Tim May wrote:
At 7:42 PM +0000 12/12/00, Ben Laurie wrote:
Sampo A Syreeni wrote:
On Mon, 11 Dec 2000, Ben Laurie wrote:
Chambers defines geodesic as "the shortest line on a surface between two points on it" and that is precisely the meaning in general relativity.
No question about it. The term also doesn't mean a whole lot when applied as-is in the many instances it is on this list. As Tim put it, it pretty much equates to "cyberpunkish".
Not being subscribed to cypherpunks (has S/R improved?) I will have missed that.
Signal happens when good writers contribute good articles. Noise happens in the expected ways. Noise is what the delete key, and filters, were made for.
Hmm. So, please send me your noise filter. I could do with one.
As you are apparently reading this from the "DBS" list, you are not seeing any of my contributions. Regrettfully, DBS (and DCSB, or Bearebucks, or whatever Bob is calling his list(s)) is not an "open system." The Cypherpunks tried such a censored list a few years ago, and we rejected the approach.
The list I'm writing to is not censored, AFAIK.
I wrote a large article debunking the "geodesics is about topology" point of view. Others have said similar things.
Actually, they're really about geometry, though there are some kinds of topology which can support geodesics (not the standard rubber-sheet kind most people are familiar with, though). For example, a graph can support the notion of a shortest distance between two points, and that is definitely a topological entity.
Please don't contribute articles to the Cypherpunks list if you are, as you say, not subscribed. While we don't reject articles by nonsubscribers, as per the above, it is tacky and rude for nonsubscribers to address articles to lists they are not tracking.
This is an email, not an article. Is it tacky and rude to copy to a list to which you'd prefer I didn't reply? I think so. Is it polite to include all recipients in a mail to which you reply? I think so. Cheers, Ben. -- http://www.apache-ssl.org/ben.html "There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." - Robert Woodruff