68
But instabilities also have a life of their own that comport with “late successional” forests
4
and every conceivable form of ecological flux, inherent to all biodiversity, even immortal cell lines. Like language and the meanings we attribute to it,
environmental contradictions would appear to be fundamental to all integral systems of life, although we cannot know this; we only glean it. We actually have no
language to describe Nature (Fig. 8.1).
5
Whether involving mathematics, legislative policy, or ecosystem dynamics, we
can verify that any quantifiable idea harbors the notion of a commons, a public
arena, a polis, or mall. There is a multiplicity that enables statistical throughstories—the “mean, median, mode and range” of basic numeric assemblages.
6
When we apply any concept involving multiples (e.g., the number of birdsongs or
weather changes detected, choices made) to our own personal lives, to an entire
watershed, wilderness area, national park, or to a whole nation with borders, we
4 See “What is a Climax Forest?” by Michael Snyder, Northern Woodlands, September 1, 2006,
https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/what_is_a_climax_forest, Accessed January 29,
2019.
5 For an interesting discussion of this centuries-old debate in the contexts of different possibilities
for meaning, see Antony Adolf’s essay, “Multi-Lingualism and the (In)Stability of Meaning: A
Neo-Heideggerian Perspective,” https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/
documents/entertext032/Antony-Adolf-Multi-Lingualism-and-the-InStability-of-Meaning-ANeo-Heideggerian-Perspective-An-Essay.pdf, Brunei University, London.
6 See John Bibby, 1974. “Axiomatisations of the average and a further generalization of monotonic
sequences”. Glasgow Mathematical Journal. 15: 63–65. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/
s0017089500002135.
Fig. 8.1 Beach meadow filaments, Southeast Alaska. (Photo © M.C. Tobias)
8 Paradoxical Frontiers
But instabilities also have a life of their own that comport with “late successional” forests
4
and every conceivable form of ecological flux, inherent to all biodiversity, even immortal cell lines. Like language and the meanings we attribute to it,
environmental contradictions would appear to be fundamental to all integral systems of life, although we cannot know this; we only glean it. We actually have no
language to describe Nature (Fig. 8.1).
5
Whether involving mathematics, legislative policy, or ecosystem dynamics, we
can verify that any quantifiable idea harbors the notion of a commons, a public
arena, a polis, or mall. There is a multiplicity that enables statistical throughstories—the “mean, median, mode and range” of basic numeric assemblages.
6
When we apply any concept involving multiples (e.g., the number of birdsongs or
weather changes detected, choices made) to our own personal lives, to an entire
watershed, wilderness area, national park, or to a whole nation with borders, we
4 See “What is a Climax Forest?” by Michael Snyder, Northern Woodlands, September 1, 2006,
https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/what_is_a_climax_forest, Accessed January 29,
2019.
5 For an interesting discussion of this centuries-old debate in the contexts of different possibilities
for meaning, see Antony Adolf’s essay, “Multi-Lingualism and the (In)Stability of Meaning: A
Neo-Heideggerian Perspective,” https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/
documents/entertext032/Antony-Adolf-Multi-Lingualism-and-the-InStability-of-Meaning-ANeo-Heideggerian-Perspective-An-Essay.pdf, Brunei University, London.
6 See John Bibby, 1974. “Axiomatisations of the average and a further generalization of monotonic
sequences”. Glasgow Mathematical Journal. 15: 63–65. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/
s0017089500002135.
Fig. 8.1 Beach meadow filaments, Southeast Alaska. (Photo © M.C. Tobias)
8 Paradoxical Frontiers