ilteris kaplan blog

Reading The Computational Beauty of Nature

January 24, 2006

The Computational Beauty of Nature by G. William Flake
There are really good points that the writer makes in the introduction.

”… In making a large list of ‘things’ it is easy to forget that the manner in which ‘things’ work more often than not depends on the environment in which they exist…”

-Actually I believe this is more than more often than not, since everything I see around myself is somehow related to its environment, even in arts, don’t we all lean towards judging work according to its context? (Ok, not all of us, but I do :) )

“…Examples such as economic markets that defy prediction, the pattern recognition capabilities of any of the vertebrates or the evolution of life are all emergent in that they contain simple units that, when combined, form a more complex whole. Whole System being greater than sum of its part…”

’ We have come to holism once again. I am trying to remember where I first came across to this term, I think it was when studying Gestalt pyschology in Perception class back in foundation of my undergraduate degree. Mathematical algorithms that tries to explain nature really amaze me from the first time I saw them and yet they still do, but, maybe because of my roots of being an eastern, maybe not even that and merely being an as every other person, to believe only those can explain everything is not an approach I bound to. I really like the sense how the writer approaches to this subject as well.

“…Nature is frugal… There are different ways to describe the interactions of agents; however, multiplicity, iteration and adaptation by themselves go long way in describing what it is about interactions between agents that make them so interesting…”

’ I agree with all my heart. The quote of this class :)


Written by Ilteris Kaplan who still lives and works in New York. Twitter