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Several times a month, I will be in a store aisle reaching for something and feel a hand going up the inside of my thigh. When I turn around to find myself alone with a woman, and ask her if she would prefer me to hold still so she can get a better feel for the situation, oftentimes she will act "shocked" claiming nothing had happened, it must be somebody else...

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Shrapnel

Started by AFK, June 05, 2007, 07:02:05 PM

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Jenne

I need to think about this and come back to this later...needs more brain-churny.

Cain

Actions never take place inside a vaccum.  Interconnected, multilayered systems lie on top of each other, inteconnecting only otherwise tangenitally related objects. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory

Of course, the Holy Grail of Systems Theory is the interconnected central node that is the nexus point for the majority (possibly plurality) of the systems necessary for daily life.

Because, as soon as it was discovered, every resource in the world would be expended to capture, defend and control access to it.

Triple Zero

then i would guess this central node does not necessarily really need to exist?
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Cain

Nope.

:mrgreen:

Although, as more and more systems become interconnected, its existence will become more likely and plausible.  Because people never think ahead.  They never create contingencies, or see the advantages in a decentralized network.  Instead, they route everything through one or two areas because its initially low cost (fault of Anglo-American capitalism, look for immediate high returns) and keeps it under the control of a small elite.

Such a problem could be avoided if the infrastructure were planned in such a way that nodes were so numerous that any collapse of a single, high load node could be compensated for.  But that would involve a level of trust and power being imparted on a large number of people.  And lets face it, even in liberal democracies, the political and economic leadership are loathe to trust anyone outside of a very select circle.

Triple Zero

what you describe here sounds very much like the idea with which the Internet was set up.

if a node gets disabled, it routes around it, pretty much automatically.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Cain

Exactly.  This sort of thinking was pioneered on cybernetic theory, but is quite applicable to the society/information/material resources analysis too.  I used a lot of this stuff in my papers about securing oil lines from terrorist attacks.

Triple Zero

but you're saying that because of the way human society works, things are getting more complex, more interconnected, and therefore bigger and bigger / more important / more connected nodes will appear?

do you have any hints and/or ideas on what these nodes would look like, on a practical level?
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Cain

Yes, basically.

And they will be a number of different things.  It depends what you are analyzing.  For example, geo-straegically speaking, nodes are sometimes called "choke points".  An example is the Straits of Malacca.  Whoever holds the Straits in a SE Asian war will have control of what ships pass through.

In the oil industry, the main nodes can be divided between installations and personnel.  If a refinery is reliant on a single electric power source, thats a huge node.  If there is only a single bridge leading into the port where the oil is exported from, thats a node.  On the human side, if the style of leadership is necessary on a lot of top level interfence in decision making, the people involved in that are large nodes.

In fact, generally speaking, the more interconnected an individual is with numerous different networks, the more valuable a node they are.  Someone like Carlos the Jackal made such a dangerous terrorist not because of his rather extensive skills or depth of his psychopathy, but because he was plugged into so many terrorist and similar social networks, and could call upon a host of allies regardless of if he was in the Sudan or Paris.

Naturally, the flip side is if you identify the nodes, you can often demolish a network very easily.  Its a more modern and scientific method of the old saying "strike the shepard and the sheep will scatter".

Adios

The explosion could come from land mines we seem to continously step on as we walk the road.