Newmedia on Mon, 5 Mar 2012 04:52:27 +0100 (CET) |
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Re: <nettime> The $100bn Facebook question: Will capitalism survive 'value ab... |
Jon: > I'm just attempting to put the other side and the paradox > and ambiguity back in the equation..... Alas, the *equation* does NOT allow paradox! <g> When Larry Kraus (well known popularizer of quantum/particle/string physics) opines that "mathematics is the only language of nature," he is just continuing the very old tradition that got us into this mess. Needless to say, he's wrong. We are using language right now. And, it's not "mathematics." It is equivocal and not univocal and rich with paradox. Whether this urge to "know the answers" began with the primordial *desire* to definitively know GOOD from EVIL, or Pythagoras and his "beans" or Plato's denunciation of the "sophists" or, for our own Western "culture," with Ockham's RAZOR (with its own roots in Catharism), the "choice" has been between trying to set up equations (i.e. "gnosticism") and/or trying to live with the necessity of paradox. This is what McLuhan called the "Ancient Quarrel." I would recommend his 1943 Cambridge PhD thesis, "The Classical Trivium" (not published until 2006) for those interested in the highlights of its history. Mark Stahlman Brooklyn NY # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org