Marcus, 

 

I take my life in my hands by trying to steel man Glen.  But FRIWWMFTT.  I 
think that Glen means that whatever nonsense a series of mathematical proofs 
might spew, any attempt to explicate those proofs through narrative spews a bit 
more.   Adding to non-sense is a necessary feature of any explication.  Or:

All good explanations are also obfuscations.

Heard it first from me!

 

N

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[email protected]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2021 2:23 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] truth, reality, & narrative

 

Glen writes:

 

< Those theorem-proof-theorem-proof books are nothing if not "pulling you 
along" ... gaslighting you with every proof. >

 

I'm not sure what you are getting at here.  For concreteness, suppose the books 
were Sage notebooks, and could export to Maxima or Mathematica.   Couldn’t one 
be reasonably confident in the correctness of the calculations by reproducing 
them with two or more completely independent code bases, as well as by 
inspection?    Or maybe you mean the books are taking the reader in some 
direction, where the reader mostly has to accept the story as one of many 
possible stories.  And by the time they are to the end of it, they are 
committed to a way of thinking?

 

Marcus

 

- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe  
<http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> 
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

archives:  <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> 
http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/

FRIAM-COMIC  <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> 
http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 

- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 

Reply via email to