[MD] Levels in electronic computers

[Magnus Berg]

John, Arlo and Ian

> [Arlo]
> I used the term "fractal boundary" because I think as you zoom in on the
> line its not as straight as it appears. Fuzzy may be a better word. The
> boundaries are areas I find quite interesting, where there is a lot more
> to see than the "middle" of Pirsig's levels.

I don't think there are any fuzziness at all, it doesn't matter how much 
you zoom in. I've said this a couple of times, but I'll try to show it 
using another analogy.

Imagine a square being filmed exactly from the top with a camera. You 
look at the picture being filmed on a TV, so what you see is a 
completely flat square surface. Of course some lighting makes it show 
some shadows, but it's still absolutely flat and square.

The camera zooms in on the surface and follows an edge until it finds a 
corner. Then it zooms in even more but the only thing you see is that 
the edges aren't completely straight, and when it zooms in some more, 
they become even less straight.

Is that really relevant?

Well, yes, if you really wanted the square to be exactly square, then 
yes I guess it is quite important to have really sharp edges. So you can 
make the edges sharper by using a better knife or better material or 
whatever. But if you repeat the procedure, you'll still see un-straight 
edges if you zoom in enough.

However, what you hadn't noticed through the camera eye is that the 
square wasn't really a square. The camera moves a bit outside of an edge 
and then you see that the square is really a cube!

That's what I'm talking about when I talk about a new level. If you only 
look at a cube from one side, you can only see that it's a square. And 
if you only look at how much something weighs, you can't tell whether 
it's a motorcycle or a horse.

So, if you *can* see a difference by zooming in, it's *not* a level border.

	Magnus