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This is a test of the scientific process. Can pure ideas compete and reproduce without a constituency or a revenue stream? This personal website offers intellectual clarity, not high production values. The clarity comes from a coherent theoretical perspective on the biophysics of human bodies, brains, and societies. The low production values are on purpose too, because clarity is hindered by decoration. If a plain, old-school HTML format is good enough for Peter Norvig, it's good enough for me. Publishing simple and solo is the only honest way for a single individual to gain the trust of others far away. Monetization and publication expenses inject bias in every communications medium. As Milton Friedman might have said, "There is no such thing as free information." I beg the reader's indulgence. This site is only a first rough draft, filled with scribbles, mistakes, and broken links. Its rough-hewn simplicity is to keep me sane as much as to represent faithfully a rough-hewn viewpoint. That viewpoint aspires to such a broad vista its description never will never be complete, only filled with more detail. Since the site will change over time, feel free to copy anything you find of interest, but do not mis-represent it. This site poses a Grand Unified Theory through hypertext, a medium whose informational topology shows unification and coherence to their best advantage. Each "page" really is a page or two, plus links. Called The Mathematical Theory of Humanity after Shannon's paper The Mathematical Theory of Communication, it provides a coherent theoretical perspective on brain structure and vertebrate communication founded entirely on first principles of topology, statistics, computer science, and so on. One of many advantages of a principled theory is that it allows disagreements to be settled precisely, with minimal overshoot. Any disagreement will be with some specific principle, assumption, or observation in the hierarchy, as if to force an answer to the question, "Which part of the math don't you believe?" The upper table of links at right slices the theory along different intellectual axes, a feat only possible for a coherent theory. So look at this theory from any direction you want. It all comes out the same. The lower table explains the site and its goals. |
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