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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Speaking of words, I thought wuwei was interesting. It seems to mean “nugatory”.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Nick Thompson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Stephen Guerin<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, October 3, 2021 4:02 PM<br><b>To:</b> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] Newborn Heart Rate<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Sat, Oct 2, 2021 at 5:57 PM <<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>Just to be clear – and perhaps nerdishly literal minded – I would NEVER claim that word play alone is science; I would only claim that it has a role to play.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>On Sat, Oct 2, 2021 at 10:59 AM <<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" target="_blank">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> You might help me distinguish between vicious DAWW and virtuous DAWW. You might exile me. But you probably won’t get me to stop. <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>If we follow the virtuous DAWW, it feels like <a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?wdqb=c%3A%2A%E6%97%A0%E4%B8%BA%2A&wdrst=0" target="_blank">wuwei </a>science to me. Who needs <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_(physics)" target="_blank">action</a> when you got words? <a href="https://youtu.be/Sj8UbmdV7bk?t=53" target="_blank">We are but meat puppets playing with nirvana</a>.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal>Nick, I absolutely see the value in wordplay (DAWW) and do think it's an important part of science and mathematics.<br><br>I was being perhaps a little too clever in my own mind with my obtuse DAWW riff above. At the risk of over parsing (like the risk of explaining a joke) virtuous DAWW triggered the homophone of the Dao (<span style='font-family:"MS Gothic"'>道</span>) and its central concept of wu-wei, which is often inaccurately translated as inaction but closer to right action / Least (stationary) action in physics for me. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>This then triggered lyrics of one of my favorite songs, <a href="https://genius.com/Nirvana-plateau-lyrics">Plateau</a> from the Meat Puppets, "who needs action when you got words". To me, the line captures your and my relationship where I'm struggling with generalizing the concept of Action in Complex Systems and you are working your thoughts out with words. I find this a healthy dialogue!<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>And then I couldn't resist sharing the MTV unplugged concert where Nirvana covered the Meat Puppets song with one of the Meat Puppets playing on stage. The link to Youtube is to that line in the song in the performance. So the literal Meat Puppet playing with Nivana mutated to "we are but meat puppets playing with Nirvana" gave me 15 minutes of interesting private contemplation of a puppet master animating our puppets and wooing our puppet minds with Nirvana.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <br>Certainly too obtuse of references and self-indulgent to post but what the hell.<br><br>So I really do appreciate your DAWW and was just trying to join in and play with your dicking. :-)<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>