Take sorting for example, a mundane task, what computers are good at, so reflexively we may feel “to good” or “too important” to sort. Or, alternatively, sorting is “too boring” or “too meaningless”. Or worse: “I should sort the tools drawer (a euphemism for an anything drawer) but I’m procrastinating, one of my issues, and I feel guilty about it.” Sheesh, don’t be a drama queen about it. Look at sorting as your homework in computer science. Didn’t you sign up to be a trucker (inside joke)?
I got into sorting just recently, and yes, it was a kitchen anything drawer, a mix of tools, nails, picture hammers, fixtures minus a context (like hinges), a few batteries (still good?), staples (for a stapler)… the list goes on.
Some of the items were clearly tools, used as means to an end. I separated my junk into two shallow boxes: tools (means to ends) on the left, fixtures (hardware, supplies, more ends in themselves) on the right. Was this the only way to divide in two? Not at all. I changed my mind about nails: not tools, fixtures. Glues and putties: tools. They make stuff happen.
You see what’s interesting here? I’m doing supervised learning on myself. I’m using a dataset to train my categorization skills. But also: I’m studying my own psychology. What set off this whole task was thinking to hang an old bulletin board (the kind with thumbtacks) in the hallway, across from the Birds of Bhutan poster.
I needed a picture hanger. I started riffling through the junk. I couldn’t find one. My first impulse: go buy one; I need the exercise. I saw myself giving myself reasons for walking to Fred Meyer.
I do that a lot: need something; can’t find it; go get another one. Then find the one I already had. I actually have two alost identical Lumix cameras thanks to that thought process, and in that case I’m not sorry (I’m happy to have a backup — see? making up reasons again).
Making up reasons to not be sorry: we could name a whole faculty for that purpose.
Now, will I want to do a sub sort, starting from one or both flats? Maybe (I haven’t quite decided). Why put everything back, even if in a more orderly arrangement? Let’s dream up a whole new arrangement (time to drive it Ikea! — there’s that impulse again, part of what makes me so American). Having basketball on the HDTV (New York vs 76ers) adds to that ethnicity (like what? I’m a sports guy now?).
As a segue to philosophy, something to think about, I just took in a Dr. Justin Sledge lecture on Immanuel Kant and his critical philosophy. In my case, I think in terms of my Graph Theory 2025 video, which traces Emerson back through Coleridge to Kant (bottom center, early slide). In Knowledge Engineering, I’ve been building timelines around Blake, Napoleon, Margaret Fuller, her grand nephew Bucky, to name a few. Ada Byron. Jane Addams. Through Blake I was reconnecting to Swedenborg, and now, thanks to Dr. Justin, I’m connecting Swedenborg with Kant.
Graphs, networks, including the spherical ones that connect around in all circumferential directions, as Synergetics often puts it, are a type of data structure. Sorting, dividing sets by criteria, or just randomly partitioning (a kind of sorting), is more associated with the word “algorithm”. But algorithms and data structures go together. When rolled into one concept (structures with associated behaviors), that concept is often called a type of object. Which brings us back to sorting the junk drawer, attending to attributes, synthesizing new ones.
In computer science, a logic gains adherents because it’s relatively easy to use and proves reliable in the real world. I’m responding to Kent’s concern that logic without a track record (empirical evidence) has nothing going for it and so is a waste of time.
How do we know Synergetics isn’t a waste of time? I’d suggest in the same way Python has proved itself, not as the “only” language nor even as “the best” but as a language that’s usable to good advantage, in the real world. We’re not appealing to mysticism or unique experiences. Fuller wasn’t using any argument from authority when he talked about his suicidal days; he was letting us know he was experiencing great stress. Synergetics has more of a track record than Bucky feeling blue.
