Re: virus: Hope

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Thu, 06 Jun 1996 15:03:28 -0500


Chitren Nursinghdass wrote:

> Experiment in collective cognition :
>
> people in a circle. Start with one calling out loud the first of a
> series (know to him alone) of numbers. The one next to him does
> the saying of the second number with his own chosen series.
>
> What will the numbers look like ?
>
> Totally chaotic ?
>
> Or partially ordered ?

I would say that a "pattern" so produced would not really be a pattern
at all. Just choas. The only way it might come out meaningful is if the
actual differnet patterns used by different people were themselves part
of a larger pattern. For instance, this:

1 2 9 64 3125 ...

> If the experiment is repeated with everybody remembering his series, then
> the same number will come forth.

My question: if the order of speakers was changed around, but each of
their patters remained the same, would the resultant pattern have _any_
similarity to the previous one? I would say no... chaos. (although if
repeated often enough, the volume of information available about each
seperate series would grow big enough to figure it out... then any
combination of the series's could be predicted, and the choas fades into
merely a highly complex system)

> Several minds produce chaotic series as perceived by any one mind.

This is an interesting statement. It seems to me that all of stats is
founded on the principle that as the number of minds goes _up_, the
complexety of modeling the situation goes _down_. People in masses are
easier to predict than a single individual.

> The order is hidden for whom is not looking ?

Now this looks suspiciously like the Christian justification for evil in
the world... hmmm...

ERiC