Re: Paper+Exercises+Naming Issue

From: Benjamin Udell <budell.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 11:42:11 -0500

Russell, list,

Thanks for pointing out Roy Frieden and EPI.

At first skim, it reminds me vaguely of the argument by C.S. Peirce (there's that name again) that space was curved. The idea was that it would take infinite precision of measurement to establish that space were perfectly Euclidean "all the way down," and that, given all the scales and ways in which it could be curved, and the single and unique way for it to be Euclidean, it was overwhelmingly likely to be curved.

I'm not sure how such an argument holds up in consideration of things like the Planck radius, or in Frieden's or EPI's terms, but the general notion is that of inferring physical laws or spatial geometries from measurement issues. In Peirce's case, the idea seems to have involved considering what would be established by research indefinitely prolonged, which ultimate or indefinitely far destination Peirce equated with truth, though in most cases Peirce considered it to be findable mainly only by actually doing the research.

[Russell]>> Extremum principles come up mostly in Roy Frieden's work. No-one has managed to integrate Frieden's stuff into the usual framework of this list, so little mention has been made of it, but I do mention it in my book. The hope is that some connection can be forged.

[Ben]> I'll try looking into him.

Best, Ben Udell
Received on Tue Jan 17 2006 - 13:40:12 PST