natural systems is also new evidence of how nature operates with lots of 'different worlds'. One opportunity that presents is a way to find the functional boundaries of independent system parts topologically. Not the least benefit would be to help us discover the correct ways to aggregate our data for other things. The information boundaries surrounding self-connected parts of whole systems also seem to define structural limits for the 'world views' for things looking out from their insides. While the system as a whole may be well connected, those global connections would naturally tend to be hidden for observers building their own world view from within its locally well connected parts. I've been trying to explain my observation that the world views of people are often exceptionally different, and yet we remain largely unaware of it, mostly ignore it in conversation, and are relatively uninterested in the deep communication problem it produces. I have a list of other 'good reasons', but if it's a natural consequence of the scale-free topology of natural system networks, that could explain a lot about why humans so regularly fail to communicate but think they do. That our individual understandings of 'the universe' develop in relation to sub-networks having local information horizons in every direction, it means every 'hive' looks like the 'whole'. When real complex systems also cross-connect many kinds of local networks at once (environment, work, family, community, friendships, beliefs, interests, etc.) it adds completeness to the natural topological 'illusion'. Perhaps the very 'independence' of our world views is further evidence of how deeply embedded in a larger system they are. Does that make sense?
Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/>
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