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Category Archives: algorithm

I found a copy of Ed Miliband’s speech

01-Oct-11

Here it is. I found it on Tuesday night, at the back of a leather sofa in a Liverpudlian cafe, together with some notes on the back. It’s a strange thing reading it. What’s weird is the structure of the sentencing; the entire speech is divvied out into discrete sentences like the following; I say [...]

Greenberg’s Bogostian moment.

01-Sep-11

One of my favourite lines from Greenberg’s ‘Modernist Painting’ in Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology. ed. Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison, 1982. Why is it Bogostian? It’s not something I have time to put into words, but notice the technicality of language Greenberg uses; procedure, operation, competence. “Modernism criticizes from the inside, through [...]

Jobs may have gone, but the promise of salvation remains

28-Aug-11

So what if Steve Jobs has gone? The Catholicism automaton of Apple rolls on anew in any case. The converted will continue to silently convert the unconverted. Devices will still flitter the market; devices that convince users the ‘best’ way to print something, the ‘best’ way to make a phone call. Salvation is easy when [...]

Thoughts on Platform Politics + Video

14-May-11

So I’ve arrived home from Platform Politics (at 5.00.a.m – no less). Blimey, that was a good conference. I’ve been to conferences where – you know – there are lots of people and lots of ‘stuff’ happens , lots of papers, lots of references; but at the same time nothing really happens. It’s like a [...]

Re:Wire news

21-Apr-11

Clearly I haven’t posted anything in while. Sorry about that; my normal full time work has been crazy this month. Lots of end-of-year tax crazy stuff. So keeping up with academic news has been hard – but now that Easter is here, I’ve got a bit of time to recap on whats been going on. [...]

Sandcastles and sand piles: Levi on Entropy

10-Apr-11

HERE’S an illuminating post by Levi on Entropy, OOO, societies and systems. “Entropy, rather, is a measure of the order present in a system. A high entropy system is a system in which there is equal probability that an element will be located anywhere in the system. Such a system is characterized by having a high degree [...]

Paul Caplan on OOO and jpeg protocols

08-Apr-11

HERE is a great post from Paul Caplan on jpegs, software protocols and OOO objects. I’ve had a quick glance through it (as I’m about to go out for the night), and I’m not sure I can disagree with any of his sound words. We’re on the same panel for the platform politics event in May, [...]

A position on Determinacy and OOO

26-Mar-11

I’ve mentioned determinacy a couple of times on this blog, especially in reference to computation, Cellular Automata and OOO. I think its worth explicating a couple of points in relation to determinacy. Indeed, from my own perspective its clear to see that the issue of transformation and topology will iron out some key differences, certaintly [...]

The problems with ‘real patterns’:

16-Mar-11

Jeffrey Bell has posted some fantastic thoughts on Ladyman and Ross’ Everything Must Go regarding their support for the structural realism of patterns. He’s reminded me to post just a couple of points related to my interest in Wolfram’s New Kind of Science, and the study of Cellular Automaton (CA): basically I can potentially see [...]

Some Rule 30 implications

13-Mar-11

Riffing on Tim’s post, and my earlier one on Wolfram, lets consider some implications of Wolfram’s principles of computational irreducibility and computational equivalence. (Because that’s what we do on Sundays) 1.) Reality is a continuous plethora of discrete executant algorithms. 2.) Executant algorithms are equivalently complex; there is no distinction between brain systems and weather [...]