Re: quantification fetish

["Marasigan . Vicente" <vic@pusit.admu.edu.ph>]

On Sun, 3 Jan 1999, tom abeles wrote:
-----------
> If I am at popint A and I need
> to get to point b and there is only one path, then quantitave analysis
> may have a good solution- how much time, energy costs etc will yield
> to mathematical analysis.  But when the path is not clear, is not
> continuous and is not necessarily a predicatble curve, then we have
> problems. 
--------

Yes indeed!  We have big problems.  And my enfeebled mind cannot
forecast solutions.  When Roberto talks of chaotic situations (y2k
119), I wonder if he is thinking of fractals and chaotic dynamics:
when one quantity crosses the boundary of an existing system, there
are unexpected consequences, some orderly and some chaotic.  Just look
at the fractal design in URL:
	
	<http://eulero.cineca.it/~strumia/BigMandOcchio.gif>

This is an orderly consequence of iterating a simple equation of one
constant and one variable.  But make one tiny (quantitative) change in
either one and you have a chaotic situation.  Before 1981,
mathematicians at the University of Bremen could not forecast either
group of consequences.  The point is that complexity of non-linear
systems can only be discovered by experimentation.

The present state of IC Technology has reached a very high degree of
complexity, even prescinding from the euro currency, the Asian crisis
and the global addiction to oil.  I do not have enough years to
participate in the experimentation about its effects on services
involving food, water, housing, medicines, electricity, money,
sanitation, panic, riots, etc.  I can only watch - and pray.  Prayer
is the meaning I get from Paul Swann's (y2k 131) appeal for
integrating "psychology/spirituality" with the differentiated
approaches of the secular mindset.

Keeping in touch through this cable-connected computer beside my
infirmary bed, I again crave forgiveness for indulging in fetishism
with the magic of numbers, analogically speaking, in the hope (or
illusion) that it will reveal paths to non-chaotic situations.  For
input data, I rely on the insights contributed in this listserv - with
joy and gratitude.

Vicente Marasigan