From the Prologue of Beyond Good and Evil: "the fundamental condition of all life, perspective."
From the Turing machine: all it sees is its current state and immediate environment. This is perspective. The individual actor, whether an ant or a person in an economy or an agent in a simulation - it sees only its environment, and its own (possibly very complex) internal state. Perspective.
It is these tiny pieces each with their own perspective that come together to create order within a system of increasing entropy, to create life. See? Perspective is the fundamental condition of life.
Reading about complexity theory bangs my drum.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
thoughts on the turing machine
A simple Turing machine, in each step, takes as input its own state and the state of its environment. Output is its next state, how to change the environment, and how to move to a different environment.
Or: the input to a Turing machine is the tape and its starting position. The output of the turing machine is the tape when it's done.
We can look at the Turing machine at these two levels as input->output. The aggregate input-output is easier to see. The each-step input-output explains how it works.
When we're looking at biological computation, do we ever get to see the individual steps? We're lucky to get a view of the aggregate input/output. How do you debug a cell?
Or: the input to a Turing machine is the tape and its starting position. The output of the turing machine is the tape when it's done.
We can look at the Turing machine at these two levels as input->output. The aggregate input-output is easier to see. The each-step input-output explains how it works.
When we're looking at biological computation, do we ever get to see the individual steps? We're lucky to get a view of the aggregate input/output. How do you debug a cell?
Friday, July 06, 2012
renewal
my motto today: Keep feeling new things.
Not keep feeling the same things. There is no continuation of feelings. There can be renewal, but feelings do not hold still.
I don't stay in love with my husband. I love him every day so far, but each day it is a new love, a different love. I am a different person, he is a different person. The more I can see him as he is today, the more I can love him with an accurate love.
There is no stability in emotions. Emotions are fleeting. We can feel love again and again, but it is a changing, growing process. Never stable.
Software is like this too. Some people like to think we write an application and it is done. It can serve the users' needs for years to come. It doesn't work like that - when development ceases on an application, when we stop updating and improving the UI and refactoring the code, that app becomes stale and hateful. The users' needs change, their expectations rise, and the hatred of PeopleSoft grows in their hearts. Meanwhile the code becomes legacy, residing in no developer's head, losing readability as software engineering standards advance.
So it is with feelings. We have Love 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, 2.0...
Feelings never stay the same. That's like asking a favorite swimming hole to keep the same water in it. We are constantly under development. Keep feeling new things.
Not keep feeling the same things. There is no continuation of feelings. There can be renewal, but feelings do not hold still.
I don't stay in love with my husband. I love him every day so far, but each day it is a new love, a different love. I am a different person, he is a different person. The more I can see him as he is today, the more I can love him with an accurate love.
There is no stability in emotions. Emotions are fleeting. We can feel love again and again, but it is a changing, growing process. Never stable.
Software is like this too. Some people like to think we write an application and it is done. It can serve the users' needs for years to come. It doesn't work like that - when development ceases on an application, when we stop updating and improving the UI and refactoring the code, that app becomes stale and hateful. The users' needs change, their expectations rise, and the hatred of PeopleSoft grows in their hearts. Meanwhile the code becomes legacy, residing in no developer's head, losing readability as software engineering standards advance.
So it is with feelings. We have Love 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, 2.0...
Feelings never stay the same. That's like asking a favorite swimming hole to keep the same water in it. We are constantly under development. Keep feeling new things.
Sunday, July 01, 2012
Movie Lit: Moonrise Kingdom
Spoilers. Watch the movie and then comment.
The movie had themes of:
* the importance of connection
* competing authorities: the scouts (military), the police, social services ("the state"), and above all of them: the law. Parental and church authority put in an appearance too, although law and parental are conflated because the parents are lawyers.
* scale. Objects in the visuals often appear to be larger than they are until a person approaches them. The obstacles to connection feel larger than they are until they're confronted.
Some other themes:
* leadership - Scoutmaster Ward shows that people follow leadership; the nominal authority from a patch doesn't matter compared to actions under crisis.
* marriage - we enter it so early, when we feel the magic of that first strong connection. Later that decision makes no sense. Connection is essential; responsibility is not enough. No one connection is forever.
* expectations - considering Suzy a problem child makes her more of one. People don't like Sam because "no one else does."
* following - the scouts are all against Sam until the bad one is eliminated, and then they're all for him as soon as the next leader emerges in Sam's favor.
At first, all kinds of authority (church, parental, police, the state, scouts) conspire to keep Sam and Suzy apart. But when Sam and Suzy are ready to hurl their very lives against these obstacles, suddenly the authority figures are humans - they combine their authorities (police, the state, legal) and overcome the obstacles in the system.
This leads the protagonists to agree to live under authority (parental and police, respectively). because they are no longer denied the connection that is so important.
Sam and Suzy build a world together with their connection. When God (the narrator) and nature (the storm) conspire with earthly authorities to wipe out that world, they do not succeed. It lives on inside them. That momentary world is forever, that connection stretches sideways in time.
The movie had themes of:
* the importance of connection
* competing authorities: the scouts (military), the police, social services ("the state"), and above all of them: the law. Parental and church authority put in an appearance too, although law and parental are conflated because the parents are lawyers.
* scale. Objects in the visuals often appear to be larger than they are until a person approaches them. The obstacles to connection feel larger than they are until they're confronted.
Some other themes:
* leadership - Scoutmaster Ward shows that people follow leadership; the nominal authority from a patch doesn't matter compared to actions under crisis.
* marriage - we enter it so early, when we feel the magic of that first strong connection. Later that decision makes no sense. Connection is essential; responsibility is not enough. No one connection is forever.
* expectations - considering Suzy a problem child makes her more of one. People don't like Sam because "no one else does."
* following - the scouts are all against Sam until the bad one is eliminated, and then they're all for him as soon as the next leader emerges in Sam's favor.
At first, all kinds of authority (church, parental, police, the state, scouts) conspire to keep Sam and Suzy apart. But when Sam and Suzy are ready to hurl their very lives against these obstacles, suddenly the authority figures are humans - they combine their authorities (police, the state, legal) and overcome the obstacles in the system.
This leads the protagonists to agree to live under authority (parental and police, respectively). because they are no longer denied the connection that is so important.
Sam and Suzy build a world together with their connection. When God (the narrator) and nature (the storm) conspire with earthly authorities to wipe out that world, they do not succeed. It lives on inside them. That momentary world is forever, that connection stretches sideways in time.
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