Note from Anne, October 3, 1999

Dear BCN Group colleagues,

Some of the terminology keeps me from "getting" what is being said for example I wonder if I understand the notion of an autonomous system? Is it always true that each interacts with its environment?

"Events are neither completely determined nor undetermined" " A State is from a state space, and the state space is the collection of all possible opportunities that the OOI can exist in"

I am wondering if these two statements go with what I was thinking about over the weekend. Remember that big giant event path structure I spoke of? Well, there was more to the story, the events can take a lot of possible paths, but other things have to be taken into consideration, or rules imposed. Like my rock rolling down a hill the possibility of it suddenly floating in the air doesn't exist, because of the rules, So....

An event (and sub-event) has to follow a specific set of rules (such as laws of motion) so if nothing else were at work the rock would go straight.

Each subsequent-event has its own probability and the probability of an event taking a certain path decreases as it gets further from some midline, of some sorts.

Multiple simultaneous events WILL interact with the primary event, creating a secondary event (or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc., level event).

Obstacles that have their own probabilities change the midline probability. The greater the obstacle then the smaller the chance is of the path being straight.

But a greater speed, or inertia, of the event will increase the influence of the obstacle.

Years ago the game show "the price is right " had a game I think it was called plinko, and they had a big board with rows and rows of nails sticking out through it. each row was evenly spaced, but every other row was staggered. at the bottom were dollar amounts $50 to $1000 (or something like that) and the player was meant to drop a plastic disc from the top and let it fall through the nails, each time it hits a nail it goes left or right, sometimes it goes L,R,L,R,L,R,L,R so that it goes down in close to a straight line and other times it goes R,R,R,R,R,R,R do that it goes right down the board diagonally. Usually, though, it takes several different directions in its path before reaching the bottom.

There is intention on the part of the player at the beginning of the game, where he will drop the disc from, whether or not he will let it drop on its own or give it a little push, maybe he'll put an angle on it. But at some point the plinko disc will act on its own. Is this an autonomous system? Well it can't really be called autonomous because it relied on the player; like the rock on the hill needed something to get it rolling. Everything that I can think of needs something else to exist. So what is it that we use this word "autonomous" for?

Just think of the huge number of event paths that brought about one's birth, from cavemen or before up to your conception, the odds of making it through 9 month of coexistence with your mother, and then to the birth itself. Suppose that one of your ancestors got hit by a car (or a buggy or camel or a stone from the sphinx.) before bearing children, then you would not be here.

OK, I've gotten way off path. I think my point was that all the event paths are, in some sense from one totality. The agents involved "know" what they are doing, like the way your bones continually destroy and rebuild themselves. To say that something is a birth or death on an event path is to pick which ever place you want to call that place a birth and a death. They do not exist in any real sense. do they?

-Anne