Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Generative Methodology Glass Bead Games
On the limits of the OWL standard à [184]
Reading material [1]
Reading material [2]
Reading material [3]
Summary of the discussion up to this point à [186]
On ontological modeling of expression
The metaphor between gene, cell and social
expression à [217]
On Formal verses Natural systems à [206]
Comments by Judith Rosen on [218]
Comment
by Paul Werbos à [220]
Extended
comment by Paul Prueitt à [221]
Judith Rosen’s communication
Paul (P), if you remember, I mentioned that you use certain terms quite differently from the way I am used to hearing them used, and this use of “holonomic” is one of the examples I was referring to. "Ontology" is another.
In science, when examining causality/entailment, we must also examine the concomitant notion of "constraints". Constraints that are constant in their value, regardless of any relational differences, are called "holonomic" constraints. Constraints which can be changed by the relational nature of any given interaction and, therefore, depend on the context of each interaction for their values as constraints are "non-holonomic" constraints.
It seems to me that holonomic constraints rarely (if ever?) exist in a complex, relational universe such as ours and are the province of formalisms and models. Even the definition of what is a constraint will be context-dependent in reality.
This line of thought is partly what led my father to conclude that causality is relational, that complexity refers to this relational impact, and that any system which has complex organization (where the bulk of the components are relational rather than material) or which depends on relational constraints will be one which cannot be approached reductionistically.
Syntax we usually regarded as "objective" and semantics then is viewed as being "subjective" in scientific terms, however this is entirely because of the machine model at the foundations. Clearly, any system with non-holonomic constraints as components cannot be stripped of all semantic content and still be comprehensible. Anything that is context-dependent for its values intrinsically involves semantic information.
Biology is rife with systems of this type but so is the realm physics concerns itself with. Perhaps this is why the "three-body problem" is so difficult for physics/science; it brings with it the introduction of non-holonomic constraints.
Judith