for your amusement: Xanadu paper topics

[Mark S. Miller <mark>]

Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 03:11:20 PST
   From: michael (Michael McClary)

   ...

   > Words as Shelling Points for Meaning

   Do you have a reference to Shelling's work?  

Thomas C. Schelling, "The Strategy of Conflict", Harvard University,
(c) 1960, 1980.  It is a *WONDERFUL* book.  Ted Nelson recommended it
to me awhile ago.  He also studied under Schelling some.

   Was it an outgrowth of
   rigorous application of Catastrophie Theory to social science?  If
   not, it looks like the niche where the mathemeticians could start
   chipping away.

No.  Nothing to do with Catastrophie Theory.

   And the insight above looks like a starting point for a mathematical
   treatment of vocabulary change and the evolution of ideas.

Exactly my hopes.  I also believe that Schelling Points is the key
insight for understanding how landmark documents will evolve in an
open hypertext medium as condensation points for subject matters.  It
is also necessary for understanding how shopping malls work.  Actually
explaining what Schelling points are would be too long for this mail
message.  If you don't see it in a later message, ask me about it
sometime.

   (Just had an apocalyptic vision:  The New York Stock Exchange being
    operated by Penguins.)

(The publisher or the animal?  What about the air-conditioning
requirements?)