From: "Peter Nicol - VRL / BroomStick Productions" <nicol@highway1.com.au>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 16:36:39 +0800
To: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
Subject: Re: May's Banal Rant
In-Reply-To: <19970603161233.30762@bywater.songbird.com>
Message-ID: <199706050823.QAA09314@hedgehog.highway1.com.au>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




> Crypto-anarchy is like communism -- great in theory, impossible in
> practice.

What "Communism" ?

Bolshevik-ism perpetrates heirarchies as a design principle.

This is obviously some new definition of the word "great" that I have 
been previously unaquainted with.

Peter Nicol
Global Media Magnet
nicol@iap.net.au
019 111 943

"Nonlinear models differ form linear ones in a number of ways.  
Rather than trying to figure out all the chains of causality, 
the modeler looks for nodes where feedback loops join and tries 
to capture as many of the important loops as possible in the 
system's "picture."  Rather than shaping the model to make a 
forecast about future events or to exercise some central 
control, the nonlinear modeller is content to perturb 
the model, trying out different variations in order to 
learn about the system's critical points and its homeostasis 
(resitance to change).  The modeler is not seeking to 
control the complex system by quantifying it and mastering 
its causality; she wants to increase her "intuitions" 
about how the system works so she can interact with 
it more harmoniously."