Subject: [lojban] Emergence, Fuzziness, and Scale Types

From: Steven Belknap <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 15:33:32 -0600

Emergent properties may not emerge crisply. Copper starts acting 
"metallic" in some respects at around 200 atoms. In other respects 
copper doesn't start acting "metallic" until you get 10^8 or more 
atoms. Some emergent properties emerge in a linear fashion, others show 
discontinuities. The <loi> mass/collection/set problems have been 
discussed extensively on several occasions on this listserv. It is not 
clear to me that the recent discussion is more definitive in any way 
than past discussions. In addition to emergence it may also be worth 
considering fuzzy sets and scale types (i.e. nominal, ordinal, 
interval, ratio). Interested persons might enjoy reading the following 
on emergence, fuzziness, and scale types respectively:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/

Zadeh, Lotfi Fuzzy sets, Inf. Control 8, 338-353, 1965

Stevens, S.S. On the Theory of Scales of Measurement Science 103(2684): 
677–680 1946

All are short and sweet.

-Steven