Simple Country Physicist

One of the results of modern Christmas practice is an almost impulsive infusion of gear – as Bobby Burns would call it [Link]

I ha’e been blythe wi’ comrades dear;

I ha’e been merry drinkin’;

I ha’e been joyfu’ gatherin’ gear;

I ha’e been happy thinkin’:

But a’ the pleasures e’er I saw,

Tho’ three times doubled fairly,

That happy night was worth then a’,

Amang the rigs o’ barley.

Corn rigs…

or stuff. Apparently these days this also means that the onus to organize is accompanying, or perhaps somewhat scarier, inherent and intrinsic? At any rate, the day after Christmas, in lieu of braving the besieged stores, FD SCP and daughter Terrific could be found with consulting their printed archives on the subject of organizing stuff and discussing what action should be taken. I beat an immediate retreat to my study lest I be challenged with this illness.

I say illness in that the concept of organizing one’s stuff, even one’s household, has become some epidimic if the incidence of audiovisual media programming is any indication.[Link] This indicates it has definitely become fashionable, and possibly, chic, among those with the time and resources to pursue this pernicious game. Apparently it is no longer sufficient to brag to each other of what one possesses, but also of how well, or at least, fashionably, one’s possessions are organized. It has reached such a fervor that whenever FD SCP watches such a program, I am immediately exiled from the room lest I make some penetrating comment about the program’s actors having organized a room, or occasionally and far worse, a house, into total uselessness and unlivibility.

In considering this pandemic that beggars the damage of avian flu, I was struck with a realization, that organization is impossible without a taxonomy. I have blogged previously about the relationship between taxonomy and library cataloging [Link] At this point, it seems necessary that the subject be visited in a bit more detail.

As defined in Dunn and Everitt, [Link] a good basic introduction to mathematical taxonomy (and frugal, lads and lassies!) Taxonomy is

the theory and practice of classifying organisms.

We will use the term in a somewhat more general fashion, applying it to more than just biological things. But all of these things have some observable or attributable characteristics or distinctions that permit them to be classified, and this classification can be performed, often must be performed, in a mathematical fashion to assure proper behavior.

This is the clinker with all of this fashionable organization grrr brrrr. While FD SCP and Terrific were distracted with some program on the televisor on, you guessed, organizing, I snuck in and consulted several of the tomes, nay all of them, on organization (and I’m no talking aboot my books on organization management, theory, and practice.) I was astonished to discover that none of these books mentions anything about taxonomy, especially as a precursor to an attempt to organize. Apparently this fashionable organization is about esthetics of containers and not about functionality. No wonder my Neandertal brain sensed the fundamental unusability, the absolute absence of functionality, of these organizing efforts. The bottom line of all this organizing fashion is that it is cosmetic!

Having grokked the irrelevance of this phenomena to its nomenclature, I can return to useful activity, like devising transitional time scale expansions of delta functions. If I can find my notebook, that is.