[FRIAM] Truth: “Hunh! What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!”

[Steven A Smith]

Dave sez:
> It is certainly possible for one sensor-web-effector state machine to
> "infect" another, i.e. stimulate a second machine to replicate the
> behavior. If that happens we have 'convergence' which is nothing more
> than collective 'fault'/ 'defectiveness'.
>
It sounds as if you believe that resonance, mode locking, phase locking, 
tidal locking, etc.  are somehow defective ways for systems to 
interact.   I can agree that they are modestly less interesting than 
more chaotic systems.   While *I* might find a marching (esp. if they 
are goose-stepping) army aberrant (and abhorrent), I might find a 
*marching band* or *synchronized swimmers* or a dance-troupe following a 
choreography (e.g. Cirque de Soliel perfomance) somehow beautiful.  And 
I would suggest these are examples of what you are judging as 
"defective"?   I suppose that since only a *subsystem* of the units 
(dancers/musicians/soldiers) are mode/phase-locked for the duration of 
the march/performance, that this is only a partial example and therefore 
only *partially* defective/faulty?

I believe it is in the liminal space which fills the near-locality of a 
shared "dialect" where the interesting stuff happens, not unlike in 
dynamical systems' "edge of chaos".   I agree with the technical 
expression that any "statement of Truth" is a defect, but that does not 
mean that it doesn't gesture in the direction of, or roughly 
circumscribe, or provide a proxy for a more transcendent "truth".    One 
*might* argue that each individual has a private, idiosyncratic dialect 
of "the same language", and that interaction amongst individuals whose 
dialects are similar enough to intend to agree/discuss/converge/??

I would claim that a well formed question suggests a family of "answers" 
and thereby hints at what we want to believe in as "truth".

This paper may (or may not) offer some perspective on the evolution of a 
language/dialect and teh convergence/coherence issue.

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Coherence-Convergence-and-Change-A-Sociolinguistic-Variationist-Approach-to-Dialect-and-Standard-Language-Use-in-Swabia

- Steve