(no subject)
Aug. 28th, 2007 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogHow weird is that? I was just reading a chunk of GEB that talks about the similarity of recursive structures within language, mathematics, and computer code, and the paradigm of 'popping' and 'pushing' through deeper and shallower levels of structure. As an example, there is a story about two characters who find themselves reading a book about the same two characters, who see a painting of the same two characters...
And now I just got off the phone with another help desk tech who I was talking to about using remote desktop to connect from one machine (A) to machine B, and then, because connectivity is bad from machine A to machine C, going from B to C via another remote desktop session. Now you're down two levels from where you started. But what if you then open a remote desktop session from machine C to machine A? You then have a heterarchical structure (a hierarchy with multiple levels, none of which are above or below the other levels). Would an infinite number of windows appear on your screen, shrinking down to infinity toward a central vanishing point as you wathch machine A watching machine B watching machine C watching A watching B watching C..... Another example of this is the Escher painting of two hands, each one creating the other with strokes of the brush. When I was a kid, I used to be fascinated by holding a hand mirror in front of a wall mirror and watching the infinite reflections of reflections of reflections dance around as I angled it this way and that. (Ok, who am I kidding? I'm still fascinated by that.) What if those characters in the third level of the story above, found that they were watching a movie of the original characters who were reading that book?
I used to say that the process behind cascade failure was my favorite mathematically related concept. Recursive and heterarchical structures are up there with it (though I suspect there's a significant relation at some level). God/dess, I wish I was independantly wealthy and could afford to spend more time reading about these things. I was never that great at the grind of sitting and working out mathematics in school, but I could read about theory for days at a time. Maybe if the theory grabbed me enough, I could even sit down and learn the practice. Oh, for an extra eight hours a day....
And now I just got off the phone with another help desk tech who I was talking to about using remote desktop to connect from one machine (A) to machine B, and then, because connectivity is bad from machine A to machine C, going from B to C via another remote desktop session. Now you're down two levels from where you started. But what if you then open a remote desktop session from machine C to machine A? You then have a heterarchical structure (a hierarchy with multiple levels, none of which are above or below the other levels). Would an infinite number of windows appear on your screen, shrinking down to infinity toward a central vanishing point as you wathch machine A watching machine B watching machine C watching A watching B watching C..... Another example of this is the Escher painting of two hands, each one creating the other with strokes of the brush. When I was a kid, I used to be fascinated by holding a hand mirror in front of a wall mirror and watching the infinite reflections of reflections of reflections dance around as I angled it this way and that. (Ok, who am I kidding? I'm still fascinated by that.) What if those characters in the third level of the story above, found that they were watching a movie of the original characters who were reading that book?
I used to say that the process behind cascade failure was my favorite mathematically related concept. Recursive and heterarchical structures are up there with it (though I suspect there's a significant relation at some level). God/dess, I wish I was independantly wealthy and could afford to spend more time reading about these things. I was never that great at the grind of sitting and working out mathematics in school, but I could read about theory for days at a time. Maybe if the theory grabbed me enough, I could even sit down and learn the practice. Oh, for an extra eight hours a day....
