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February 27, 2005
Does better late than never count on a blog?
Based solely on a review of our terms, it seems that Watts is coming to the topic from an applied mechanics and mathematical perspective. Without defining “the network” as such, he’s talking about the action of forces on material and non-material bodies.
I think I’m enjoying the read so much because it’s so well grounded in the physical sciences and engineering. (Disclaimer: I’m not an engineer; I just play one on TV). A lot of Watts’ math has me scrambling for the dusty undergrad texts, but there’s more statistics (principles and procedures) to his reasoning than there are applied mathematics, which isn’t to say it’s less impenetrable on some level. It’s just that Watt’s has found a creative way to combine those statistical principles and procedures with a unique treatment of what I see as themes of applied mechanics.
For a few years now, a lot of systems design work has tried to deal with the properties of macroscopic or bulk systems. I’m only accidentally familiar with systems design practice and theory, but I see a lot of it in what Watts is doing. As happens in the early phases of bulk systems design, Watts is considering the average behavior of a large number of nodes and the behavior of individual nodes. And this is where I think he’s moving into a unique space because he’s considering these behaviors by drawing on laws of probability to explain (predict?) the measurable properties of the network – the macroscopic system – on the basis of the properties and behavior of the microscopic constituents (nodes, clusters, etc.).
Again, just a preliminary impression.
Posted by mfrascie at February 27, 2005 02:52 PM