pitfalls of complexity

[Rob Freeman]

Yes, nice reference Jess. Fractals have something of the kind of
complexity I am talking about.

Here's a paper which explores the idea we might need to model language
as a fractal:

NEURO-FRACTAL COMPOSITION OF MEANING: TOWARD A COLLAGE
THEOREM FOR LANGUAGE
Simon D. Levy 1
levys at wlu.edu
Computer Science Department
Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450, USA

http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy/pubs/bics2004.pdf

That said, I don't think the complexity of language is fractal. The
power of language is more general than that. Wolfram has probably gone
into the kinds of processes which can generate random patterns most
exhaustively. Though I see no evidence he has considered the idea
natural language might be such a process..

-Rob

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:46 PM, jess
tauber<phonosemantics at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Sounds like perhaps Mandelbrot to the rescue?
>
> http://www.pbs.org/video/video/1050932219/program/979359664
>
> I remember first reading about fractals during the craze back in the late Disco era.
>
> Trying to figure out complexity 'by eye' is probably impossible when enough different pieces are involved. Too easy to devolve into a frustrating game of whackamole.
>
> Jess Tauber
>