tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78889239309777784112024-03-05T20:55:14.709-05:00Pattern MakersPatterns Here, Patterns There, Patterns Patterns Everywhere -- We're not just pattern recognizers, we're Pattern MakersKim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-63031812230677604452017-01-15T08:55:00.002-05:002017-01-15T08:55:45.605-05:00Looking for Visual Primitiveshttp://cit.fer.hr/index.php/CIT/article/view/3034/1896Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-15256548938793463022016-10-05T18:04:00.002-04:002019-12-10T11:49:45.287-05:00No such thing as only one<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVha3FnTFpJInL0Xq4Z_i_HLv2eMyDEFAlXyHgS9f5aikIba-C1Lv5140by3Nkv9aaRRUEMJfxQtUsIaL-Z5HssETugRv7HGbXQrUO7IMOIS9S0ER5YO-M1E3WOXV1VGfk74yPVpulbg/s1600/a-quantum-circle.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVha3FnTFpJInL0Xq4Z_i_HLv2eMyDEFAlXyHgS9f5aikIba-C1Lv5140by3Nkv9aaRRUEMJfxQtUsIaL-Z5HssETugRv7HGbXQrUO7IMOIS9S0ER5YO-M1E3WOXV1VGfk74yPVpulbg/s320/a-quantum-circle.png" width="240" /></a></div>
In a world such as ours, a world of quantum wave/particle fields, there is no such thing as one of anything. This insight came to me in the bath. I watched a single droplet hit the surface of the water and emanate concentric peaks and troughs outward. Then I imagined this in three dimensions. In that moment, I realized that our understanding of every object is contained within its own three-dimensional sphere of transformations.<br />
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Above is a graphic I created to try to show how our concept of a simple shape such as a circle (as shown in the center). It includes every size and transformation from the centre to the periphery, every point within the sphere, until it becomes so small at the edges that it extinguishes into nothing. This also shows how we may very well create an 'anchor pattern', as shown by the circle in the centre, as a prototypical symbol, and use this as our mental reference, and also as a shared symbol for language.<br />
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This idea also explains how we can "know" or understand that a distorted circle, or one that is larger or smaller than our anchor pattern, is ALSO recognized as a circle.<br />
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I would call this transformation sphere, with an anchored prototypical pattern at the centre, a CONCEPT.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-36987124340187789312015-11-11T13:29:00.003-05:002015-11-11T13:29:28.475-05:00<span style="font-size: large;">(The Latest) Oldest Map Ever</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWKrdv9UrFLwD45U4r6IT7C7tKiudstTuY5ELGqvDyZN46E8a4tCHkdjIxuXDgzhH9cZr2K5kTn2dWMhxGtnxc4ytHQGg1zhUviiPq45Xq7ZDeKwvplXqL7QF3BvtDaKbw3uds8zvj74/s1600/catalhoyuk+mural+9000+yrs+old.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWKrdv9UrFLwD45U4r6IT7C7tKiudstTuY5ELGqvDyZN46E8a4tCHkdjIxuXDgzhH9cZr2K5kTn2dWMhxGtnxc4ytHQGg1zhUviiPq45Xq7ZDeKwvplXqL7QF3BvtDaKbw3uds8zvj74/s320/catalhoyuk+mural+9000+yrs+old.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-stone-age-murals-might-be-oldest-maps-ever-180949321/?no-ist<br />
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From Turkey, Catelhoyuk, 8,500 years old.<br />
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<div class="copy-paste-block">
<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24841-stone-age-mural-ups-the-stakes-in-quest-for-oldest-map.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNSNS%7C2012-GLOBAL%7Conline-news#.UtAaUmRDuid">Michael Marshall at New Scientist explains</a>
that archaeologists had know for years about a mural created 8,500
years ago in Turkey, but that new research is suggesting that the
painting is both a depiction of a volcanic eruption and a map. In a <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0084711">paper published recently in PLoS ONE</a>, archaeologist Axel Schmitt argues that the series of dots on stone “<span class="s1">depicts
an explosive summit eruption of the Hasan Dağı twin-peaks volcano
located ~130 km northeast of Çatalhöyük, and a birds-eye view of a town
plan in the foreground.”</span><span><br /></span></div>
Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-32032727580362766092015-10-24T21:04:00.000-04:002015-10-25T08:12:05.789-04:00Language as a Front Runner<div style="text-align: left;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiryCEOUjF2saBgv-3FBca-3_hYxUO3ZKD2GF-HY6cN5pgDOWMO11cckT7BFdaxTQVJjjws-_SWfmFM4U9HNETNhUGdbykyf07QduLnISZanJBv-bdqEYL-t87J3v9SrZASBAs4jd6AJtM/s1600-h/chickadee_viz_pic.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102342756928183650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiryCEOUjF2saBgv-3FBca-3_hYxUO3ZKD2GF-HY6cN5pgDOWMO11cckT7BFdaxTQVJjjws-_SWfmFM4U9HNETNhUGdbykyf07QduLnISZanJBv-bdqEYL-t87J3v9SrZASBAs4jd6AJtM/s320/chickadee_viz_pic.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bird call waveform pattern</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZI3feVd4WlBw-7xxCrLhpJfKTYCXiyXAcuGF0gsmyK6eNt2lXZs3qC6URHvOklU5ytYKqBgO4vzy3p-LJtO4Tq10o89EU93_ozx_Ha24EBqLR2a71YKqwSFALo5QvSDRwgckIUyTyd9E/s1600/ogham+alphabet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZI3feVd4WlBw-7xxCrLhpJfKTYCXiyXAcuGF0gsmyK6eNt2lXZs3qC6URHvOklU5ytYKqBgO4vzy3p-LJtO4Tq10o89EU93_ozx_Ha24EBqLR2a71YKqwSFALo5QvSDRwgckIUyTyd9E/s1600/ogham+alphabet.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzc0dojs-UMxriDoDDlvlkC7rkO4qPqFms_gKtPymsDLJScp62IO1PrRAWvo6d9i9Lwr8yYSSTS7iZ40FCHtHLR9iGS3APAMcZohq-Gx2ohlUuDHH3pRn0nEWiOKeiKDkYTOILfjKGfS4/s1600-h/Amercode.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102342688208706898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzc0dojs-UMxriDoDDlvlkC7rkO4qPqFms_gKtPymsDLJScp62IO1PrRAWvo6d9i9Lwr8yYSSTS7iZ40FCHtHLR9iGS3APAMcZohq-Gx2ohlUuDHH3pRn0nEWiOKeiKDkYTOILfjKGfS4/s200/Amercode.png" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" width="117" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">morse code</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqH7gfcrTIJ31ZGCL9_-0xe0_YYFzzVqUiydqnI6xB_GW-p0VADbV_8-2ufy20_ac2b2F1FeGCOQ2E28Ow31m59jJRNqY1iqm_ZedYHCwLvtamzDZuTN9ebtK7b1WAtVfSLnQzgGSZClU/s1600-h/ogham_fairmoon_celtic_alpha.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102342572244589890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqH7gfcrTIJ31ZGCL9_-0xe0_YYFzzVqUiydqnI6xB_GW-p0VADbV_8-2ufy20_ac2b2F1FeGCOQ2E28Ow31m59jJRNqY1iqm_ZedYHCwLvtamzDZuTN9ebtK7b1WAtVfSLnQzgGSZClU/s320/ogham_fairmoon_celtic_alpha.gif" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ogham pattern</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpgjrzh5aFxMbJxlE_DazWenCPVTnRXh5z7f7aL2p8Rgm3gAqS5FPuUUuHa0G7KX9ebWIMCp_Y3vCIyW3BKNHFYi8ciE5jAF9HPOfYiVI7YNh3F_UorbWN1__6PgSckZTHfuojzmJ5hQ/s1600-h/fair_moon_celtic_ring.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102342404740865330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpgjrzh5aFxMbJxlE_DazWenCPVTnRXh5z7f7aL2p8Rgm3gAqS5FPuUUuHa0G7KX9ebWIMCp_Y3vCIyW3BKNHFYi8ciE5jAF9HPOfYiVI7YNh3F_UorbWN1__6PgSckZTHfuojzmJ5hQ/s320/fair_moon_celtic_ring.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ogham pattern on a Celtic ring</td></tr>
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In some recent research, I was surprised to discover that language evolved before the depiction of graphic symbols. For some reason, I'd always thought that graphical symbols came first, or at least -- in tandem with spoken language. Someone asked me, "How do they know that spoken language came first?" I had to reply that I didn't know yet why this was 'known'.<br />
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But, if language did come first, and graphical depictions second, this would imply one of two things: 1) graphical depictions were initially linear, because language is a linear form (OR) graphical depictions developed adjacent to or in parallel with the development of language.<br />
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Because not too much research has yet been done to decipher the pictures of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic period regarding the meaning of patterns, this era of cognitive history is still mysterious and filled with unanswered questions.<br />
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What I came across today is fascinating, though, moving on the language first, linear depiction first theory. What does an early Celtic language comprised of lines, read right to left, called ogham, and a bird call and morse code all have in common? Each has a linear sequence, depicted as a simple representational pattern. Each has 'on' and 'off' elements. Acoustic patterns require a temporal interval to convey the on/off sequence. A visual pattern represents on/off with proximity and spatial position. The spaces between the lines of the ogham pattern are like the spaces seen in the birdcall waveform pattern and in the morse code alphabet. Take a look for yourself.<br />
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It makes me wonder if perhaps bird calls were the initial inspiration for humans to attempt language.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-32521704788559850732015-10-24T21:03:00.004-04:002018-02-01T22:11:27.714-05:00Jennifer Bartlett - PainterIn the early 1980s, while working on my fine arts degree, and for some reasons I wouldn't understand until much later in my life, I became mesmerized by the art of Jennifer Bartlett. I saw her first series of paintings, "In the Garden", featured in a printed arts magazine. Her work was strangely fascinating. The colours, the impressionistic strokes, the play of light dancing across the landscape and that mysteriously-empty fountain with the cherub statue, painted again and again from so many different angles and perspectives. What did it mean? What was she trying to tell us? My curiosity about her work surprised me. Usually, I found contemporary art pieces rather boring and obvious, as simplistic reflections of modern life. I was already experiencing modern reality first-hand. I could see it all around me. And feel it. Why would I ever want to examine a crafted substitute?<br />
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Until recently, I hadn't thought about Jennifer Bartlett's work for years. But with renewed interest (and the help of Google) I discovered that one of her recent exhibits involves painting maps. She started out as a map maker. In her work I think there are elements that hint at what I believe may be 'first principles' of perception and cognition. Fundamental clues about how we see and understand the world. Timeless.<br />
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In the words of critic Maurice Berger, Bartlett’s art “juxtaposes the raw and the cooked, examining the way the world is filtered through the human mind and is encoded into cultural conventions or sign systems.”<br />
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<span style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #888888; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Jennifer Bartlett Fibonacci 1-987, 2010 enamel over silkscreen grid on baked enamel, steel plates 63" x 63" (160 cm x 160 cm), overall installed (artnews.org)</span></div>
<br />Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-6191302597881213392012-06-27T05:20:00.001-04:002012-06-27T05:21:27.979-04:00Our Minds Understand Arrangements as Singular Entities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLkVvtdLbR20UCl2wBMpe7s8XbKR4tWlXLK7H5F-GOTB3EDjbk2M85_84_WP6KXRCjUp9AxqCpwq3bRjvyKf3qq7WjH9x5-JSAX5ypZuELPPQzz0bhdys3NwkgRu-xWcrw0oVMSh_YHM/s1600/a-quantum-circle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLkVvtdLbR20UCl2wBMpe7s8XbKR4tWlXLK7H5F-GOTB3EDjbk2M85_84_WP6KXRCjUp9AxqCpwq3bRjvyKf3qq7WjH9x5-JSAX5ypZuELPPQzz0bhdys3NwkgRu-xWcrw0oVMSh_YHM/s320/a-quantum-circle.png" width="240" /></a></div>
Our minds understand arrangements - literally, a <i><b>range</b></i> of variants as a single object. We know and accept that within a certain bounded range of possibilities, certain transformations are possible and acceptable for a shape. For example, a circle retains its identity to us even across a range of transformations. Escher understood this and demonstrated it in his artwork time and again. Any shape or form can exist and still retain its identity to us within a bounded range of possible transformations if strongly anchored around a core prototype shape or form. What we understand to be ONE object, one shape, one form, is actually a quantum field of variants surrounding a core prototype, an exemplar.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-53693804628929118802012-06-12T16:24:00.004-04:002012-06-12T16:24:37.277-04:00The arrangement of physical matter is driven by the requirement to conserve energy, to maintain a state that costs the least amount of energy.<br />
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The patterns in nature that we resonate to - that are "pleasing" to us,
may very well be optimized arrangements of physical matter with ideal
energy configurations. <br />
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Geometric structures may perhaps be optimal configurations for the distribution of energy and matter that do not ever actually exist exactly in nature.<br />
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Mental structures, too, may follow energy conservation principles.<br />
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Energy conservation in a physical world of patterned matter.<br />
Nature is efficient.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-64056673134855482492011-11-14T20:25:00.000-05:002011-11-14T20:26:29.345-05:00The Art of ScienceStunning natural and man-made patterns.<br /><br />http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2011/index.php%3Fp=1.htmlKim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-89975917055642163792011-10-30T13:26:00.000-04:002011-10-30T13:30:17.430-04:00Patterns of Movement<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvASoSjzfYDR_64dwoVQg-cRiAm0CByXErnUL0KlkkTTXaabsY14F-ai9tpRNuGXK5NhVdh37mS1vm2hR3iY_GR7ClvfhHfMxkjtWgGHkvLl2DMIY31AZhXlalonKwoU33kaCJNYCFPhQ/s1600/patterns_PatrickLaube.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvASoSjzfYDR_64dwoVQg-cRiAm0CByXErnUL0KlkkTTXaabsY14F-ai9tpRNuGXK5NhVdh37mS1vm2hR3iY_GR7ClvfhHfMxkjtWgGHkvLl2DMIY31AZhXlalonKwoU33kaCJNYCFPhQ/s320/patterns_PatrickLaube.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669338843174984946" border="0" /></a><br />This is some very interesting research regarding patterns of movement in natural and virtual environments by Patrick Laube in Zurich, Switzerland.<br />http://www.geo.uzh.ch/~plaube/<br /><br />I would imagine the shape of the "terrain" must influence movement pattterns quite significantly.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-2250423044262819392010-03-04T12:47:00.000-05:002010-04-21T10:50:11.297-04:00Pattern Makers as Copycats of Nature?What does it mean to <em>make</em> something? When we make a pattern out of some materials, aren't we just recreating a pattern that already exists in our physical world, in nature? Are pattern makers really just copycats? We are, but there's something more to our abilities...we can arrange and rearrange patterns to result in entirely new configurations.<br /><br />Thoughts of Biomimicry...Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-6153523660102416282010-03-01T16:49:00.001-05:002010-03-01T17:04:41.547-05:00Harmonic Resonance Theory<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJLJhfIdaM-mNZjslqehVKsipjk79FYGoqs3p4HTJRpcNhreY3oN94paac5XZTSqWOZRyUiPhLG59XYFWXevo0GAQGMD3VQPSYh-CbmAmoa9MWRqpdEGblMI4gykcAVMejEIvPWmeXV5E/s1600-h/standing-wave-patterns.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443789646910910178" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 313px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJLJhfIdaM-mNZjslqehVKsipjk79FYGoqs3p4HTJRpcNhreY3oN94paac5XZTSqWOZRyUiPhLG59XYFWXevo0GAQGMD3VQPSYh-CbmAmoa9MWRqpdEGblMI4gykcAVMejEIvPWmeXV5E/s320/standing-wave-patterns.gif" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://www.miqel.com/jazz_music_heart/vibrational-truth.html">http://www.miqel.com/jazz_music_heart/vibrational-truth.html</a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7RYZ1ukGTUCCKC3X7QQVRp5mdj4_ZuW49n1JvkCLUH4mGZGB53QkmYZQDq7s904lptLe8GOE0kxTQkvXwnaqXYnkqoDeit0fOrUcCyqHVgHE27JfaVsW5Y1rnuhSoSSjjz-w1Rw_rF4/s1600-h/harmonic+resonance+patterns.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443786011308006802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7RYZ1ukGTUCCKC3X7QQVRp5mdj4_ZuW49n1JvkCLUH4mGZGB53QkmYZQDq7s904lptLe8GOE0kxTQkvXwnaqXYnkqoDeit0fOrUcCyqHVgHE27JfaVsW5Y1rnuhSoSSjjz-w1Rw_rF4/s320/harmonic+resonance+patterns.gif" border="0" /></a><br />Fascinating theory by Steven Lehar....<br /><a href="http://sharp.bu.edu/~slehar/webstuff/hr1/hr2.html">http://sharp.bu.edu/~slehar/webstuff/hr1/hr2.html</a><br />It struck me this morning that in a world filled with standing and travelling wave fields, <em>there is no such thing as <strong>one</strong> of anything</em>, just greater and lesser variations of peaks and troughs within a defined field.</div>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-5651753810322068572009-12-02T14:49:00.000-05:002009-12-03T12:02:57.588-05:00Superlattice Turing Patterns<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizR_FW62I0nMlw6RPpo6-SwZGCbLuTIGoHeT7XxTyfh4mxLtyEZSA5HTfgF5lhbtgoo_pilEm1_q3LFiXpjLaQ0YwdX47nXtgMPOxVdu2c0mSsfEFD9I9qd7bSYInhxut8quFMxxkzS6w/s1600-h/superlatticeturingpatterns.png"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 315px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410728679089887186" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizR_FW62I0nMlw6RPpo6-SwZGCbLuTIGoHeT7XxTyfh4mxLtyEZSA5HTfgF5lhbtgoo_pilEm1_q3LFiXpjLaQ0YwdX47nXtgMPOxVdu2c0mSsfEFD9I9qd7bSYInhxut8quFMxxkzS6w/s320/superlatticeturingpatterns.png" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Quite extraordinary!</strong><br /><br />"The study of pattern formation in nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion systems began with the theoretical analysis of Turing structures, which are stationary, spatially periodic patterns resulting from the interplay between pure diffusion and nonlinear reaction kinetics. Turing suggested that such structures could play a role in morphogenesis, and his point of view has gradually become prominent. The first experimental observation of Turing patterns occurred nearly 40 years after Turing's work, in a chemical reaction-diffusion system. Later, Kondo and collaborators showed that skin patterns in various small fish also develop according to the Turing mechanism."<br /><div align="right"><em>- Dr. Lingfa Yang</em></div><br /><a href="http://hopf.chem.brandeis.edu/yanglingfa/pattern/ptn.html">http://hopf.chem.brandeis.edu/yanglingfa/pattern/ptn.html</a>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-20393537204829846672009-12-02T14:21:00.000-05:002009-12-02T14:23:47.758-05:00Pattern in a Pattern<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Io7WLJkg1RyHX_29VWHOtO5Bfo_iumEzz_A-KHU4_ygoC6nw7GdnPDrpoIZXs68upnjf0fhvz9qX4WJtA4aJvQwhPY30EWbAuoE0CjdiMpNqGgDIM8ALE2BB3LQzl0yM20NRnKly45M/s1600-h/Tree-of-Life_Flower-of-Life_Stage.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 318px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410721522478417698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Io7WLJkg1RyHX_29VWHOtO5Bfo_iumEzz_A-KHU4_ygoC6nw7GdnPDrpoIZXs68upnjf0fhvz9qX4WJtA4aJvQwhPY30EWbAuoE0CjdiMpNqGgDIM8ALE2BB3LQzl0yM20NRnKly45M/s320/Tree-of-Life_Flower-of-Life_Stage.jpg" /></a><br /><div>The sephirot pattern fits beautifully inside the Flower of Life pattern. Coincidence? I think, most likely, not.</div>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-21352507480267242322009-09-21T14:19:00.000-04:002010-02-28T11:58:19.214-05:00Transient Equilibrium<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoWNIelB7anBMcVaJTXS9ucoGP8kGa4h5IdjuvpjeFL2Zx2sDaGSGHj5TpnGfKDxuy5PH4_QhASZmvlpkiXgSD1wGDJkEm1C1a5aC2ubfCTMh1aFiBP-2FaVTHkdLU_Hx6l3Apq5twDU/s1600-h/FlowerOfLife6s.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383989926473544530" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 213px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoWNIelB7anBMcVaJTXS9ucoGP8kGa4h5IdjuvpjeFL2Zx2sDaGSGHj5TpnGfKDxuy5PH4_QhASZmvlpkiXgSD1wGDJkEm1C1a5aC2ubfCTMh1aFiBP-2FaVTHkdLU_Hx6l3Apq5twDU/s320/FlowerOfLife6s.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Everything around us, and everything inside of us, is always moving, transitioning from one state to another. A steady-state is reached, and then another transition is underway, striving towards yet <em>another</em> steady-state, and yet another state of transient equilibrium. It continues. Life evolving.</div><br /><div></div><div>My recent studies of <em>sacred</em> geometry (The Flower of Life) have me considering geometric structures as patterns of equilibrium that are never quite reached or held for long in a world that is always shimmering with movement. It's as if physical matter aspires to realize these configurations, perhaps because they are economical, and cost the least amount of energy.</div><br /><div></div><div>There are certain arrangements, certain configurations that are more optimal for the form of physical structures. Why? Because they represent a state of equilibrium that is balanced amongst oppositional forces? This is beginning to sound very much like chemistry...</div><br /><div></div><div>Flower of Life 6 shown above is by Peter W. Michel</div><div></div><a href="http://www.petermichel.com/About.html">http://www.petermichel.com/About.html</a><br /><div></div>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-52580902917686084702009-01-05T09:29:00.000-05:002009-11-25T17:20:15.392-05:00Rules: Paths Across Mountains of DataThis morning, I started thinking about Rules as Patterns of High Probability, like tributaries that stretch out across a vast landscape of information, as well-trodden paths across mountains of data.<br /><br />How is a Rule formed? And how does one Rule become the rule of "best practice"?<br /><br />In the beginning, there are no rules, just an information landscape to traverse. Over time, a path forms, based on trial and error. A Rule acts as an averaging principle that only evolves after repeatedly confronting similar situations, dynamics and consequences. A well-tested Rule could evolve into a Law, to embody a pattern with an extremely high level of persistent probability, within a broad range of contexts.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-29699292580031592442008-12-15T14:27:00.000-05:002009-11-25T17:18:16.921-05:00Mirror Writing - Natural Skill in a 3-D worldMirror writing is a strange thing. I discovered I could mirror-write quite easily when I was 9 or 10 years old. It was fun to write backward messages on paper that could only be read in a mirror or flipped over and held up in front of a bright window. But why can some people do it, and others can't? Why do small children struggle to remember which way a lowercase <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">b</span> or <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">d</span> goes; or a <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">g</span> or <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">p</span>?<br /><br />I did a search on mirror-writing and came across an interesting article written in 2002 called, <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">Acquired mirror writing and reading: evidence for reflective graphemic representations</span> by Gottfried, Sancar and Chatterjee.<br /><br />http://www.scribd.com/doc/947583/Mirror-Write<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">They concluded:</span><br />"In summary, we suggest that mirror reading and writing, which at first glance appear to be a neuropsychological oddity, point to general principles underlying the processing and representation of visual forms. The adaptive advantage of mirror equivalency means that the nervous system harbors visual representations in their normal and reflected forms. The need for orientation specificity means that these different forms must also be distinguishable, and thus can be damaged selectively. These organizational principles that apply to objects int he world generalize to other visual objects, such as letters and words, even thought the adaptive advantage for these visual forms no longer applies. Finally, the functional modularity of visual representations themselves means that better access to one kind of mirrored visual form (lexical graphemes in this case) does not mean that access to all mirrored visual forms is privileged."<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">My thoughts:</span><br />In real life, we see an object and it can flip over and we know it is still the same object. What is unnatural is that something would remain forever rigid and fixed in one direction orientation. For example, a leaf on a tree doesn't remain fixed, forever pointing in the same direction for the duration of its lifetime. It can move around and flip over and we still see it as a leaf.<br /><br />What is unnatural is than an object outline or shape would remain fixed in such a way as to always be pointing in the same direction. For example, in the case of lower case letters <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">b</span> and <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">d</span>, children have difficulty learning which way they go because they are the same reflected shape. The direction of the letter is learned, based on knowlege about the letter and its context in words that are also learned. This learning has to override our natural ability to see and know a shape and its mirror reflection as one and the same object. The child has to learn through repetition that the <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">b</span> and the <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">d</span> may look the same, but point in different directions, so they are not the same letter. This learning, applied to two-dimensional representations, runs counter to our natural categorization of visual images in a three-dimensional world. So the child learns that certain letters are directional, really that all writing is directional. But for those people with strong visual mirroring abilities, the learned process of writing letters with a particular direction can easily be inverted.<br /><br />So, shape direction or orientation (reflection) is an attribute of shape form.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-32351720168991102592008-09-18T13:36:00.000-04:002008-09-18T14:58:51.900-04:00Association and LogicSome thoughts: Visual and auditory systems came first in humans, much before language. The ability to gather information about the environment and to react to or act on it was something humans could do long before they could speak, just as animals do now. I started thinking about a multi-stage process with respect to the evolution of cognition and how information might be organized and accessed in the human mind.<br /><br />If we imagine there are pools of information mapped in the mind of a human, gleaned from perceptual experience (perhaps based on Gestalt Principles of Perception) -- a collection of images and sounds, and then we introduce verbal language with syntactic structure, we can begin to imagine how structure and rules might be applied to enforce a layer of organization on top of (or virtually onto) all the pools or clusters of information recorded in the mind of a human.<br /><br />The raw data 'objects' are the visual images and verbal components that are organized locally or by association, based on similarity, proximity, good continuity, etc. It's like a big clustered database, a <span style="font-style: italic;">cloud</span>.<br /><br />Manipulation of these information objects can be achieved in a more sophisticated fashion by applying syntactic rules. Language is linear and directional. I --> go --> there. I --> give --> you --> food. It identifies a subject (me), an action, and a place (in the first example). It identifies a subject (me), an action, another subject (you) and another object (food), in the second example.<br /><br />I think human logic may have arrived with the dawn of verbal language ability. The principles of linguistics may act to order and structure associated information, if desired, into a logical form. By 'logic', I mean causal, or propositional. If -- > then. With logic, there is also a concept of cause and effect, and time.<br /><br />In summary, this would mean that information in the mind is initially grouped based on Gestalt Principles. It is associatively mapped and looks like a big cloud, or a collection of information molecules (where the nucleus is the concept and the atoms are attributes). The database of information is grouped based on shared attributes (colour, shape, size, behaviour, proximity in time). Then logical rules are applied across the associated categories, which can manipulate and change the shape of the information, to organize it in different ways.<br /><br />But where do the patterns come in to play? This is the question. Are the pattern frameworks below the level of the logical rules? Do we <span style="font-style: italic;">average</span> information into pattern structures?Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-65907453432915177032008-09-16T14:35:00.000-04:002009-11-25T19:33:49.026-05:00Mind is Literally Life-likeI came across this great quote from Peter Godfrey-Smith, a professor of philosophy at Harvard:<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">"Life and mind have a common abstract pattern or set of basic organizational properties. The functional properties characteristic of mind are an enriched version of the functional properties that are fundamental to life in general. Mind is literally life-like."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Godfrey-Smith, P. (1996)</span><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature</span><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Cambridge: Cambridge University Press</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">In other words, if we could ascertain the organization properties of nature, we could perhaps also apply these to cognition. While I want to investigate further 'environmental complexity theory', the issue for me is that of course the mind evolved in response to a complex environment, and that the environment has helped to shape it, but this doesn't really explain the unique qualities of the human mind. Animal minds, too, evolved in response to a complex environment, and yet animals don't (to our knowledge) share our language, memory and predictive abilities. So there must be more to this story. I suppose I'm more interested in determining HOW our minds are organized, their intrinsic structures, rather than finding out WHY they evolved at all. Asking WHY we have minds is something else entirely.<br /><br />Another quote I've always loved is from <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Back to Methuselah,</span> by George Bernard Shaw (which I first read in 1983): </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><strong>"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. "</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/George_Bernard_Shaw/">George Bernard Shaw</a> Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)<br /><br />This quote eludes to Lamarckian theory<br />1. Evolution can occur as a consequence of the 'inheritance of acquired characteristics'<br />2. A property of life is that it generates increases in the complexity of organization<br /><br />Searching on 'self-organizing complex systems in nature' returned something to the effect that such a system would be non-linear with a stochastic driver (fractal statistics, chaotic behavior, localized, bottom-up, additive, cumulative -- makes me think about ant-behaviour; communication only with your nearest neighbour).<br /><br /></span></span>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-81046053829038963792008-06-27T13:42:00.000-04:002008-06-27T14:00:28.381-04:00Dandelions & Hyperbolic Browsers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgufCLEtxnaL_K97TSlA_-Xhqzhm5eyg_D3co7O3cyMq7JvhujHlfqQjY0Kbm86044-jYlFeXkxgDXQZsAy0mF9gn-EPoPkx6wVSkC57Ze5n7h4qeeFccv5eDNMdCCn3Z9X7e5YsSHSWNQ/s1600-h/large-dandelion-seeds-close-lowres.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgufCLEtxnaL_K97TSlA_-Xhqzhm5eyg_D3co7O3cyMq7JvhujHlfqQjY0Kbm86044-jYlFeXkxgDXQZsAy0mF9gn-EPoPkx6wVSkC57Ze5n7h4qeeFccv5eDNMdCCn3Z9X7e5YsSHSWNQ/s400/large-dandelion-seeds-close-lowres.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216621170407579538" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig9N-ydWjCly5RTBkD0zpblctMksD1LjGH3Vq8M45mMKW3VZ3nyQTJyfr8Mn8cPNK50PGqacOw1Cm25JYrCQQfp1Y7pVwvzUD1ncAFknYgqcRji7cJsMnbEsIF9uybjitfCwz69FBs9EU/s1600-h/HyperbolicBrowser.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig9N-ydWjCly5RTBkD0zpblctMksD1LjGH3Vq8M45mMKW3VZ3nyQTJyfr8Mn8cPNK50PGqacOw1Cm25JYrCQQfp1Y7pVwvzUD1ncAFknYgqcRji7cJsMnbEsIF9uybjitfCwz69FBs9EU/s400/HyperbolicBrowser.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216619966645868834" border="0" /></a><br />I recently came across a paper that discusses how the cognitive styles of oral cultures are different from print cultures. Oral cultures represent an event like the spokes of a wheel with a central point and simultaneous branches extending out from the centre. Oral cultures value parallelism and wholism and the personification of nature. Print cultures are linear in the sense they focus on one path through time/space and cognitively represent an event as a process with a beginning, middle and an end, usually in detailed hierarchical trees.<br /><br /><center><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><h2 style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Visual Metaphor, Cultural Knowledge, and the New Rhetoric</span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><h3 style="text-align: left; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Robert N. St. Clair</span></h3> </center><br /><br />http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/LIB/LIB8.html<br /><br />I started wondering if these two very different cognitive styles might not just be part of a larger structure, and I remembered the structure of the hyperbolic browser that I saw more than 10 years ago. It looks like a 2-dimensional representation of a dandelion flower that's gone to seed (in all its fluffy glory).<br /><br />The trees act as branches. They are primarily linear. And they grow from the centre radially.<br /><br />And the hyperbolic browser image reminded me again of the E8 mathematical structure.<br /><br />For more information on hyperbolic browsers:<br />http://www2.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/<br />visualization/controls/hypBrowser.htm<br /><br />What a laugh to think that the structure of human thought may be echoed in the structure of the dandelion flower.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Personally, I love dandelions and encourage them in lawn and garden. I've never thought of them as a weed).</span>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-37897530810739105692008-06-16T12:25:00.000-04:002008-06-16T12:27:30.989-04:00Hexagon as a Spatial Average - Woldenberg<p> <b> Accession Number : </b>AD0722022</p> <p> <b>Title : </b>Geography and the Properties of Surfaces. The Hexagon as a Spatial Average.</p> <p align="left"> <b>Descriptive Note : </b>Interim rept.,</p> <p> <b>Corporate Author : </b>HARVARD UNIV CAMBRIDGE MASS LAB FOR COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS</p> <p> <b> Personal Author(s) : </b>Woldenberg,Michael J.</p> <p align="left"> <b>Report Date : </b>15 OCT 1970</p> <p align="left"> <b>Pagination or Media Count : </b>28</p> <p align="left"> <b>Abstract : </b>The paper demonstrates that river basin areas and central place market areas tend to be hexagonal. River basins are bounded by ridge lines which meet three at a corner. Few ridge lines cannot define a corner, and more ridge lines are improbable. The nomenclature of river basins following Warntz (1968) and Schumm (1956) is extended. Market areas also must have three-edge corners. Graustein (1932) showed that large networks with three-edged corners must tend to have six sides per polygon, a relation that follows from Euler's law. The most if not all commonly occurring natural networks have three-edged corners, the polygons tend to be hexagons. (Author)</p> <p align="left"> <b>Descriptors : </b> (*GEOGRAPHY, GRAPHICS), (*RIVERS, MATHEMATICAL MODELS), HYDRAULIC MODELS, NETWORKS, SURFACES</p> <p> <b> Subject Categories : </b>HYDROLOGY, LIMNOLOGY AND POTAMOLOGY</p> <p align="left"> <b>Distribution Statement : </b>APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE<br /><br />http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0722022<br /></p>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-35789079728628255162008-06-16T12:21:00.000-04:002008-06-16T12:23:14.059-04:00Hexagonal Columns, Giants Causeway - Ireland<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VTTJZB1IReSRBbPOKh3VfAbkcmAGACd3BHxSz3mO97N4qDS9jkHH35qmWT0knvHjYNpRyk33vN08HGZRn03Ikqcv3AE1aB_2Soc5E7govxPB13rdGmU2gWtECUyNSr6jl-eZc8nVOQw/s1600-h/070410_35_DUB_Giants_Causeway.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VTTJZB1IReSRBbPOKh3VfAbkcmAGACd3BHxSz3mO97N4qDS9jkHH35qmWT0knvHjYNpRyk33vN08HGZRn03Ikqcv3AE1aB_2Soc5E7govxPB13rdGmU2gWtECUyNSr6jl-eZc8nVOQw/s400/070410_35_DUB_Giants_Causeway.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212515695377437234" border="0" /></a><br />Natural hexagonal volcanic columns in Ireland. They look similar to the dinosaur scales.<br /><br />Photo: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bjandtony.com/images/070410_35_DUB_Giants_Causeway.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.bjandtony.com/200704NorthernIreland.html&h=480&w=640&sz=38&hl=en&start=82&sig2=BMtLaPrsEM5WkNgCpamQDA&um=1&tbnid=7n2gd59kFgPGbM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&ei=xZJWSP-BDJfiigG_uq2QAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgiants%2Bcauseway%26start%3D80%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DNKim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-71759496524942863052008-06-16T12:03:00.000-04:002008-06-16T12:06:36.177-04:00Hexagonal Pattern of Dinosaur Skin<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4C1lUru0n0rmhiFC2yNrZLCO5TWIvkZWWw8tqLfPBlGgV94RoMFZObOml2Bg7_KSL1E1aoi7bx_bEsjw9r1x2lY5tJEirQK0EQM85pj1zWnLPPyLFFu4NHJXSkNpfQ2f6fl1_QZLZB2o/s1600-h/071203-dino-mummy_big.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4C1lUru0n0rmhiFC2yNrZLCO5TWIvkZWWw8tqLfPBlGgV94RoMFZObOml2Bg7_KSL1E1aoi7bx_bEsjw9r1x2lY5tJEirQK0EQM85pj1zWnLPPyLFFu4NHJXSkNpfQ2f6fl1_QZLZB2o/s400/071203-dino-mummy_big.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212511422097898818" border="0" /></a><br />A rare mummified dinosaur has been discovered in North Dakota. Notice the beautiful hexagonal pattern of scales. This mummy is thought to be 67 million years old. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">From National Geographic:</span><br /><br /> <major_cutline>A newly found "dino mummy" has exquisitely preserved bones, skin, and possibly muscle and internal organs, scientists have announced.<br /><br />The duck-billed dinosaur, named Dakota, is already changing theories of how the extinct creatures looked and moved—and may contain preserved ancient proteins that could better reveal the dino family tree.<br /><br /><i>Photograph by Tyler Lyson © 2007 National Geographic</i></major_cutline>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-11965281065412398592008-05-08T11:25:00.000-04:002008-06-27T13:59:05.352-04:00Relationships - The Space in the MiddleI've been watching the progress of Jeff Hawkins' research on Numenta and was playing with a demo that has learned some simple shapes. The user can draw the shape and ask the application to recognize it. It returns an array of images to match the drawn input and a probability indicator bar beside each of the learned object shapes. Unfortunately, it didn't guess very well. I shared this demo with a colleague and neither of us were too impressed.<br /><br />I started playing around with a simple drawing of a hat. I drew two extremes of a hat, one with a very tall top and short brim, and one with a very short top and a wide brim. I also drew the average between these two extremes, to show a prototypical line drawing of a hat. Then I thought there must be some understanding of the relationship between the brim and the top, because both can be varied so much and yet a hat can still be identified as a hat.<br /><br />There has to be something more to recognizing simple shapes - some understanding of object relationships that is missing from the Numenta demo, which I think needs to be included if it is going to work properly.<br /><br />This line of thinking lead me on a search to find a list of mathematical relationships. I have never had a natural aptitude for mathematical equations (I quit after a course in Calculus at university), although I do find it interesting if I can apply it to something in the real world.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relation_(mathematics)<br /><br />Here is a formal definition:<br /><br />"When two objects, qualities, classes, or attributes, viewed together by the mind, are seen under some connexion, that connexion is called a relation." - Augustus De Morgan<br /><br />I found a list of mathematical relationships on another site that I want to explore further:<br />Java Programming Archive http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=586617&messageID=3022822<br /><br />- Linear Function<br />- Quadratic Function<br />- General Polynomial Function<br />- Arithmetic Function<br />- Transcendental Function<br />- Parameterized Equations<br />- Any relationship: y is related to x in some way<br />- Sequences?<br /><br />It seems that people need, not only a memorized bank of images to draw upon, but some rules to represent relationships between the parts of an object/image, to make recall of the images possible from fuzzy data.Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-24179744263903283252008-04-23T10:57:00.000-04:002008-04-23T17:18:52.939-04:00Establishing Criteria to Support my Hypothesis<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 0, 153);">The Protoglyphic Hypothesis</span><br /><br />1. There is a common set of fundamental patterns shared by all humans that is used as a basis for thinking and understanding our world.<br /><br />2. The patterns represent primary concepts about our world, and also act as structures to organize information.<br /><br />3. The patterns are simple, abstract and geometric.<br /><br />4. Each pattern has both a general meaning and a range of specific meanings - just like a word has a common popular meaning as well as a range of different meanings, based on context or juxtaposition.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 0, 153);">What criteria would support this hypothesis?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Geographically Pervasive</span><br />The patterns are found throughout the word, in many different locations, on many different surfaces and artifacts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Culturally Universal</span><br />The same patterns are found in many different cultures.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Temporally Persistent</span><br />The patterns are persistent in human culture, over time. From prehistoric to modern times, we see evidence of these fundamental patterns.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. General, yet also Specific</span><br />We would not expect to see exactly the same specific meanings assigned to the same patterns found in different cultures. We would expect to find common general meanings assigned to the same pattern in different cultures.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Macro and Micro</span><br />The patterns are scalable. They exist at the micro level and at the macro level to represent movement and physical organization of matter and space.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Common across Disciplines</span><br />The patterns exist as primary structures in all disciplines: science, art, mathematics, physics, language...Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7888923930977778411.post-32473853438383256792008-03-25T14:43:00.001-04:002008-03-25T14:46:21.025-04:00Metatron's Cube<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIV2RzeaKDBKM_nJRgnWT4AEFT0mWOOh3XuxHCvBHAXHF5F4fRlHztR1eyiuG7Vjzzx3gaqGVAyvYFqa_qcyJSlpUUTGvZDDkxRRgCaBhkMBXGYjJUcgeLZDykoiQAIwWFM33HM5L9JkU/s1600-h/Metatrons_cube.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIV2RzeaKDBKM_nJRgnWT4AEFT0mWOOh3XuxHCvBHAXHF5F4fRlHztR1eyiuG7Vjzzx3gaqGVAyvYFqa_qcyJSlpUUTGvZDDkxRRgCaBhkMBXGYjJUcgeLZDykoiQAIwWFM33HM5L9JkU/s400/Metatrons_cube.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181751929442913986" border="0" /></a><br /><p>From Wikipedia<br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Life#Fruit_of_Life" title="Flower of Life">Fruit of Life</a> (a component of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Life" title="Flower of Life">Flower of Life</a>) has thirteen circles. If each circle's center is considered a "node", and each node is connected to each other node with a single line, a total of seventy-eight lines are created. Within this cube, many other shapes can be found, including two-dimensionally flattened versions of the five <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solids" class="mw-redirect" title="Platonic solids">Platonic solids</a>. The true Metatron's Cube will include all five Platonic solids in such a way that the solids, existing in volumetric 3D space, have had their z-coordinates set to zero but their x- and y-coordinates retained, such that they are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_projection" class="mw-redirect" title="Orthogonal projection">orthogonally flattened</a>.</p> <p>In early <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalist" class="mw-redirect" title="Kabbalist">kabbalist</a> scriptures, Metatron supposedly forms the cube from his soul. This cube can later be seen in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian" title="Christian">Christian</a> art, where it appears on his chest or floating behind him. Metatron's cube is also considered a holy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph" title="Glyph">glyph</a>, and was often drawn around an object or person to ward off <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demons" class="mw-redirect" title="Demons">demons</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan" title="Satan">satanic</a> powers. This idea is also present in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy" title="Alchemy">alchemy</a>, in which the cube was favoured as a containment circle or creation circle.<br /><br /><br /></p>Kim Vonder Haarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705374374187873694noreply@blogger.com