Chris ("CJ") Fearnley kindly agreed to post this message here.
From cjf@linux00.LinuxForce.net Fri Apr 28 17:55:41 2006
Doron,
I attended your talk "A Diatribe Against the So-Called Infinity" at
Swarthmore College and commented that R. Buckminster Fuller was also an
"ultrafinitist". Thank you for your engaging presentation in the sun!
I earned my BA in Math from Binghamton University where I
studied Combinatorics with Tom Zaslavsky. In addition to my
"day job", I am Executive Director of the Synergetics Collaborative
(http://synergeticists.org) which is an fledgling educational non-profit
dedicated to organizing workshops and symposia to critically examine and
further develop Buckminster Fuller's mathematical and scientific legacy
which he called "Synergetics". I gave a presentation to the Synergetics
Collaborative in 2002 called
"The Search for an Algebra or Calculus forSynergetics".
However, now that I have seen your
Discrete Analysis,
I am significantly intrigued that you may very well have discovered
the way to put Fuller's Synergetics on a sound mathematical footing.
I would like to develop this line of thinking further. I have copied
several parties in case an opportunity for further discussion is realized.
As I promised, I will share some quotes (with references) from Buckminster
Fuller's magnus opus "Synergetics" vis-a-vis his criticism of the calculus
and infinity. I think you will agree that you and he share an angst
against the "so-called infinity".
MathIsFun
To: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Regarding your Diatribe against the so-called infinity
The calculus assumes that a sphere is infinitesimally congruent with a
sphere to which it is tangent. The calculus and spherical trigonometry
alike assume that the sum of the angles around any point on any sphere's
surface is always 360 degrees. Because spheres are not continuous
surfaces but are polyhedra defined by the vectorially interconnecting
chords of an astronomical number of event foci (points) approximately
equidistant from one approximate point...
http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s02/p2400.html#224.11
,
The phenomenon "infinity" of the calculus is inherently finite.
Universe is nonsimultaneous but finite, because all experiences begin
and end, and being terminal, are finite; ergo, Universe as the sum of
finites is finite.
http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s05/p3500.html#535.01
My contemporaries and I were taught that in order to design a complete
and exact sphere and have no materials left over, we must employ the
constant known as pi, which I was also taught was a "transcendentally
irrational number," meaning it could never be resolved. I was also
informed that a singly existent bubble was a sphere; and I asked,
To how many places does nature carry out pi when she makes each
successive bubble in the white-cresting surf of each successive wave
before nature finds out that pi can never be resolved? ... And at what
moment in the making of each separate bubble in Universe does nature
decide to terminate her eternally frustrated calculating and instead
turn out a fake sphere? I answered myself that I don't think nature is
using pi or any of the other irrational fraction constants of physics.
Chemistry demonstrates that nature always associates or disassociates
in whole rational increments....
http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s09/p86060.html#986.088
We are on a spaceship; a beautiful one. It took billions of years to develop.
We're not going to get another. Now, how do we make this spaceship work?
-- Buckminster Fuller
CJ Fearnley | Explorer in Universe
cjf@CJFearnley.com | Design Science Revolutionary
http://www.CJFearnley.com | "Dare to be Naive" -- Bucky Fuller
back