Peter, What can I say? Words is what I do. I have been doing words professionally for more than 40 years. I certainly don't hold that words are the only thing to do, but, I do hold that there is some value in close attention to how words are used, particularly their often demonstrated capacity to lead scientists down blind alleys. I assume, intellectual communist that I am, that we will make the best progress if each contributes according to his skills and we all take according to our ignorances.
I am still struck by the manner in which we in FRIAM fly by one another in our discussions. Other emergence seminar participants may have a different experience, but I think that some of that is getting sorted out between us, so we are starting to understand one another a bit better. Despite our best efforts, I still think Crutchfield, for instance, is ambiguous. Note for instance how the different respondents to my question understood him. So, I still think there is value in trying to wring a text for all its value, and I am continuing to try to do that with the Crutchfield text. All the best, Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([email protected]) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa fe] ----- Original Message ----- From: To: [email protected] Sent: 11/2/2009 2:07:19 PM Subject: [FRIAM] Wot's New, Doc? Plenty, Bugsy The above question can be answered at some level for the Bugs Bunnys of the world! And the answer is: Yes, indeed, plenty. Here is a little story anent our marvellous aptitude for development with time. The original discus, as used in the first Greek Olympics, was quite clever, and actually went further than anyone could throw a sphere. Its range was about 65 m, still close to the modern Olympic record. In 1961, as a low speed aerodynamicist at Caltech, I worked with some characters from Whammo on a funny looking plastic dish, that we called Frisbee and guessed we might sell a few 1000. We were off by a few million on that market prediction! The latest disc variant, called Aerobie, holds the record range of more than 300 m, as listed in Guinness. It is appealing to note that this is comfortably the furthest any object has evah been thrown by the hand of Man! We are now working on improving this. There are a few factors: air density: unchangeable, gyroscopic precession: invariant, at least according to Newton, human musculature:slowly improving: and disc design: improving by leaps and bounds. I am familiar with this since I have been involved in this stuff for 40 years, and have been invited to give a paper next Summer at an International Symposium in Vienna on my latest efforts on disc design and flight dynamics prediction. So I see lotsa new things, Bugs. And they do not reside in verbiage, but, in this case, in an axisymmetric plastic disc that you can pick up in your hands, hurl and see with your own eyes whether it is any better! Not "Words, words, words," as my Lord Hamlet complained! But reality - if that means anything! Peter Lissaman, Da Vinci Ventures Expertise is not knowing everything, but knowing what to look for. 1454 Miracerros Loop South, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505,USA tel:(505)983-7728
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