Writing up a formal treatment for publication of an earlier posting. The emphasis is to be on extraction of hierarchical structure from geological (primarily geochemical) time series. I've managed to find a 20 My long (inferred) record, which should be long enough to separate the climatic and biochemical hierarchical info from the tectonic info.
Just lately I have been getting lost in the details of the role that the development of hierarchy plays in distinguishing systems that are truly complex from the merely complicated. Remember that time the Tortoise and Achilles got into a bind and they escaped into a story. And in that story they got into another bind, and escaped into another story? And then in that story they got in trouble and escaped into a painting, where they once again found themselves in peril, and escaped into another story--and towards the end they stepped out of the various stories and paintings in succession, but ended up one level short of reality? Well that's where I am now.
Just lately I have been getting lost in the details of the role that the development of hierarchy plays in distinguishing systems that are truly complex from the merely complicated. Remember that time the Tortoise and Achilles got into a bind and they escaped into a story. And in that story they got into another bind, and escaped into another story? And then in that story they got in trouble and escaped into a painting, where they once again found themselves in peril, and escaped into another story--and towards the end they stepped out of the various stories and paintings in succession, but ended up one level short of reality? Well that's where I am now.
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