> Tim Rhodes wrote:
> > Any ideas for a unit of novelty, folks?
>
> The Tim? A unit corresponding to a 1% increase in the novelty of a meme
> or meta-meme over it's parent(s).
ROTFL!!! Ahem, well,... um, the "tim", hmmm? Ah,... well, I do like the
sound of it! :-)
> Of course, measuring such an increase will be difficult, to say the
> least.[1] It is interesting to note that even 100 Tim's does not mean a
> /new/ idea. It just means the idea is 100% more novel than the old one.
> How, then, do we express the novelty of a /totally/ new idea (Orginal
> Thought?) Is that an infinite Tim? Or does that transcend the scale?
I would say if <Eric'> diverges from <Eric> by 100 tims <Eric'> could, for
all intents and purposes, be called an /original/ thought. But remember,
the reason I suggested a unit for novelty was that I don't think that
there are 100% original thoughts. That is to say, thoughts that come,
full formed without the influence or parentage of other ideas. That would
be akin to a species appearing out of thin air without having been a
variation of another previous species.
-Prof. Tim