EricS,
I hope I am not the metaphor Nazi; I certainly don’t want to be him. I certainly don’t want to execute anybody for using metaphors. On the contrary. Rather my point is that they are essential to good thought and that many scientists who voice contempt for metaphors use them regularly all the time in ways that are essential to their work. The Pragmatic value of recognizing that we are using metaphors is that such a recognition leads to a discussion of whether we are using them well. All metaphors, be it good ones or bad ones, import “surplus meaning” into the terms of use, and this surplus meaning can affect scientific thinking for good or ill depending on whether we acknowledge it and systematically explore its implications. Surplus meaning is often the wet edge of discovery but some times the hidden assumption that keeps us from seeing the plain facts before us. The clearest example of this is the metaphor of natural selection in which Darwin imagined that nature is like a giant pigeon coop. This metaphor contain contains an infinity of useful implications and a few that are down right poisonous. It’s important to know which are which. I think Frank’s example of gravity is perhaps another great example. Isn’t it one of Einstein’s greatest insights that the metaphor of attraction implicit in “gravity”, which arose from experiments with primitive magnets in Newton’s time, is not as useful in many instances as the metaphor that massive objects warp the space around them. So, one of Einstein’s great contributions to physics is that he introduced a new metaphor? Do I have that wrong? Do regard your affection for poetry as a sinful indulgence or do you regard it (as I would) as an essential feature of your scientific imagination. I don’t know why it is that moving house seems to free me up to think about everything but moving house. One is not allowed parting shots in parliamentary debate, and I probably shouldn’t be taking them here. Nick Nick Thompson <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of David Eric Smith Sent: Saturday, May 8, 2021 9:13 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Morphogenisis English has two categories of verbs: intransitive and transitive. If you use an intransitive verb — “yet it moves” — the Metaphor Nazi will catch you coming: claiming you are representing volition. If you use a transitive verb — “it is moved by gravity” — the Metaphor Nazi will catch you going: claiming an agent/patient relation, where the agent is probably (metaphorically) God (!), or whatever God is a metaphor for. And we have from Ecclesiastes (the verse in praise of the Metaphor Nazi): http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/59.html#:~:text=If%20there%20be%20nothing%20new%20(1)%3A%20Compare%20Ecclesiastes%201.9,new%20thing%20under%20the%20sun.%22 <http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/59.html#:~:text=If there be nothing new (1): Compare Ecclesiastes 1.9,new thing under the sun.> Ecclesiastes 1.9: "The thing that hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." To which the scientist (note small “s”) would like to assert “the language of mechanics is not English; speaking it is a new practice available to people to participate in”. But let Shakespeare have the last word: If there be nothing new, but that which is Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd, Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss The second burthen of a former child! O, that record could with a backward look, Even of five hundred courses of the sun, Show me your image in some antique book, Since mind at first in character was done! That I might see what the old world could say To this composed wonder of your frame; Whether we are mended, or whe'r better they, Or whether revolution be the same. O! sure I am, the wits of former days To subjects worse have given admiring praise. Eric On May 9, 2021, at 11:36 AM, Prof David West <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: The ball accelerated is clearly a metaphor as it implies that the ball is doing a specific thing, that the ball has behavior and probably volition. This is clearly not what you literally mean. davew On Sat, May 8, 2021, at 4:57 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote: "The ball accelerated at approximately 32 feet per second squared at sea level in a vacuum." doesn't seem to be a metaphor to me. --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sat, May 8, 2021, 3:07 PM <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Listen, Fella! It’s metaphors all the way down! [shoe thrown] n Nick Thompson <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwordpress.clarku.edu%2fnthompson%2f&c=E,1,76cwsDofsJZfToBxaQU6zR5cllp_k59wtln_iQtSrD8ozjyEN9kt0FPUs4RnuGnWMKFW-nOw3wJjMgAgCJAkSTlh3C3YKbI75yNyUMUvvw,,&typo=1> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[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] <mailto:[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/ <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwordpress.clarku.edu%2fnthompson%2f&c=E,1,kvyM80dHEYWNqV-0eMQdLvzgq9gnoqHZgBnwovx7X25DXpFtBFHjG7rHeqhcFUSqxlCOPKZ_ChyYYA8MEuyB_a_FRcYGgZ_JxXKUF1U4Ncx44i5dHnfxik87XZ1D&typo=1> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . 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