RE: virus: Evaluating Math

Todd Kuipers (tkuipers@merak.com)
Thu, 28 Nov 1996 14:05:28 -0700


>Ok, so 'ordinary' math counts the amount of objects, and cohesive math
>counts the kind of objects [feel free to correct me here David].
>Can we construct a math which evaluates objects? i.e. Which counts their
>quality?

This reminds me of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (on the
recommended reading list I think). The protagonist in the book spent a large
portion of his life and a large portion of his sanity on just such a question.
I think it could be done via formula, but would be almost impossible to derive
a number that all agree with.

The numbers involved would be subjective and the qualities or attributes of a
quantifiable quality measure would be as well. Quality could be made up of
sturdiness, utility, aesthetics etc., but each would be very hard to quantify.

>I don't mean scores like 'ten of ten' or 'one in a million' etc., but a
>real count of the quality of objects?

It would be interesting to see if the members of this list had a consensus on
quality measurement or at least a portion of it. A formula form could be
quality=sum(a(n)*w), where "a" are the attributes, "n" would the specific
attribute and "w" would be the weighting applied to the attribute (as not all
attributes are equal?). I think Pirsig did something like this in his book.

any thoughts?

--
Todd Kuipers - New Media Propagandist
todd@kumo.com - 403-294-4336
Kumo Software Corporation
http://www.kumo.com/