[extropy-chat] Effective relationships

[Randall Randall]

On Nov 4, 2006, at 4:07 PM, Ben Goertzel wrote:

>> The advantages I see are significantly increased synergies, built- 
>> in tie-breaking, and possibly an inherent 3D structural stability  
>> similar to that of a tetrahedron over a planar object.
>>
>> Comments?
>
> As any good Buckminster Fuller fan should know, to get the famed
> tetrahedral stability, you'd need *four*, not three...  ;-)

That depends on the dimensionality of human relationships, doesn't it?

The reason a tetrahedron is maximally stable is that our world has
three dimensions.  A triangle is maximally stable in two dimensions,
and (I guess?) a pair in one.

So are social relationships three dimensional?  I don't see any
reason to think so, but I do see an argument for one dimensional,
in that a person can only interact with one other person at any
single time... or since that person can either be talking or
listening, perhaps human relationships are really "half" a
dimension, and the maximally stable "group" is one? :)


--
Randall Randall <randall at randallsquared.com>
"This is a fascinating question, right up there with whether rocks
fall because of gravity or being dropped, and whether 3+5=5+3
because addition is commutative or because they both equal 8."
   - Scott Aaronson