< Your comparison of "closure" to Nick's idea of "surplus" (intentional or not) meaning. I accept that in programming a computer, "closure" is a useful tool, to avoid unintended "side effects".>
If one thinks of the mind of two people as two circles in a Venn diagram and the intersection as their communication, meaning is still in reference to each complete circle; it is subjective. This may often lead to ambiguity and contradiction, but doesn't mean that language itself should be inherently ambiguous. Specifically, a closure would imply that while each agent was bringing to bear their experience on the interpretation of the communication, to the extent their mind is in flux from that communication, in a functional programming approach it would be modeled as transactions within each agent. It's simply a question of being precise about what is going on. Marcus ============================================================ 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
