[self-interest] Architecture and Programming

Wed Dec 6 15:12:53 UTC 2000

Richard wrote:

> cramakrishnan at acm.org wrote:
> > I not sure i completely agree.  I think user interfaces to programs
> > must satisfy functional and human needs in a way somewhat similar to
> > architecture, but i don't think the structure of a program has to.
>

The core of architectural design does not depend on any human being. Namely
the geometric reasoning.The spatial reasoning obviously concerned
with the application has to deal with the human dimension.

>
> It doesn't if you're writing a shitty program. But then, building architects
> don't have to satisfy human needs when they're working for most contractors.
> It depends what you mean by "have to".
>

Organic architecture and sustainable architecture today  are deeply concerned
with humans.

>
> > Besides, architecture is about structuring space, whereas software
> > architecture is about structuring ideas.

> I disagree. I think that building architecture is about structuring ideas;
> lines, forms, et cetera. Even 'space' is just an idea, whether you're
> talking about spacetime or the human perception of space.
>

Better to see what Jack Sarfatti says about this in his Post-Quantum
Mechanics.
The levels of consciousness:
1) Level 1 of matter-geometry where particles and electric and magnetic fields
gravitational fields in the tridimensional physical space change in time.
(These are classic "rocklike" waves)
2) Level 2, non-material but physical, guiding the fields of quantic information
 outside Level 1 material. The physicist Wheeler describes level 2 as everything
is information and is in agree with the semioticist Peirce (1838-1914) Wheeler
is 88 or is dead now.
3) Level  3 post-quantic is the field of spontaneous consciousness
where qualities linked to the experience of the unknown happen.
Well semioticists say every phenomenon can be considered a language.
I showed  architecture is a language. A language according to Hjelmslev
has two planes, the plane of content and the plane of expression and
four stratas: the substance of the content, the form of the content
the substance of the expression, the form of the expression
Likewises architecture is a language with two planes: function and form
and the stratas  susbstance of the function, form of the function,
substance of the form, form of the form. Substance of the function
deals with the activities accomplished by a human being understood
along the cycle of human ecology (baby.....old age) in each hour of the
day. The  form of the function can only be grasped through graphs
It is how the activities are accomplished, alone, with help, and so on.

Moreover Level 1 theory of Shannon of classical information is for matter.
The new Bohm's theory of level 2 of quantic information is pre-requisite
for the mind..

>

>
>
> The software development community at large also needs to recognize that
> traditional approaches to reuse
> are essentially archaeological approaches. In archaeology, software artifacts
> are dumped into repositories
> and various carrots and sticks are employed in the attempt to get developers to
> scavenge through them.
> Let's ask ourselves - and answer honestly - how much use would a repair dispatch
> domain object called
> "work order" be to developers of a delinquency collection application, even if
> it contained considerable
> workflow functionality? Not much, it must be admitted; potential reusers would
> have to spend too much
> time separating out the domain specifics. This is why, despite four decades of
> hype, software archaeology
> has yet to produce meaningful levels of reuse. The better approach is to
> recognize and separate domain
> specifics from generic behaviors at design time - an architectural approach.
> This in turn requires a
> common, architectural understanding of what is generic and what is
> domain-specific.

+Sure there should be a domain dependent model like mine to describe
all the aspects involved in computer science.

I will try to pass here the gist of my ecodesign model and since it is
also the gist of open computational systems I hope I can convey my message:

Above any art is the play of nature. Art mimicks nature. Language, art are
likewise hermeneutic.Music is the most hermeneutic art. Any phenomenon
can be considered as a language. Musical creation happens exactly like
a conversation. However it has to happen in musical forms: sonata,
concerto, symphony and so on. These are created according to the needs
of expression. Literature, painting, architecture, COMPUTER SCIENCE
have introduced form innovations according to the expressive needs of the
time.
When I restarted architecture at the age of 22 years   architecture was not
more than a nightmare for me before my biological knowledge.
So my purpose was to build an urban ecosystem.

I was also introduced to ecological modeling in the Biological Sciences.

See how ecologists think.
" we define an ecosystem as a partition unit of nature:
- a whole whose parts include all the living and nonliving processes
or objects (slow processes), and their associated biogeo-and physico-
chemical, energetic, material, and informational parameters
within a region of time and space
- together with portions of the surroundings of these units.
All ecosystems together comprise all of nature.
At the level of component parts, we shall use the hyphenated term
eco-system to denote an entity with its environment.
Eco-systems partition ecosystems, and ecosystems partition
the biosphere.
The indefiniteness of boundaries should not be allowed to give
trouble to ecologists in recognizing ecosystems as a valid unit of
organization. (Cell membranes are just as unceertain at another scale
of organization).
So ecosystems and eco-systems with hyphen are mutually defining.
If nature is too complex to be known in every detail, and if
modeling is to be the primary force of operational abstraction for
the foreseeable future then models must reflect a unitary
view of the object-environment relationship because this is the most
realistic view possible.
in Ecosystems emerging:toward an ecology of complex systems
in a complex future written by the considered most important
ecologists in Europe Jorgensen, Patten and Straskraba Ecological
Modelling 62 (1992 1-27
Likewise the fundamental unity of my model of primary
secondary and tertiary for design and planning sustainable cities
is the eco-system with hyphen or the architectonic object.
The architectonic object is generated through an analogy with the
DNA molecule. The essential elements of life are information and
energy (see space and form  is a consequence!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
So eco-system is the architectonic object.It defines the ecosystem and
is defined by the ecosystem. It is generated by the subeco-systems corresponding to

the elements: activity, structural systems, environmental comfort
and do on.
Exampe
Structural systems
They are described by the interaction processes of the eco-system with the
environment nad design processes (as described above).
Homeostasis:  The geoengineering dimension is fundamental here.
There can't be sustainable cities without the choice of the right site to
place the human activities (agriculture should happen in fertile soils)
The foundations of a tall building should be preferably built on rocky terrains.
In Sao Paulo there are buildings whose foundations mimick a rock!!!!

Continuity: the geological mappings.

Differentiation:  the different structural systems

Repeatability:   the amount of material and energy  used to build the
structural systems. This will be collected for use in tertiary waves.
So we can show clearly for example that 38 % of the production of
CO2 in the USA comes from the production of concrete!!!! So the Americans
should pay heavy ecotaxes for this.

And so on.

I cannot make a direct comparison mapping all the aspects into computer
science because I do not have a global view of computer science.
One should not forget that an urban planner and an urban designer
as well as a landscape designer work together with the architect.

My model deals with all these dimensions gracefully.
So hardware corresponds to what ? to the geoengineering dimension?
Architectural design is not more than the remodelimg of the crust of
earth.

Software architecture to structural systems?

operational systems to urban planners?

Self virtual machine to what? And a Self processor if it exists to what?

I hope you computer scientists may add to this.

Best wishes
Albertina

--
.----------------------------------------------------------.
| Albertina Lourenci                                       |
| PhD  in Architecture and Urbanism                        |
| post-doctorate researcher                                |
| Laboratory of Integrated Systems University of Sao Paulo |
| Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, 158 Travessa 3      |
| CEP: 05508-900                                           |
| Sao Paulo Sao Paulo State Brazil                         |
| Voice: +55 011 818 5254                                  |
| Fax: +55 11 211 4574                                     |
.----------------------------------------------------------.

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