To: technology-AT-world.std.com
From: SONDHEIM-AT-newschool.edu
Date:         19 May 94 00:58:26 EDT
Subject:      Re: Guattari & Smoothing Out


I'm not sure how Thom's work can help; SSM develops a theory of
elementary and global catastrophies based on singularities and jumps
in behavior. The idea of smoothing-out that G refers to is dealt with
in a number of modal or n-valued or fuzzy-logics, which have moved
way beyond binary distinction; you'll also find some relevant
material in Brouwer's intuitionism. Finally, for me, what's important
is not so much an "escape" from binarism as an "escape" from distri-
butivity, as in quantum logic (Jauch, von Neumann, etc.); in this
logic, by breaking with distributivity, you have the possibility of
gesture or superimposition, in which discrete elements extend
"beyond" themselves. This fits well with Land's experiments, for
example, in color theory, where a gestural component (i.e. a
component extending beyond the specificity of individual elements or
bandwidths) has been shown to play a role in "active" human color
processing. Finally, smoothing out in classical analysis is, of
course, the basis of the integral calculus.

What is interesting and perhaps relevant in Thom (but not in SSM) is
his concept of fundamental actants as the basis of language and
process; these actants - there are, I think, about 20 - are derived
from the elementary catatrophies themselves.

Alan Sondheim