Credit to Norm's Rolonics

I have a dear friend, Norm, who has dedicated the last few decades of his life to the development of a theory called Rolonics. And it is on my very incomplete understanding of this theory that much of my work is directed to.

Rolonics covers more than natural systems. For example, it includes intentions as one of the time axis (who intends to do what, and when). Natural systems do not exhibit intentions. Rolonics also includes context, perspective and addresses understanding.

One of the basis of Rolonics is holonics. So we have the idea that everything is both a part of something else and a whole which also has parts. But another fundimental idea is that everything can be represented as either a structure or a stream.

Actually, Norm tells me that Rolonics contains nothing really new. He has drawn his concepts from a wide range of sources. But one of the key concepts in Rolonics is that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And I think that very much applies to Rolonics itself.

Now the terms that I use are often different from those of Rolonics theory, and intentionally so. This is because I am implementing something quite short of a full Rolonic system. So Norm speaks of Realms (as in realms of knowledge, but actually something far richer), and I speak of Data Sets.

I've had the privilege of working with Norm for the past 3 years and hope for the chance to work with him for another twenty.