Michael Hart wrote:
OK, back to basics, I have consulted with some mathematicians, not that I think you didn't know this, but you are pressuring me to make the point,
I'm not pressuring you to make any point about lines and curves. If you feel pressure to do so, that's unfortunate. If you feel I demanded it, you're mistaken. In your first reply to my posting, you made a statement about "an ordinarly [sic] growth curve", assuming a particular definition for "curve". I disagreed, based on a different definition of "curve". But I also (in the same message!) agreed with you, based on my best guess at what you actually *meant*. (And also disagreed again, based on another possibility for what you meant.) So it's just a little confusion over one's choice of terms. E.g., if you had instead said "an exponential growth curve" (or "geometric growth curve" or "Moore's Law curve"), there wouldn't have been that confusion. (Of course, there still would have been another problem, namely that you ascribed to me a position I had never taken. It would be nice if you apologized for that.)
But now we (well, you, really) have strayed from the topic that brought me in, the comparison between Google's progress and PG's, so my interest in this discussion is probably fading.
Ah, it would appear that you already knew you were painting us into a corner.
I disagree that we're painted into a corner. There's still a chance that this could go in a useful direction, though it does seem slim.
Then I hope that the great effort spent in replying to your messages was not a total waste for either yourself or the rest of us.
For myself, the replies (yours and mine) feel like mostly a waste so far. (Although if people gained some insight into Google's progress by my comparing it with PG's, then that would be a bright spot.) For the rest, I cannot say.
However, as I stated in my opening paragraph, I presumed you already knew all of this
Correctly presumed.
and thus presumed you were only asking the question for other reasons.
May I ask what those reasons were?
Sure, but what question are you talking about? I looked over my last three messages for a question, and the only one I found was (and I quote) "Huh?". (If you're talking about a question in which I ask you to explain lines and curves, that question does not exist.) -Michael