Questions of size...

[Ben Laurie]

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.

> What little I've grasped of RAH's usage
> is that "geodesic" often translates as "distributed", one of the main
> features of which is that it "operates based on locally available
> information". Hence... Besides, if you know your Einstein (or Riemann, or
> Minkowsky) even a little bit you will recognize that one of the prime
> reasons for the development of a geometric interpretation of physics is the
> need to have a solid theory not reliant on instantaneous transfer of
> information ("local"). My interpretation is not unreasonable at all,
> considering the alternatives. Wanna drop it?

:-) Certainly not. AFAIK, RAH has always used "geodesic" in conjuction
with "settlement", which clearly says to me that he's talking about the
quickest/easiest way to do money transfer. You may, or may not, achieve
that with distributed systems, but so what?

And, to hit relativity, for completeness, geodesic in that sense is
about figuring out curvature. That is, knowing all geodesics tells you
the shape of space-time. And, natch, light follows geodesics, which is
the glue that holds it all together (and brings in your non-instaneous
transfer, too, but again, that is neither a consequence of, nor a
requirement for, geodesics).

> >Saying that it has anything to do with distributed systems is making it
> >up as you go along.
> 
> Ain't everybody?

I'm taking the fifth on that one.

> >And if RAH is now going to claim that's what he meant then he's making
> >it up as he goes along, too (well, we knew that anyway, but redefining
> >geodesic in this way is going too far).
> 
> It's good to know you're hip to this.

Like, yeah, daddy-o.

Cheers,

Ben.

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