[FRIAM] looking for a word

[uǝlƃ ☣]

Well, I did mention "plexus" in the very first post.  So, perhaps all the word needs is a champion!

Anastomosis seems to be more like a shunt around the type of networked structure we're talking about.  Or, at least, the etymology seems to talk about connecting two whole openings "make a hole"! 8^)

Reticulation is much more powerful, I think.  But, yes, it seems to target the leaves or the most-fractalized part of the network.  But that brings to mind: "matriculation" (from matrix) and "articulation", for whatever reason.  The branching being done by these systems is "matrixifying" ... splitting the dimensions from a low number to a high number (for efferent) and the reverse for afferent.

It's bizarre, really.  I'm reminded of Luc Steels' "language games", where the suggestion is that the root of language lies in the ability to _point_ at some concrete thing.  If you draw any one of these networks, I can draw an oval around the part I'm referring to and say "I'm talking about THAT part.  Not the other part over there.  THAT part."  (The part excluding the trunk of the tree, excluding the foliage, etc. ... just containing the part after branching begins and before the branching is complete.)  Like Steels' robots, I could make any random bleeping noise to name the part of the network at which I'm pointing and everyone would understand. [sigh]


On 08/21/2018 11:41 AM, Steven A Smith wrote:
> I can't believe none of us offered up "plexus" along the way!  
> 
> I think your invocation of "bed" *IS* maybe better served by "plenum"
> and I can see how the portmanteau of plenum and nexus naturally arrive
> at "plexus" as suggested.   Plenum seems to connote "mixing" not just
> collection/distribution whereas "bed" seems a bit more static.
> 
> I always thought that the engineering use of "manifold" was modestly
> disingenous, abusing the more abstract purity of the mathematical
> "manifold".   Propogating the engineering use into biology would seem
> only to aggravate the abuse?   Of course, this *IS* how language
> evolves, so who am I to say?
> 
> While I am most familiar with the obvious nerve-bundle plexuses (solar
> plexus, lumbar plexus, brachial plexus, sacral plexus, etc.) a little
> review on the internet shows that the term is also used in lymphatic and
> blood systems (collectively "veinous"?), including the blood-brain.
> 
> The concept (word?) I have been in search of since you first brought
> this up turns out to be "anastomose" which describes the interconnection
> between networks (of possibly different qualities?).
> 
>     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastomosis
> 
> I also encountered the term "reticulation" which might also be
> *structurally* relevant to what is happening in the "bed" or "plenum"
> you are considering?

-- 
☣ uǝlƃ