Listen, Fella!

 

It’s metaphors all the way down!

 

[shoe thrown]

 

n

 

Nick Thompson

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

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

 

From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Gary Schiltz
Sent: Saturday, May 8, 2021 1:36 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Morphogenisis

 

First of all, it's just a metaphor (ducking, the shoe barely missing my head) 
:-)

 

Second of all, that description of animal development sure sounds to me like 
"following a script". 

 

On Sat, May 8, 2021 at 2:23 PM <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

This struck me: 

 

When animals develop, they don’t follow a script. Instead, responding to their 
environment, the cells negotiate and feel their way toward a final form. A 
fertilized egg divides, and divides again, creating a hollow ball of cells 
called a blastula; genes instruct these cells to release chemicals, and other 
cells, reacting to those chemical concentrations, decide to migrate elsewhere 
or to develop into specific types of tissue. Other influences—oxygen, 
nutrients, hormones, sometimes toxins—further shape gestation. 
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/persuading-the-body-to-regenerate-its-limbs?utm_source=nl
 
<https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/persuading-the-body-to-regenerate-its-limbs?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_050821&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd678d924c17c104801f684&cndid=40835928&hasha=1dc6f15a30be2d4712fae5f0e5a9a679&hashb=5e4befc88214fadc869224d7cb34d55f51451bc7&hashc=0c6ef6b7bc8221288e1f4a4ca0116d78a21ebdbe47949488640c7c54c93120fb&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&utm_term=TNY_Daily>
 
&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_050821&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd678d924c17c104801f684&cndid=40835928&hasha=1dc6f15a30be2d4712fae5f0e5a9a679&hashb=5e4befc88214fadc869224d7cb34d55f51451bc7&hashc=0c6ef6b7bc8221288e1f4a4ca0116d78a21ebdbe47949488640c7c54c93120fb&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&utm_term=TNY_Daily

 

First, note the reliance on psychological terms.  This is the sort of passage 
that would stimulate my teasing Hywel with, “So you see, Hywel, psychology 
really IS the mother of all sciences.”  And don’t any of you DARE to come back 
at me with, “It’s just a metaphor.”  

 

Second, which of these two models encapsulates more closely what you wizards 
mean by computation.  Is carrying out an algorithm  more like “computation” or 
is “building a limb”? Is a salamander’s limb “computed”?  If so, who computes 
it, or is that a violation of the language of computation.   I know.  Fools 
rush in where wise men fear to tread. 

 

Your loyal fool, 

 

Nic 

Nick Thompson

[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 

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

 

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