Thank you for bring up this issue of perspective. In my experience,
philosophical discussions of the topic of "simulation" (or any
philosophical discussions, for that matter) can greatly benefit by
establishing lucid methodologies for reflexively acknowledging how
perspectives are being addressed. With theTranscalar Imaginary
presentation in Lucerne I was attempting to integrate visualized
models of "observational" cosmic models with obviously "conceptual"
ones is to rhetorically demonstrate how all observations occur within
perspectival frameworks. Attempts to model macrocosmic observations
dramatically illustrate their inherently perspectival nature,
influenced by embodiment, enculturation, enaction, and other factors.
Hubris, of course, arises from the assumption that it is possible to
attain an all-encompassing "objective" perspective that can account
for all other perspectives through a singular approach. But when this
assumption is taken to its rational extremes (such as attempting to
model the entire cosmos - or perhaps finding the "god particle"),
various fallacies and impossibilities (hopefully) become readily
apparent.
To constructively address this blind spot in a way that doesn't result
in relativistic frustration and epicycles of groundless discourse, I
have found it useful to adopt some methodological approaches.
Particularly, the "integral" framework specifies various quadrants,
lines, levels, states, and types of perspectival development (many
examples at http://www.integralecology.org/source ), while
visualizations can be used to augment and complement this conceptual
approach by experientially demonstrating various scales of phenomena.
BTW, the link you included doesn't include any images of the
presentation in Lucerne. Here's a recent blog post from the same
presentation during COP15 with some nice images taken by one of the
visitors: http://www.lenkphoto.com/home/?p=770
best regards,
david
---
david mcconville
director, noospheric research division
http://www.elumenati.com
On Jan 21, 2010, at 7:32 AM, Pier Luigi Capucci wrote:
> Yes, simulation has a lot of sub-topics, related to many fields.
> Thank you Roberta for pinpointing the relevance of social (cultural,
> political, historical...) issues of the simulation, and in
> particular on visualization. Some days ago I was in Lucerne and in
> the Planetary I enjoyed the beautiful David McConville's
> presentation - we could say - of the history of cosmology. All the
> information - from the medieval and renaissance drawings to the
> representations of the outer space in false colors - were models
> built visualizing and summarizing huge amounts of ideas and data
> (here some images: http://fulldome.ning.com/photo ).
>
> Representations and visualizations aren interpretations, and as any
> other interpretations are tied to a perspective (cultural,
> scientiific, political, historical...) as well as to a technique
> (and to its limits). They are not the truth. But, yes, as you write,
> it is fascinating see how "making the invisible visible" it works :-)
>
> Pier Luigi
>
>
> Il giorno 21/gen/2010, alle ore 05.09, r buiani ha scritto:
>
>> hi all,
>>
>> for this discussion, I am very fascinated by a number of sub-
>> topics. I decided to list them into two categories (for the moment)
>> to get us started. I am introducing them very briefly in 2 separate
>> postings. let's see how much interest there is to discuss them.
>>
>> the first is simulation in relation to visualization (both
>> scientific and information)
>>
>> the second is simulation and everyday life (see my following posting)
>>
>>
>>
>> I have become interested in the issue of simulation in the context
>> of the processes involved in visualization, a practice fairly
>> popular today. In particular, I am fascinated by scientific and
>> information visualization of the "microscopic" (visualization of
>> viruses or the cerebral cortex) and the "abstract" (visualization
>> of digital networks, social relationships, or the unfolding of
>> computer viruses). We have no clue regarding the appearance of
>> these "substances," as we can't "see" them in "nature" (ie. Through
>> the immediacy of the human eye), unless from invisible and
>> formless, these substances are turned into visually readable
>> objects (and thus, immediately perceivable). The resulting objects
>> that we admire on scientific journals or on pop science magazines
>> are the product of a sum of concatenated simulations involving
>> various technological and methodological processes. During the
>> process of "making the invisible visible," microscopes, data mining
>> and other technological filtering are added to our cultural
>> perception of what these substances are, to our scientific and
>> visual conventions and rules and to what we, as consumers and
>> producers of images imagine these substances. All these aspects,
>> intertwined, make these substances, and the images that illustrate
>> them, simulations of simulations.
>>
>> roberta buiani
>>
>>
>>
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>
> --
> Pier Luigi Capucci
> e-mail: plc@noemalab.org
> web: http://www.noemalab.org/plc/plc.html
> skype: plcapucci
>
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