Dan Zen Talk - Creativity and New Forms of Mobile Games

Dan Zen will give a talk at the Arnie Student Pub on December 5th 2011 at 6:30 as the keynote to the Software Hamilton DemoCamp 4.

The talk will go over using Hierarchies as a creative framework. So rather than approaching the subject philosophically, it will be a more practical guide with an explanation of terms and isomorphisms of hierarchies.

The talk will include a set of 20 hand illustrated and colored examples with similar style to the poster except done in black with white.

Dan Zen will connect everyone at the event physically and use this experience to explore creating new forms of mobile games and apps.

For more information and to register for free...

http://danzen.com/create

Dan.

Context is God

Funny, just writing a comment on a Google+ post and saying each to their own because the context of the user will determine how much they should perhaps repost or create original content. So, I wanted to say context matters. Content is King is already taken so then the answer hit me.

I am not religious in the slightest but I have noticed that a single fluid hierarchy goes up to node zero and everything is categorized or nested in node zero in various contexts. This means we are also directly categorized under node zero and directly in node zero. All of us. That is often a definition of god.

CONTEXT IS GOD

As far as I know, I have never heard this said. Now here I go for a Google search with the quotes on. Rats - it has been said - but that is good I suppose as it is probably true. I just don't really like the word god anyway because it sounds like an entity with a consciousness that recognizes us and that is laughable.

I mean, I expect that we will eventually have a collective consciousness on earth, which then will extend to other stars and eventually our galaxy and other galaxies until we collapse ourselves in communication into another big bang. But this is not here yet. I suppose there is a slight chance that if this is cyclical then some prior universal consciousness managed to slip out and meta over us.

-11-

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-

Nodism Sketches

Here is a collection of sketches that represent about half the Nodism sketches to date. At some point these will be properly processed ;-).

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

On the Equivilancy of Context and Content to Kinetic and Potential Energy

Of the many realizations that have been derived from Nodism, two of the most interesting are the connection between context and content and the potential isomorphism between context and content and kinetic and potential energy.

Simply put, context is the nodes along the branch of the hierarchy above a node and content is everything under or inside the node.

So if we have node zero / red / bikes / Asia / then the context is red bikes in Asia. The content would be all red bikes in Asia. This would be Lain's red bike, a red bike in a store in Bejing, etc. All would have a common denominator of the context.

CONTEXT IS KINETIC
When you refer to a node its context is defined, it has been determined, it is created by this and this and this, it is in the past. Energy goes into defining it. You have arrived at the node and are rolling with the kinetic energy of context.

CONTENT IS POTENTIAL
The content is undefined, it is a series of ors, it could be any one of them only to be determined in the future, we only know if we use up more energy and provide more context. There is the potential to go to any one of the branches. Content is full of potential energy.

CONTEXT + CONTENT = ESSENCE
To define something fully is to move every attribute out of the node and into contextual nodes. This would take all potential energy out and we would reach essence. Contrarily, if we rise up the single hierarchy towards Node Zero, we deplete kinetic energy and gain potential energy.

Node Zero is all potential energy. And reality, the actuality at any moment is all kinetic energy. The energy we are talking about is perhaps the energy of essence or truth or logic.

There is a more complicated aspect to all this and that is the aspect of relevance. Relevance is most likely not going to fall easily under probability but rather move into subjectivity. Subjectivity does bow to probability in the end. There is also the possibility of truth, essence and logic providing a definitive answer - like in the Glass Bead Game by Herman Hess. Relevance is a whole other article.