Fractal geodesic networks

[Tim May]

At 8:46 AM -0800 12/8/00, Ray Dillinger wrote:
>On Thu, 7 Dec 2000, petro wrote:
>
>>Mr. Brown (in the library with a candlestick) said:
>>
>>>(RAH might have called it a geodesic political culture if he hadn't got
>>>this strange Marxist idea that politics is just an emergent property of
>>>economics :-)
>
>Just by the way, how widespread is this use of the word 'geodesic'? 
>
>Offhand, I'd refer to many of the things I've seen it used for here
>as 'distributed' or 'fractal'.  Is 'geodesic' an accepted term of art
>for a network or protocol in which all the parts work roughly the same
>way?
>

Distributed, fractal, peer-to-peer, nonhierarchical, geodesic, silk 
road, agoric, anarchic, are all terms basically describing the same 
sort of thing. Which term is whizzier is in the eye of the beholder.

Personally, I got tired several years ago of hearing everything 
described as a "fractal geodesic network." I don't know whether the 
term was coined by its chief user, Bob Hettinga, or by a similar 
propagandist, George Gilder, or by someone else.

The naming issues are parallel to the issues with "open systems," 
"bazaar and the cathedral," etc.

But I imagine others are tired of hearing me talk about crypto anarchy.

I'm not sure "geodesic" captures the important issues. Are merchants 
in a Baghdad bazaar part of a "fractal geodesic network"? I suppose. 
But this is just a basic open market, with no top-down rules set.

Is the Law Merchant a fractal geodesic network? Whatever.


--Tim May

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