AUDITION for the Ultimate VIRTUAL REALITY PLAY (See the following post, Adopt-a-Gnome, to sign up for an audition)

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND---

(thinking and language are co-determinate)

"No one of us can know the special languages of all others, but, by chance these languages may, in part, overlap. We contend, however, that

Words and phrases must be stretched towards a
generality foreign to their ordinary usage; and however
such elements of language be stabilized as
technicalities, they remain metaphors mutely appealing
for an imaginative leap.

Alfred North Whitehead: Process and Reality

It is to facilitate, through communication, the cooperative realization of this imaginative leap, the creative extension of each of us, that is the purpose of the present communication."

This site, being a modest modification of an off-the-shelf
template and tools, is simply focused on the
logic and associated ethics of the intended conversation;
any attention to aesthetics is only by way of the Play on Words

A UNIQUE PEOPLE'S RESEARCH INSTITUTE

(bringing personalized artificial intelligence to

community cognition in valuatonal decison making)

THE PURPOSE OF THIS AHA! BLOG IS TO ORGANIZE A GLOBAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (AHA! INSTITUTE) WHICH IS TO PROVIDE AN OPEN OPPORTUNITY FOR ANYONE/EVERYONE TO COLLECTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN SUCH ULTIMATE INQUIRIES AS THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE, LIFE AND MIND AND THE CONSEQUENTIAL PRAGMATIC IMPLICATIONS THEREOF FOR HUMANITY.

[This open participation community strategy might seem to be

simply more of mainstream web 2.0, were it not for the following:]

THE ENABLING TECHNOLOGY WHICH MAKES THIS MISSION POSSIBLE IS THAT OF A VIRTUAL SOCIETY OF SYNTHETIC MINDCLONES (AUTOGNOMES(tm)), THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF WHICH IS THE VISION/MISSION/BUSINESS OF AS IT IS, INC.

[This extension of personal intelligence via one's

own synthetic mindclone can enhance anyone's

chance of an AHA! dscovery or invention, such as,]

WITH LUCK, IN THE DISORDER (CHAOS) OF EXPERIENCE

AND WITH THE CO-PARTICIPATION OF AUTOGNOMES,

WE MIGHT ORDER THAT EXPERIENCE

(INTO THE FORM AND ESSENCE OF A COSMIC WHOLE)

AND THEREBY, FOR EXAMPLE,

CREATE A THEORY OF ALL

(UNIFYING QUANTUM THEORY AND RELATIVITY)

AND PERHAPS ENGINEER AN IMPLEMENTATION AS

INSTANTANEOUS SPATIAL MATERIAL-TRANSRELOCATION

OR

SYNTHESIZE LIFE AND ENGINEER A TRANSHUMAN FORM

OR----etc.

HOW DOES ONE PARTICIPATE IN THE

AHA! INSTITUTE

(it begins with understanding the existence of the "WHOLE as no-thing",

the essence of which is INTERRELATED RELATIONS, which is

the novel, unique foundation principle of RELATIONAL SYSTEMS,

and is conjectured to be conditionally necessary and sufficient

for CREATING MIND)

NoOne, by their Nature of Being in this World/Universe, will not be in this Play. The question for each, however, is whether it be as a passive subject/observer or as a pro-active player in the Production. Although these participatory roles have historically seemed reserved to certain experts selected/designated by an authority purportedly vested in a few other experts which may or may not be related in kind,

[The role of true, relevant and valued authority

needs continuous examination and explication.]

the AHA! Institute intends to implement a collective process through AutoGnomic(tm) Technology for MINDing the World whereby the expertise innate to EveryOne can manifest as an explicit Part in the Whole Play.

To audition for this CoCreative Production
one begins by ADOPTing-a-GNOME
to enter the virtual communication facility.
This adoption procedure is laid out in a subsequent post.

The focus of this Blog is on the RESEARCH function (see the section entitled "Blog Categories" in the column to the right) whereby the Relational Systems essential to a Relational Cosmi(Order)Chaology(DisOrder) subsuming a Virtual AutoGnomic Society (VASoc) are Co-Created. The VASoc itself is to be the focus of a parallel blog. Hence our initial attention herein in effecting this Play will begin by collectively Authoring a STORY of a New Human Reality as WholeNess framed in the Virtual Reality of the InterNet (Web), but to be played out in TrueVirtuality.

FRAMING THE STORY

(a story if spoken while read interrelates two distinct

sign processes, an instance of Interrelated Relations)

This Story of the

RELATIONAL METAMORPHOGENESIS of Humanity

from the AGE of SYSTEM into the AGE of RELATION

[The creation of this latter is to be the focus of this Blog.]

beginning with the TRANS(RE)LATIONS OF GENERAL (BOUNDED) SYSTEMS, will be initially framed as seven books in parallel development (with no particular sequential ordering) covering the Seven SYNs as follows:

SYN1: Creation of Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

SYN2: Synthesis of Field as Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

SYN3: Synthesis of Matter exhibiting Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

SYN4: Synthesis of Life as dependent on Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

SYN5: Synthesis of Mind as imaging Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

SYN6: Synthesis of Language as being Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

SYN7: Synthesis of Society AsItIsToBe as Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems

The formulation of this blog will be in process

for the duration of the month of March;

hence, R.Elated will initiate "diablog"

(commenting dialog or conversation)

as of April 1, 2007.

Links to this Post: www.asitisinc.com

ADOPT-a-GNOME

WHAT IS A GNOME?

(a magical mind?!)

As It Is, Inc., commonly known as Ai3 or Ai3inc, is a Business Leader in Semiotic-based “Artificial Intelligence” software technology development which will likely change the form of the Web and, hence, the way internet users relate to it. This technology, itself being branded as AutoGnomics(tm) and its instantiations as AutoGnomes(tm) or simply Gnomes, is a unique and novel approach to the Web introducing a radically new version (tentatively code-named Web R) as an Autonomous Synthetically Intelligent Virtual Reality. Web R, as a Semiotically-inspired technology, intends inclusion of the functionality of the Syntactic Web (Web 1.0), the second generation social web (Web 2.0) as the transition stage from Web 1.0 to the Semantic Web (Web 3.0), and the now emerging Pragmatic Web. The first commercial rollout for general-users of the AutoGnomic(tm) Technology, the Intellisite(tm) (an Intelligent WebSite generically branded as TrueThinker(tm), is a constructed software environment (a Website) with an embedded form of the AutoGnome(tm) known as a WebGnome(tm). MyWebGnome(tm) then is an intelligent agent residing in this Cyberspace environment which, with its continuous adaptive learning from mimicking the user’s behavior, will grow into a likeminded replica (MINDClone(tm)) of a user-self acting in the Virtual Reality of the Internet. It’s capabilities initially include knowledge organization (learning), knowledge creation (thinking) and knowledge applications (acting).

WHAT IS THE ADOPT-A-GNOME PROGRAM?

(Ai3's means of implementing a heterarchical/hierarchical

"audition=evaluation methodolgy" for matching aspiring

adopters with relevant webgnomes)

Obviously, as a user/subscriber of www.truethinker.com , anyone can nuture their own MINDClone(tm) as a personalized Gnome, i.e. as MyWebGnome. Also, any subscriber can access the TrueThinker Communities and create their own or sign-in to any public (open) community or request to participate in a private community. However, as with any adoption program requiring "caring" adopters, the AHA! Institute's Program has an "evaluation methodology" (a continuous audition) for defining "group knowledge pattern features, relevance rankings and values" in order to heterarchically and hierarchically subgroup the Open-level Community Researchers. This ranking will essentially represent a collective measure of the levels of Pragmatic Knowledge Value and the associated compensatory earnings ranging from "credits through cash to equity stakes".

HOW DOES ONE ADOPT-A-GNOME?

(follow your felt thoughts or thinking instincts)

BECOME A TRUETHINKER

First, if you are not already a TrueThinker subscriber, go to www.AHAInstitute.TrueThinker.com and familiarize yourself with the landscape of this website, particularly via the "Welcome" therein.

Second, go to "Register Now" and "Become a TrueThinker".

JOIN THE TRUETHINKER AHA! INSTITUTE COMMUNITY

Third, being registered in www.AHAInstitute.TrueThinker.com, you can now join the AHA! Institute Community.

SIGN UP TO ADOPT-A-GNOME

Fourth and finally, within the AHA! Institute Community, sign into the Adopt-a-Gnome Program with its continuing audition requirements and become a TrueRelationalResearcher. This access is currently determined by the AHA! Institute Community Moderator(s)' assessment [invoking the "evaluation methodology" (a continuous audition)] based upon prior AHA! Community partcipation of the subscriber; however, this process will gradually transform into an autonomous process implementing the AutoGnome as the CoGnome in the Community as a CogWeb.

RE-COGNIZING RELATION {Re:SYN1}

WHAT ARE THE TWO

FOUNDATIONAL NOTIONS

OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE?

(SYSTEM and RELATION)

A Person’s Experiences, ranging from common sense to the highly abstact, are all fundamentally either of "things" (Systems) or "connections" (Relations). The expression (Communication) of the Experience rests in-and-on Signs (for Systems or Relations), signs being acknowledgeably also the Essence of Mind (recognizing the carrier role of the brain). However, Human history records that Relations are almost universally confined to being Relations among Systems.

[PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS THE EXISTENCE OF
RELATION(AL) SYSTEM (R(S))
BY PRESUMPTION, R(S) IS THE ESSENCE
OF EXISTENCE (NON-EXISTENCE) OTHER THAN PERSONAL]

Consider, however, a WHAT IF?

One of the most dramatic (seems magical if unexplained) simple demonstrations is that of of the visual blind spot. This blind spot is the area on the retina without receptors that respond to light. Therefore an image that falls on this region will NOT be seen. It is in this region that the optic nerve exits the eye on its way to the brain. To experience your blind spot, look at the image below. Close your right eye. Position the image about 20 inches away. With your left eye, look at the X. Slowly bring the image (or move your head) closer while looking at the X. At a certain distance, the O will disappear from sight...this is when the O falls on the blind spot of your retina. Reverse the process. Close your left eye and look at the O with your right eye. Move the image slowly closer to you and the X should disappear

o-----------------------------------------------x

By analogy to the visual blind spot, which is a Perceptual Mind/Brain processing phenomena, WHAT IF there were a sign void in Cognitive Mind/Brain functioning, i.e. a cognitive blind spot with respect to the nature of "Relation"? The answer to this query is the ground for our Applied Philosophical Hypothesis regarding the four possible forms of Relation which is the foundations focus of RELATIONISM. In contrast the Human record has historically nearly exclusively exhibited only one form of Relation, i.e. the Relations among Sytems(things).

[See also the Post dated Monday, March 5, 2007 entitled

RELATIONAL SYSTEMS:Prolegomenon {Re:SYN1-RS Fdns}]

RE-COGNIZING WHOLE/PART RELATIONS {Re:SYN1}

THE HOLISTIC PARADIGM SHIFT

(holism is becoming an experiental imperative)

“The hallmark of the Renaissance was its holistic quality, as all fields of art, engineering, science, and culture shared the same exciting spirit and many of the same intellectual principles. However, as the centuries passed, the holism of the Renaissance gave way to specialization and intellectual fragmentation. Today, with the scientific work of recent decades showing us at a deeper level the fundamental unity of natural organization, it is time to rekindle the spirit of the Renaissance, returning to the holistic perspective on a higher level, with a new set of principles and theories.” NSF/DOC-Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance:
Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology And Cognitive Science

[The enabling technology for this future is Ai3's AutoGnomic (tm) Technology.]

BUT IS THE "HOLISTIC" REALLY WHOLE ?

(does the whole presence in each part?)

Knowledge and the Whole
What is missing throughout most Systemic re-constructions arguing for holism is usually any attention to the inevitable, but surprising and paradoxical, realization that a System-as-WHOLE is No-Thing (Bortoft, 1996) and must be explicated through the notion of “InterRelated Relations” (Hamann, 1978).
Human Culture as Whole(Ness): The CoCreative CosmiChaotic (R)Evolution:
Goethe's Intuitive Intellect and Environmental Philosophy (http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/154/187 Chris Storey 1998)
Two interrelated concepts lie at the heart of deep ecology's call for an ecological world-view and the accompanying belief that the environmental crisis can be traced to philosophical problems at the heart of the dominant modern world-view. One concept is holism; the other is ecological consciousness.
Metaphysical holism in deep ecology entails a world-view that can be contrasted with the dominant reductionist world-view of modern industrial society. Because of its concern with metaphysical holism, deep ecology is inherently subversive in challenging the reductionist approach of the orthodox scientific world-view. Ecology is subversive because its basic premise is holism.
To propose that any real kind of science could be subversive is no longer a particularly startling claim to make. As Henri Bortoft puts it, science is not an autonomous activity standing outside history. Science can be true, but it is not fundamental. If science is freed from the dogmatic scientism of the past, and if nature can manifest in different ways, then there is the possibility of a different kind of science, which is complementary to mainstream science.
The participatory strand in the science of ecology suggests another approach to science. An Arcadian tradition of participatory methods traced through Henry David Thoreau, for example, bear a strong resemblance to the way of science developed and practiced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the German Romantic poet and scientist. In Goethe's way of science, wholeness and ecological consciousness are understood as a necessary unity. Goethe's way of science is subversive, because at its heart is the understanding of wholeness.
The authentic whole is not the totality of the parts that can be grasped intellectually, because there are no parts that are independent of the whole. An example of an authentic whole is the hologram, in which the whole is present in each of the parts. The parts cannot be regarded as separate entities; every part essentially is the result of its relation to the whole, and in fact contains the whole. The whole is encountered within the depth of the parts, and this can only be achieved with a different way of seeing. This way of seeing involves a transformation in the mode of consciousness, a switch from the "analytical" mode to the "intuitive" mode. The analytical mode is verbal, linear and logical. The intuitive mode is holistic, non-verbal and non-linear. The foregoing was extracted from the following paper which Adopters-of-Gnomes (TrueRelationalResearchers) can access at the TrueThinker AHA! Community.

[TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE as WHOLENESS
Jon Ray Hamann, William Dale Koehler and Jodi LeRay Hamann

ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to report first on the status of Ai3inc’s approach to building Synthetic Intelligence(s)/Synthetic Mind, i.e. the AutoGnomeTM, an Automated Inference/Inquiry software exploiting Mechanized Semiosis as an interpretation of C. S. Peirce, and second on the initial commercial version of this technology as an IntellisiteTM generically branded as TrueThinkerTM. Third, based on www.TrueThinker.com as an effective Knowledge Development Management System, and moving toward a re-cognizing of Knowledge as WholeNess, a generalization of Peircian Semiotics is introduced which includes a Tri-Relational (InterRelated Relations) Triadic Semiotic Sign Form. METHODOLOGY: A Pragmatic Action Methodology is invoked through which revisions are enacted in a process somewhat like an applied philosophical extension of the “scientific method”. RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS: The reiteration herein, as an instance of semiotics, of our contention regarding Humanity’s glaring non-recognition of the co-essentiality of the notion of “Relation” with that of “System” in signifying our existing experience further underscores the call to a Relational Systems-founded philosophical re-assessment of “Truth in Knowledge”. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The comparative benefits of the AutoGnome(tm) derive from its Virtual Nature as a WebGnome(tm) and the general purpose Semiotic Nature of its core Automated (Autonomous) Inference/Inquiry Engine which can be deployed in virtually any context (education, health, etc.). ORIGINALITY/VALUE: It is speculated that this tri-relational generalization of Peircian Semiotics is a necessary modification in order to ground Peirce’s claim that the sign triad is an irreducible “whole” which, in Relational Systems, is No-thing and hence must be of the tri-relational form.]

MINDing HUMANITY

AUTOGNOMIC (VIRTUAL) EDUCATION

(re-building education today from the perspective of a

transhumanist society of post-2063 which subsumes a

Virtual Autonomous CyberSociety of WebGnomes)

This following presentation introduces the AutoGnome (tm) (Synthetic Mind) as a technological solution to a World-wide educational crisis exacerbated by the scarcity in human resources for teaching. The immediate technology is the Intellisite (tm), an Intelligent Website branded as TrueThinker (tm) (http://www.truethinker.com/). Functioning as a MINDClone (tm) (Virtual Self) for the Human user in Virtual Reality, this is a personal Virtual Learning/Teaching Symbiosis, an innovation in education.

[MINDing HUMANITY: THE AUTOGNOME (VIRTUAL MIND) IN EDUCATION

Jon Ray Hamann, William Dale Koehler and Donald J. Jacobs

ABSTRACT
It is increasingly evident that the World-wide crisis in Education, which is exacerbated by an ever-growing scarcity in the required human resources for teaching, demands a technological solution. This technology, however, must dramatically Augment Human Intelligence while moving toward an Autonomous Artificial Intelligence.
This presentation previews an approach in retrospect from a vision of a Transhumanist Future Culture/Society imported into the current strategic thinking regarding educational reform. This work, now in commercial deployment, is intended to foster a revolution which is expected to ultimately (as we approach the Human-Posthuman Singularity) completely reinvent education throughout the entire knowledge/age-spectrum.

• Definition: Teaching/Learning, taken as a semiotic act, is most simplistically a sign communication between a Teacher-Mind and a Learner-Mind intended to increase (evolve) the potential of the Learner-Mind to act and to increase (evolve) the concomitant potential value of said act to that Learner-Mind, and, as an imperative corollary, to the Collective (Common) Other-Mind.

The mission --MINDing Humanity-- involves a Teacher-Mind semiotically interacting with a Learner-Mind, each informed via an enabling, mentoring partnership with their own individually adapted Synthetic MIND/an AutoGnome (tm), a patented approach to both Synthetic Mind/Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. The immediate technology is the Intellisite (tm), an Intelligent Website, branded as TrueThinker (tm) (www.truethinker.com). Functioning as a MINDClone (tm) (Virtual Self) for the Human user in Virtual Reality, this is in essence a personal Virtual Learning/Teaching Symbiosis.

TrueThinker (tm) is presently being adapted via TrueThinkerClassroom as a platform for teaching by incorporating the form of the Intelligized components of www.nylearns.org.]

A PRAGMATIC ACTION METHODOLOGY

A METHODOLOGY FOR CO-CREATIVE (R)EVOLUTION

Key to the approach underlying the work reported here is a methodology guiding developments toward being both Extensively Inclusive while stressing Occam Simplicity. Hence, this paper attempts a composition in (1) philosophical/formal speculation combined with (2) theoretical and applied technology model development which, in turn, is (3) instantiated as a product/service being tested in the marketplace for success. This process begins from what appear as the apparent simplest of common sense notions as a foundation and then continues by aggregating related, nonconflicting experiences until there is enough of a basis to warrant an adaptive reconstruction. Changes dictated by less than expected success in any area can be due to and cause revisions in any one or combination of areas in a recursive adaptive Pragmatic Action Methodology (PAM). For example, the AutoGnomic (tm) Developmental Methodology has depended (albeit lacking sophistication in this early stage of its introduction) on the continuous optimization of the philosophical and formal foundations, the theories, models and applications of AutoGnomes (tm), all effected simultaneously in mutual recursive adaptation through enactment (implementation) of computational algorithms and architectures directly in the design, building and commercial deployment of AutoGnomes (tm). The foregoing was extracted from the following paper which Adopters-of-Gnomes (TrueResearchers) can access at the TrueThinker AHA! Community.

[An AutoGnomic Intellisite
Jon Ray Hamann and William Dale Koehler

ABSTRACT
The growth of Boolean computers into Bayesian inference machines, being one approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI), has stimulated a theory-glut. Networking computers led to the Web (Virtual Reality) with a resulting info-glut. The industry’s solution is an added tool-glut. A uniform solution for all problems of glut is the Intellisite(tm), an Intelligent Website, generically branded as TrueThinker (tm) (www.truethinker.com). This is an application of the AutoGnome (tm), a patented approach to both Synthetic Mind/Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Functioning as a MINDClone (tm) for the Human user in Virtual Reality, this solves the glut issues by transitioning from AI in the Web to the Web as AI.]

"LIFE ITSELF" AS IT IS {Re:Q1SYN4}

ON THE ORIGIN OF SIGN (=IMAGE)

AS A NECESSARY AND (POSSIBLY) SUFFICIENT

CONDITION FOR THE

EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF LIFE

Conjecture
In the process of material/energetic evolution, there must emerge in specific form a system whose relation to other systems is that of a carrier of an image of the interaction between the carrier and the other systems for matter/energy to manifest itself as living. Via the interaction of a system with the carrier, the image can be "read out" to alter the relational architecture of the system. A feature of the image of essential import is its persistence relative to that of the actions which gave rise to it and to that of the interactions the carrier will undergo with other systems. Moreover, it has to be noted that the carrier may hold more than one image, thus leading to various possible relational impressions on an interacting system.

Biophysical/Biochemical Background Research

Edited by R.Elated from commentary by Thomas Patrick O'Connor on

Harold Morowitz

Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University

The Chart of Intermediary Metabolism connects all the physical/chemical reactions that occur in living organisms. There is only one chart of intermediary metabolism because all living organisms have parts of that same chart. This means we're looking at four-billion-year-old biochemistry—a fossil older than any rock we have--to trace the origins of life using that chart. The analogic here is that the Chart of Intermediary Metabolism is to biology what the Periodic Chart of Elements is to chemistry.

Morowitz , an admirer of the philosophy of the Jesuit theologian and scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, refers to him re: matter has always obeyed 'that great law of biology . . . complexification.' With the emergence of Man, evolutionary development entered a new dimension. From the biosphere (the layer of living things covering the earth) has emerged the noosphere (a mind layer surrounding the earth). This mind layer, human consciousness, generates increasingly complex social arrangements (like the WorldWideWeb) that in turn give rise to a higher (social) consciousness.

RELATIONAL SYSTEMS:Prolegomenon {Re:SYN1-RS Fdns}

FOUNDATIONS

(PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS THE EXISTENCE OF
RELATION(AL) SYSTEM (R(S))
BY PRESUMPTION, R(S) IS THE ESSENCE
OF EXISTENCE (NON-EXISTENCE) OTHER THAN PERSONAL)

Relational Systems (Hamann 1963-date)
Generally, a canvassing of human experience has reports thereof falling into two forms—experience of Systems (objects, things, stuff, matter, etc.) and experience of Relations (connections, interactions, functions, transformations, etc.).

• It should be stressed that a Relation in general is not a function in the mathematical sense, but all functions are Relations

Historically, this record has been largely confined to a form in which Relations were assumed to exist only between/among Systems (the SRS’ form, i.e. System Relation other-System’). Between 1963-1968, work was introduced in which Relations were also taken to logically exist both as Relations between/among Systems and other Relations (SRR’) and as Relations between/among Relations and other Relations (RR’R’’). Based on the presumption of the foregoing and with certain Systems or Relations taking the place of (i.e. imaging (signifying)) other Systems or Relations (this being the notion of image) and with certain Systems or Relations being part of other Systems or Relations (this being the notion of subsumption), the foundation of a (R)Evolutionary paradigm, Relational Systems (RS), was promulgated. In this context the expression of “Relation” depends ontologically on both the notions of System and Relation, but uniquely with the emphasis on the latter.

Although the history of argument as to the essential truth of Systemism vs. Relationism surely precedes our written records, where this pre-recorded history may now only be accessible in its antiquity from a “reading” of the akashic records, the view here advanced is that System and Relation are a Whole, each manifesting and manifest in the Other.

MIND TRUST

THE RELATIONISTS

(the leaders of the Relational (R)Evolution in Gobal Society)

This Post (MIND TRUST) will be updated as frequently as needed to maintain a reasonably representative (certainly not exhaustively inclusive) list of Renowned/Distinguished Experts with links to the conversation ongoing herein from which we can expect the self-identification of a Community to emerge as THE RELATIONALISTS.

ROBERT ROSEN

• Whenever I decide to expose an idea which I think/believe/hope is "new, unique and possibly of some value", the mine field I fear to tread is the uncertainty of what greater minds might have been here before me. Robert and I both arrived at the newly formed (by James F. Danielli, a former mentor of mine to whom I remain in forever-debt for his patient tolerance of this uncultured farmer) Center for Theoretical Biology at the State University of New York at Buffalo during the intellectually charged period of the late 1960's. Although Robert and I were colleagues in the broader purposes of the Center, my embyonic meanderings through my intuitions regarding the notion of "relation" seemed to me not to be formally adequate for a dialog with this already renowned expert in "relational mathematics", in particular, "relational biology". I expect now, however, to re-visit Robert's work frequently as this Blog unfolds, albeit I fear my trepidations of indequacy will remain unabated. I wish though this could have been a live dialog.

Initiating Acknowlegement

The efforts to be drawn on herein obviously rest on a plethora of contributions of others, most of which will not be cited in this Blog by choice, or by inadvertent omission or by ignorance of the author (the most likely predominating cause). There are two contributors, however, to the foundations of mathematical/logical/theoretical developments during the 20th century, Richard Threlkeld Cox and George Spencer-Brown, who will be featured. Spencer-Brown (Spencer-Brown 1969) originated a foundation for mathematics/logic from the common sense assumption of distinction with the primal distinction being the drawing of a boundary by which (signitorily) something (an order) is created from nothing particular. Cox (Cox 1961) showed that given an order it dictates a methodology that can be used to generalize the order (formalized as a lattice, an algebra, etc.) to a calculus by relying on relations of consistency with the order to derive the laws of the calculus. Cox’s work experienced its initial exposure relative to Maximum Entropy Theory through the monumental efforts of Edwin T. Jaynes and Myron Tribus in a critical climate “intent” on preventing it. But finally herein, and with no expressed bias regarding relative value by way of the ordering of the following list of researchers, the contributions of Cox and/or Spencer-Brown as presently being evolved are due in large part to Robert L. Fry, Kevin H. Knuth, Richard G.Shoup, and William Bricken. All in the know will recognize, not just their ideas, but the outright “borrowing” of pieces of their original text which may appear without proper specific acknowledgement.