Working on NodeGlobe as an Interface Tool

More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danzen/sets/72157626487534618/

This has been a fascinating exploration of a radial hierarchy. From this I have re-visualized the workings of a tree. Imagine that you started with rays of string or elastic and then pinched the strings where there are nodes. The lines moving towards the center would then be thicker or a collection of strings all going to node 0 of this system.

This is similar to the energy veins in a tree right to the tips of the leaves. All of them lead down to the seed. Roots go off the other direction reaching for energy from the soil. Growth.

Nodes are sometimes called knots and you get that sense here. We also visualize various native weaving structures, knot work by the Incan, etc.

Remember that this is made from XML (HTML, when properly formed is XML). This is the same organizational hierarchy found in all facets of life as discussed in prior postings.

This could easily be in 3D - I have left it 2D for now.

Recursive functions were used to create this. I did some cheating by always averaging the position of a parent node heading towards the center. To prevent overlapping lines I put nodes with less children in the middle of a branch. This cheating could have been avoided using energy balance and iterative procedures.

Will let you know when the tool is complete.

-2011-

Inheritance (Classification) and Composition (Grouping) in Hierarchies

There are two modes to a hierarchy. Both these exist in the single hierarchy.

1. Inheritance (child is a type of parent - sphere is a type of shape)

SHAPE > SPHERE > BALL > BASKETBALL

2. Composition (parent has a child - gymnasium has a court)

GYMNASIUM > COURT > BASKETBALL NET > RIM

Inheritance is virtual. Classes do not really exist. They generally describe objects. In Object Oriented Programming, classes are what objects are made from. In Zen, you are encouraged to avoid thinking about classes and concentrate on the real object as we usually see a tree and simply replace it with a symbol of a tree in our mind. I don't agree with Zen in this case because I think it is very important to think abstractly for efficiency and understanding connections. However, there are many times when we should remember to smell the roses.

Composition is the parts of something. A nice way to look at composition is nesting. We might also say that systems are made with composition. Composition is often real but it can also be virtual - like ideas composed of other ideas, etc. In Object Oriented Programming, composition can always do anything inheritance can do but not the other way around. So in coding, inheritance is just an efficiency (a way to avoid redefining properties) - again, abstract.

Isomorphisms of Hierarchies - Drawers to XML

Hierarchies or branches of the single hierarchy ;-) show up when things are organized or categorized. Our folders and files on the computer and indeed Web servers and Web pages are all stored in hierarchies. Any nesting is hierarchies so Universe > Galaxy Cluster > Galaxy > Solar System > Planet > Continent > etc. right down to house > room > dresser > drawer > pant > pocket > material > molecule > atom > electron > quark > string. In life we have trees and most if not all things that grow. Time causes us to choose options that branch before us.

Taxonomy in teaching, invention claims in patents, table of contents in books, classification of animals, etc. All these and more are hierarchical. I would guess that hierarchies are at the root of every domain - each called something different and represented in different ways. So if you recognize a hierarchy in your field, please leave a comment.



In programming, the latest paradigm is Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and this is all hierarchy based and levels are accessed via dot syntax: parent.child. This is how all the latest games that model life are created. In XML, the current standard way in the information age to share data between companies and software is hierarchy based with nodes.

OOP and XML is the cumulation of thought from the most logical people in the world en mass modeling life. This is a mass philosophy born out of trial and error and few people if any think of it this way! Nodism is the synthesis and analysis of this phenomena.

Dan Zen

Article Saying Hierarchy May Be a Fundamental Organizational Principle for Complex Networks

Just found this post in the Kurzweil newsletter...

New technique for extracting hierarchical structure of networks

KurzweilAI.net, May 2, 2008

Santa Fe Institute researchers have demonstrated that many real-world networks can be understood as a hierarchy of modules, where nodes cluster together to form modules, which themselves cluster into larger modules--arrangements similar to the organization of sports players into teams, teams into conferences, and conferences into leagues.

This hierarchical organization can simultaneously explain a number of patterns previously discovered in networks, such as the surprising heterogeneity in the number of connections some nodes have, or the prevalence of triangles in a network diagram.

This result suggests that hierarchy may be a fundamental organizational principle for complex networks.

Santa Fe Institute News Release