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To: edsheppa
See, this is is what I mean. If there is no rule selecting the events then the chart of those events has no objective meaning. It is an exercise in rhetoric or propaganda because the events can be selected to match the desired chart.

You should really have a look at the book. The point is that you can pick any set of events you like and you always get the same curve. That is not because there is no objective meaning - it is because technology accelerates, it grows exponentially rather than linearly. That is the point. He's describing the Moore's Law of Technology.

24 posted on 04/14/2006 8:52:42 PM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: InterceptPoint
The point is that you can pick any set of events you like and you always get the same curve.

OK, I pick the events called out in the History section of this article on clocks. The data points are these

Years ago Years delta Event
5006 2913 clepsydra
2093 937 Antikythera mechanism
1156 326 mechanical timekeeper
830 74 Sens Cathedral installed a horologe
756 184 earliest reasonably accurate clocks
572 223 first self-striking clock
349 13 pendulum clock.
336 XX anchor escapement,

Here are the points for log-log plot

3.699490845 3.464340485
3.320769228 2.971739591
3.062957834 2.5132176
2.919078092 1.86923172
2.878521796 2.264817823
2.757396029 2.348304863
2.542825427 1.113943352

If you plot them you don't get a line. Instead it starts out curved then hooks up and then back down. I wish I could post it somehow.

Do you get the point now?

25 posted on 04/14/2006 9:57:21 PM PDT by edsheppa
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