intrust

In theory one could build a pocket watch where the slightest failure in any discrete part would bring the hands to a standstill, since there are no alternative paths or options for the flow of information. Yet parts of a watch are built to be tolerant with each other. The mechanical wearing down of gears and springs can progress for quite some time before these tolerances are exceeded. Watches are also built with redundancy – parts are stronger than they might need be. The casing might be thicker. or the cannon pinions more solid, or the jewels more numerous than need be.

A society is also a verosphere. The members must act truly in order to act together. The truth of a society is the sum of its norms and laws. As any one over the age of five will immediately surmise, a society is not hardwired, its norms and laws are somewhat relative, occasionally hazy, truths are asymmetrically held and enforced, and acting truly is an objective not always met. The societal verosphere is kept intact because it is for the most part loosely-coupled and because there are redundancies and tolerances in its design.

There are obviously an unbounded and overlapping number of verospheres, beginning with the universe itself. The systems of science are verospheres, and in the concilience of these various branches. one finds the verosphere of all science, albeit with all its tolerances, redundancies, undecidability and incompleteness.

// posted by Greg FitzPatrick @ 11:28