[FRIAM] FRIAM and CAUSALITY (was NOT "complexity and emergence")

[PPARYSKI at aol.com]

Having, alas, been one of the catalysts for this thread by asking "who  
believes in causality" at a FRIAM meeting, I do occasionally agree with Nick and  
think the thread has wandered, perhaps not "emerged". As St. Nick so aptly  
expressed: it is about repeating patterns.  Ultimately "deep" (to borrow a  term 
from ecology) causality, which should include quantum analysis, is  unknowable 
given the limits of science and indeed our minds (certainly beyond  the 
limits of my few remaining brain cells and synapses).  Deep causality,  like 
ecology, posits a complex chain of linked occurrences or flows; in  some ways 
"event" is a concept not a reality. Perhaps "causality", like agent  based models, 
is a very useful tool which permits us to deal with what is inside  and outside 
ourselves.    
 
Does this make sense?  Does it "cause" Nick's eyebrows to  twitch?  
 
Paul 



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