You seem to be asking for people other than me to respond.  But I doubt anyone 
will try to explain a troll like me. >8^)

I don't have any idea what you mean by "a kind of hen".  So, I'll let that go.  
Stratum is a good word, but like level, it implies a direction, namely up-down 
("something laid down").  I do mean something very much like level and stratum, 
except without implying a (constant) direction.  Onion is a better analog than, 
say, genus or battalion.  There's still a symmetry in the directions from the 
center of the onion.  But at least you can vary the direction without changing 
layers.  More complicated layering would be something like doping a silicon 
chip or spray painting a complicated surface ... or perhaps sand blasting 
something, where you turn it within the directional gradient.

It's important to graduate from the naive concept of levels to the more 
sophisticated concept of layers because, e.g. in Russ' urban systems, there are 
all different types of flows and ebbs, gradients of different speeds, 
directions, types, etc. that "paint" things on the system in varied ways.  It's 
not a singular hierarchy in any sense.

If you grok the poverty of the concept of the "landscape" in evolution, then 
you should grok the poverty of the concept of "level" in cumulative structures.

That's the best I can do to explain it.  Sorry for my inadequacy.

On 06/07/2017 06:32 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> Here is Glen's thoughtful post of January 20, reborn. To be honest, I don’t 
> understand it.  Not a bit.  I am hoping that perhaps one or more of the rest 
> of you can help me get it.  Let’s start with one baby step.  What is meant by 
> LAYER in this text? The possible meanings open to me are, (1) a kind of hen; 
> (2) a stratum in a substance; or (3) a level in a hierarchical descriptive 
> scheme.  So, “genus” is a level as is “battalion”. Are any of these meanings 
> relevant to Glen’s post?  

-- 
☣ glen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

Reply via email to