RE: The Power of Power Laws

John,

There is some very interesting neurophysiological work being done by a
Harvard researcher named Carl Anderson. He's found power laws in EEG data
from the REM state of sheep fetuses. He speculates that the fractal
structure helps to achieve integration during this state, from the
neurological level up through that of consciousness.

If this is so, then there appears a direct link between power laws and the
ability of self-similar structure to provide pattern that bridges levels,
from the biological presumably up through meaning structures and higher
levels of consciousness in human beings. Certainly we see power laws
operating at the level of symbol via Zipf's law. There is also a power law
relationship in settlement patterns between the rank order and population of
cities.

Best,
Tery

>>Pedro, Terry,
>>
>>I'm intrigued by the 'power laws' scenario. Worth exploring.
>>
>>Without being too Occammish how does your neurological notion of
>>'power' map to cultural antecedents and meaning structures (Lord Acton,
>>Nietzsche,Adler, Foucault etc) or to quotidian usage (empowerment,
>>power walking, Power to the People etc)?
>>
>>I imagine 'branding' and 'badging' are power law signatures of firms.
>>
>>Re optimisation
>>
>>Have you noticed that the native state of a folded protein strongly
>>resembles the Taoist symbol of harmony?
>>http://www.faseb.org/opar/protfold/protein.html
>>
>>And even the fatalistic Greeks optimised Pandora's Box by leaving Hope
>>inside...
>>
>>John H

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Received on Thu Oct 31 23:55:47 2002