9 April, 2003:

Posted at 22h09. Permalink.

This is good, tasty words. Geometry, and our descriptions of networked space: "In the first stages of public understanding of the net, it was important to describe it as a space - to map its topology and the geometry in a way that elucidated its similarities and differences with 'real' space. As it has matured as a medium and become integrated into social behviour patterns, the dynamism of these social behaviours creates centres of 'gravity', and this creates warps in the abstract maps we have of the topology of the net. A non-euclidean geometrical paradigm is needed, and I think the interest in Power Laws and related network-theory has started to provide this. These geometrical paradigms factor in dynamics, so the static topology of the net is curved according to the patterns of behaviour that occur within it.

"If we follow the historical development of geometry further, what would a relativity theory of the net look like? How would it help us describe the effect of social behaviour as a gravity-like force within the topology of net-space? And further still - what about a string theory of the net?"