Saturday, May 27, 2006

Elastic Interval Geometry

If you've attended my Saturday Academy classes or OSCON presentations, you may have heard me speak about, and possibly demonstrate, Elastic Interval Geometry (EIG).

Unlike static geometry, EIG unfolds in time according to a precise and deterministic algorithm, but not in any way that's easy to predict short of running the EIG engine -- at least not if the structures are at all complicated.

Gerald de Jong was inspired to develop EIG by a Kenneth Snelson sculpture (this tower) near his home in Holland. Later (if I have the chronology right), he turned in to Bucky's Synergetics, through which he met me, among other afficionados.

I still have some Hi8 videotape from the time he flew out for a JavaOne event in the Bay Area, and afterwards stayed with me in Portland. We drove up to Seattle for a big synergetics pow wow at the viewcrest home of Russell Chu and Deb Kasman MD. John Braley and Karl Erickson were among those present -- old timers on my Synergetics-L which, along with Geodesic, was probably the first synergetics-focused list.

Anyway, what triggers this trip down memory lane is the fact that Gerald has recently launched this new Internet domain and blog, to serve as a platform for his ongoing explorations of Elastic Interval Geometry (EIG).