Navigating our Thoughts

The Hypocampus is responsible for spacial navigation and for making declarative memories (facts and events).  If we are organizing memory - physical hierarchical data, of course we need to use spacial navigation.  So this indicates that it is likely we navigate our thoughts in a similar way in which we navigate the outside world.

Creativity Framework based on Nodism Principles

An excerpt from the first part of the Creativity Framework 

Dan Zen has taken his 10 years of Nodism explorations and applied them towards Creativity.  The Dan Zen Creativity Framework is for sale - which is a tough decision because he certainly wants to share with as many people as possible.

http://danzen.com/creativityframework

"The Creativity Framework has exceptional value.  It allows you to create whenever you want - on an instance's notice.  The framework reveals the mechanics of creativity - how the magic is done." - Dan Zen.

An excerpt from the second part of the Creativity Framework

It is always difficult to put a price on something like this.  There are many self help books priced somewhere around $30.  There are workshops at $100-300.  There are corporate training sessions and $1000s of dollars.  Dan Zen has set the price of the Creativity Framework at $42 - the answer to Life the Universe and Everything ;-).

Please try out the Creativity Framework - it is the price of a movie or dinner out for two - well worth it!

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.