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Knowledge is a Sierpinski triangle
- dalke 15y agoMy first thought about the comparison to a Sierpinski triangle is that the more we work at it, the less there is. The author then totally avoids talking about the analogy mentioned in the title and instead makes a very different point. The essay proposes that the close you get to a subject, the more complex and diverse the niches become. This correspondence to a fractal is tempting, but I wonder if the fractal requirement that there be some sort of self-similarity is applicable. Do disparate fields, close up, appear similar? If yes, is that a reflection of our own psychology? Sometimes too the jumbled landscape disappears, as when evolution made many disparate fields merge into biology, or heliocentric theory made epicycles disappear .. only to find even more interesting lands beyond.