ramical

Branch-seeking. Inverse of radical. Of technology, seeks new effects or ramifications derived from existing root causes. Synthetic biology, as compared to systems biology. Of politics, liberalism. Produces the “tinkering around the edges” effect often observed in non-revolutionary ideologies. Not harmful in itself, but without sufficient accompanying radicalism, consensus develops ‘built-in’ boundaries for allowable change, virtually guaranteeing a system’s eventual terminus at local optimisation minima. A cage for science and truth-seeking is built out of establishing severe institutional biases towards ramicalism. (Think of the emphasis on ‘delivering products’ that capitalism produces.)

logical time

logical time is a generalization of physical, clock time to fit alternative structures of causality. the assumption being that ‘what caused what to happen’ is a more important fact than ‘what happened first in physical clock time.’ i use it because it makes it easier to work with predictions about the future- usually predictions about what other people will do, so that i can adjust my actions accordingly. if i know how you will behave- if i can use logic to accurately deduce the behavior you will display in specific circumstances, and you do not do the same for me- then i am in some sense causally ahead of you. your future actions have affected my actions here in the present, even though our physical clock times are the same.

originally from distributed computing.

elaboration here, though used in a context i don’t usually find myself talking about.