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{{otheruses|User:Physis/Bootstrapping (disambiguation)}}
{{Unreferenced|date=January 2008}}
[[Image:Bootstrapping_tableau.jpg|thumb|300px|Embryogenesis and punched card booting contain related manifestations of bootstrapping]]
[[Image:Thomas Tank Engine 1.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Thomas the Tank Engine''.]]
The word '''''bootstrapping''''' is a highly [[Productivity (linguistics)|productive]] metaphor, grasping the common, related or similar pattern in many diverse phenomena, crosscutting several sciences. These manifestations usually explain the origin of certain (usually complex or nontrivial) phenomena, or even implement them from scratch. Usually, these phenomena are such that their origin is not trivial to understand, as it is hidden behind a sophisticated shift process. A complex phenomenon may turn out to have being built "on top" of the "infrastructure" of another, mostly more basic level phenomen. This underlying "[[scaffolding]]" often has become obsolete with the emergence of the new one, it even disappeared, thus the history of the level-sifting process has not been preserved in the "architecture", making its understanding a challenge or even paradoxical ([[chicken or egg]]). Thus, the process of this passed takeover, "[[coup d’état]]" can usually be traced back only by indirect evidences (simulations, [[reverse engineering]] etc).
{{otheruses4|the fictional [[tank engine]]|the television series|Thomas and Friends}}


As mentioned, the metaphor is highly [[Productivity (linguistics)|productive]]: scientists of various fields seem to introduce new manifestations with due certainty, usually keeping correctly the pattern.
'''Thomas the Tank Engine''' is a [[fictional]] [[anthropomorphic]] [[tank locomotive]] created by the [[W.V. Awdry|Rev. W. V. Awdry]] in his [[The Railway Series|Railway Series]] books, made into the British children's television series ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends]]'' (later simplified to ''Thomas and Friends'') and its American spin-off ''[[Shining Time Station]]''.


== Formalization attempts ==
In his first appearance in the television series he was described as follows:


[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/RelClosure.html RELATIONAL CLOSURE: a mathematical concept for distinction-making and complexity analysis. Francis HEYLIGHEN]
:"Thomas is a tank engine who lives at a big station on the [[Sodor (fictional island)|Island of Sodor]]. He's a cheeky little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome" - from the episode "Thomas & Gordon" (known as "Thomas Gets Tricked" in the US).


== Relatedness of some of the various manifestations ==
Thomas the Tank Engine first appeared in 1946 in the book [[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas the Tank Engine|''Thomas the Tank Engine'']] as a [[station pilot]], whose job was to shunt coaches and trucks for the bigger engines. He longed for more important jobs such as pulling the express train like Gordon, but his inexperience prevented this. Eventually he was responsible for rescuing [[James the Red Engine|James]] after an accident, and the [[Fat Controller]] (then known as the Fat Director) decided that he was a Really Useful Engine, and ready for his own [[branch line]]. He has remained in charge of this line ever since.


Does only a superficial analogy connect the various manifestations of "bootstrapping", or are at least some of them related along deeper principles?
His closest friends are [[Annie and Clarabel]], his two coaches. He is also very good friends with [[Percy the Small Engine|Percy]] (despite a lot of arguments), [[Toby the Tram Engine|Toby]], his old friend [[Edward the Blue Engine|Edward]], and his frequent substitute [[Duck the Great Western Engine|Duck]].


=== Biology and computing ===
Thomas is based on the [[LB&SCR E2 Class|E2 Class]] [[0-6-0]][[tank locomotive|T]] locomotives built for the [[London, Brighton and South Coast Railway]] between 1913 and 1916.


==== Digital "technologies" of biology ====
==The Railway Series==
[[Image:Papertape.jpg|left|thumb]]
In the Railway Series he has generally been depicted with a cheeky and even self-important personality {{Fact|date=January 2008}}. He believes that he should be more respected by the others, and he gets annoyed when he does not receive this respect. Luckily, [[Percy the Small Engine|Percy]] and [[Toby the Tram Engine|Toby]] are more than capable of standing up to him, and [[Annie and Clarabel]] often rebuke him.
[[Image:DNA orbit animated.gif|right|thumb]]
Modern genetic biology often uses deep and correct analogies with digital technologies.<ref name=digital_biology>[[#Daw96|Dawkins 1996]]: 23–25</ref>


Thus some analogies, crosscutting the border between such different fields like biology and computing, are not casual things: both nature and thechnology had to resorted to the [[digital]] solutions in order to achieve reliable [[information transfer]] and [[information processing]]. In the [[analog transmission|transmission]] and [[analog signal processing|processing]] of [[analog signal]]s, the successive [[amplification]]s of the sign results in deterioration of information by cumulative errors into [[noise]] (somewhat similarly to [[Chinese whispers]] game<ref name=Chinese_whispers>[[#Daw96|Dawkins 1996]]: 26</ref>). This problem that could be fully solved by digital technology, and nature turned out to find also related solutions.<ref name=cumulation>[[#Daw96|Dawkins 1996]]: 23–24</ref>
He is aware of his fame in the real world, and following a visit to the [[National Railway Museum]] at [[York]] he became an honorary member of the National Collection, joining such legendary locomotives as [[LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard|Mallard]], [[GWR 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro|City of Truro]] and [[Stephenson's Rocket|Rocket]].


==== Blueprint or recipe? ====
The Thomas of the early stories looks a little different from the one shown in later ones. Following the events of the story [[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas Comes to Breakfast|''Thomas Comes to Breakfast'']], in which Thomas crashed into the Stationmaster's house and tore up his front buffer beam, it was rebuilt without the "dip" it had previously had. The Rev. Awdry had noticed that the dip had put Thomas' front buffers out of line with his back ones, hence the story. He has kept this ever since in the Railway Series. However, Thomas has always kept his curved front buffer beam in the television series.
[[Image:Arecibo message.svg|left|thumb|This is the message with color added to highlight its separate parts. The actual binary transmission carried no color information.]]
[[Image:Cheese Soup Recipe.jpg|right|thumb]]


An egg is surely not a [[homonculus]], this old kind of [[preformationism]] is not justified, moreover, it would lead to [[infinite regression]]. Or is the differentiation coded directly in the DNA? Is there a direct mapping from the DNA to the shape? Is DNA a blueprint? Althought there are admittedly tecchnological devices which surely can assamble shapes out of one-dimensional "blueprints" by a direct mapping (like television), but in biology, this modern kind of preformationism cannot be verified, either.<ref>[[#Daw94b|Dawkins 19994b]]: 264–265</ref> As all descendants of the original egg in the developing embryo are genetically identical, there cannot be a direct mapping from genetic information to shape and structure. Instead of being a blueprint, the shape and structure od living beings is rather encoded as a cookbok recipe. Series of commands, there is no one-one mapping from these command series to the possible results. We can study the relationship by selectively modifying the commands, but DNA codes are surely not "scannings" of shapes intto pixel representation.<ref>[[#Daw94b|Dawkins 19994b]]: 266–267</ref>
Thomas has been the source of some friction between [[Christopher Awdry]] and his publishers, who repeatedly asked for more books centred around the character {{Fact|date=January 2008}}. Although Thomas was the most popular character in the books {{Fact|date=January 2008}}, both Wilbert and Christopher Awdry had always treated the characters in the books as an ensemble, and so before the television series there had only been two books named after Thomas (''[[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas the Tank Engine|Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' and [[List of Railway Series Books#Tank Engine Thomas Again|''Tank Engine Thomas Again'']]). After the debut of the television series, there were five more ([[List of Railway Series Books#More About Thomas the Tank Engine|''More About Thomas the Tank Engine'']], [[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas and the Twins|''Thomas and the Twins'']], [[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas and the Great Railway Show|''Thomas and the Great Railway Show'']], [[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas Comes Home|''Thomas Comes Home'']], [[List of Railway Series Books#Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines|''Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines'']]). Some of these are rather tenuous in their links with the character: ''Thomas and the Fat Controller's Engines'' (the 50th anniversary volume, originally to be called ''The Fat Controller's Engines'') has only one story out of the four centred on Thomas; in ''Thomas Comes Home'', Thomas appears only on the last page, the rest of the book dealing with the other engines on his branch line while he was away at York.


==Behind the scenes==
==== Cascading ====
[[Image:KTurtle s baum.png|left|thumb]]
When the Rev. W. Awdry created Thomas, the engine existed only as a push-along wooden toy made for his son, [[Christopher Awdry|Christopher]]. This engine looked rather different from the character in the books and television series, and carried the letters NW on its side tanks. Awdry claimed that this stood for "No Where", but later publications identified the railway Thomas and his friends worked on as the [[North Western Railway (fictional)|North Western Railway]].
[[Image:Concs.gif|right|thumb]]
The development of the embryo ais a result of repeatedly forking (mostly [[Bifurcation|bifurcating]]) processes, that act locally. Recursive forking is an analogy, implementable easily by recursive programming, and it is easy to viszalize with a "tree-growing" example. The nalogy is very simplified, embryogenesis is a complicated process<ref>[[#Daw94b|Dawkins 19994b]]: 51–53</ref>


==== Justified analogy between embryogenesis and punched card booting ====
Awdry wrote four stories about Thomas, which were collected into a book called ''Thomas the Tank Engine''. For this, the publisher hired an illustrator named Reginald Payne. Payne decided to base his version of Thomas on a real locomotive, an [[LB&SCR E2 Class|E2 Class]] of the [[London, Brighton and South Coast Railway]]. Awdry was initially annoyed that Thomas in the book differed so substantially from his original model, but was satisfied when Payne explained that he was taken from a real prototype. In later books Awdry based all his characters on real locomotive classes.


According to the above, a deep analogy can be drawn also between the [[Bootstrapping (computing)|bootstrapping process of computers]] and the development of the [[embryo]].<ref name=tape_embryo/>
One detail of Thomas' design bothered Awdry. This was the fact that the front end of his footplate featured a downward slope, which meant that his front and back buffers were at different levels. This was an illustrator's mistake that was perpetuated in subsequent books. The accident in 'Thomas Comes to Breakfast' was partly devised as a means of correcting this.


===== Chicken and egg paradox in embryogenesis =====
Unfortunately, despite creating the visual image of such an iconic character, Payne did not receive any credit for his work, and it is only since the publication of [[Brian Sibley]]'s ''The Thomas the Tank Engine Man'' that he has started to receive major recognition. It had often been erroneously assumed that C. Reginald Dalby, responsible for illustrating books 3-11 and repainting the illustrations of book 1, was the character's creator.


[[Developmental biology]], [[morphogenesis]], [[embryogenesis]].
==TV Series==
In the early series of Thomas the Tank Engine, Thomas's personality was similar to that used in the books. From Season 6 onwards his character was modified: he became less cheeky and pompous. He is now kind to other engines, and always ready to stand up for a friend in need. He is always eager to prove himself, and has had many exciting adventures as a result. He was not cheeky again until ''Calling All Engines'' or The Great Discovery.


How does the digital information of the one-dimensional DNA "tape" translate into the spatial pattern of the living being, to those diverse plethora of body forms of the living, the continuous, analog variability? Do living beings have their [[body plan]], and if so, how does it become enforced?
He no longer appears to be limited to his branch line and now seems to work all over Sodor. These changes in his personality and duties are a result of his "star" status. He is the most popular character in the series, and therefore he has the largest number of appearances.


The cells of a complex living beings are not alike, and the different kinds of cells are organized, arranged into sophisticated forms. All these cells share the same genetic information, the differentiation is cased by their selective responses to the same code. In understanding how the whole process is possible, first of all, how [[embryogenesis]] takes place, we must understand the two key processes: the interplay between [[gene expression]] and [[Regulation of gene expression|its modulation]].
In the Japanese version of Seasons 1-8 Thomas was played by [[Keiko Toda]], his new voice in Season 9 is provided by [[Junko Takeuchi]].


These two processes interplay in a way that seems to raise a [[chicken and egg]] paradox. How can the pattern of highly differentiated cells develop out of a single cell? Is the pattern of differentiation contained entirely in the chemical content of the egg?
==Films==
Thomas's on-screen appearances have been produced by [[The Britt Allcroft Company]], now [[Gullane Entertainment]], and distributed in more than 120 countries. The TV series, first broadcast in 1984, was narrated by former [[the Beatles|Beatle]] [[Ringo Starr]], [[Michael Angelis]] in later editions. (In the U.S. video releases Starr was followed by comedian [[George Carlin]], then actor [[Alec Baldwin]].)
* [[Mike O'Donnell]] and [[Junior Campbell]] composed the show's original main title theme, songs, and incidental music from the years 1984 to 2003 ( Series I to Series VII - 182 episodes).


Instead of straightforward, simple mappings (either from the inside of the egg to that of the embryo, or from genotype to phenotype), a sophisticated bootstrapping process takes place, an interplay between
In 2000 Thomas starred in a feature film, '[[Thomas and the Magic Railroad]]', voiced by [[Edward Glen]]. He was the only engine from the television series to play a major role in the story, and he even leaves Sodor briefly. The film was a critical and financial failure, but Thomas's [[movie]] career continued in the straight-to-video format, starting with ''Calling All Engines''.
* [[Gene expression|turning genetic information into shape and structure]]
* [[Regulation of gene expression|taking already existing shape and structure into consideration in the further proceeding process]]


First, let us see the two key processes on their own.
Thomas the tank is crap


===== Gene expression =====
==Toys==
{{Main|Gene expression}}
[[Image:Red box train thomas.jpg|thumb|right|Thomas as a 'promo gadget' for the single ''Train'' (1990) of the British band [[Red Box (band)|Red Box]].]]
{{main|Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends merchandise}}
With the popularity of the [[Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends]] TV series among children, 'Thomas'-based merchandise has proven very lucrative. At least five different categories of trains and tracks exist: "Take Along Thomas" with grey tracks; Tomy battery-operated engines with blue tracks; Brio-type wooden engines with wooden rails and roads (by ELC and others); electric model railway (produced in O gauge by [[Lionel, LLC|Lionel]], HO/OO gauge by [[Hornby Railways|Hornby]] and [[Bachmann Industries|Bachmann]] and N gauge by Tomix); and [[Lego]] engines and tracks; along with complementary videos, DVDs, books, games, puzzles, stationery, clothing and household items.


A plethora of different chemical reactions are taking place inside a cell. How are the different reactions organized, how are they separated from each other? Physical separation is not the only solution. The enzymes, functioning as catalysts, are able to control several different reactions in ts shared environment. The enzymes are produced according to the information stored in DNA.<ref name=enzyme>[[#Daw96|Dawkins 1996]]: 28</ref>
==Real railways==
{{main|Day Out With Thomas}}
[[Image:Thomas at Bitton station.jpg|thumb|right|Thomas [[LMS Fowler Class 3F|(47298)]] on the [[Avon Valley Railway]] Bitton]]
[[Image:Thomas The Tank Engine.jpg|thumb|right|Thomas [[LMS Fowler Class 3F|(47327)]] at [[Rushcliffe Country Park]] Nottingham]]
[[Image:Thomastrain.jpg|thumb|right|Thomas the Tank Engine on the [[Watercress Line]] At [[New Alresford|Alresford]] Station]]


===== Regulation of gene expression =====
[[Hit Entertainment]] licences "[[Day Out With Thomas]]" events all over the world, in which visitors to heritage railways can meet and ride on a replica "Thomas".
{{Main|Regulation of gene expression}}


It is the chemical materials inside a cell that determines the way the cell interprets the genetic "message": parts of the message are selectively "switched on" or "switched off".<ref>[[#MaEo00|Maynard Smith & Eörs 2000]]: 123–125</ref>
Replicas are sometimes based on alternative 0-6-0 format engines such as [[Hunslet Engine Company|Hunslet]] [[Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST|Austerity 0-6-0ST]] number 3781, which was converted from a saddle-tank to side-tank design<ref name=Butcher>Mid-Hants Railway in colour. Alan C Butcher. 1996. ISBN 0 7110 2465 0</ref> by engineers on the Mid-Hants Railway to create No. 1 "Thomas" in 1994.


===== Their interplay =====
Due to many restrictions imposed by HIT Entertainment, including the need for "Fat Controllers" to have auditions, and for intensive CRB checking, many railways in the UK have withdrawn from running 'Thomas' days.


In understanding the interrelatedness of processes like [[gene expression]], the role of [[enzyme]]s and the [[epigenetic]] development, the [[cellular differentiation]], we can reveal a [[chicken or egg]] paradox.
An international tour featuring Thomas and his driver was completed in 2005 in honour of the 60th anniversary of the original stories. Former President [[George H.W. Bush]] dedicated the Presidential Train during a ceremony in 2005 {{Fact|date=March 2008}}.


Genetic information determines the produced enzymes, and the presence of enzymes determine the mode of interpretation of the genetic information.
A "real" Thomas was used in a special play, ''[[The Queen's Handbag]]'', staged to celebrate the 80th birthday of [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]], starring well-loved characters from children's [[literature]]. In the play, the near 'life-sized' Thomas carried [[Sophie Dahl]] to the stage to meet [[The Fat Controller]] ([[Jonathan Ross]]) at the beginning of the show.<ref>[http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?p=2433028 Summary of "The Queen's Handbag"] -- accessed 26 Feb 2008</ref><ref>{{YouTube|TQccpiN_F-I|Thomas and The Fat Controller in ''The Queen's Handbag''}}</ref>


On the other hand, the functioning of the cell is exactly the production of enzymes and other chemical materials according to its genetic code. The differentiation is orchestrated by the chemical materials of the inside of the cell, which itself is result of enzyme-producing cells arranged by a former stage of the same differentiation process.
==References==
{{reflist}}


How can this [[chicken or egg]] paradox be resolved?
==External links==
* [http://www.thomasthetankengine.com Thomas the Tank Engine .com] Official website
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/12/nexpr12.xml www.telegraph.co.uk] Refers to Thomas's inspiration of Starlight Express


===== Computer analogy =====
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For explaining the solution chosen by nature — a bootstrapping process — we can use the analogous problem and solution on the example of old, [[punched tape]] fed computers. How is the machine instructed to be able to interpret its own input [[punched tape]]? This is told by the [[booting]] program — but how is the booting program itself read in? (In old machines the booting program was not [[hardwired]].) Again, this seems to raise a [[chicken or egg]] question.
{{Thomas}}


The problem can be solved by a bootstrapping process: reading stepwise the information to set the rules of processing further. The most elementary things are input on keys, manually. They suffice to instruct the machine how to read the first few parts of the punched tape of the booting program. This small part of the tape contains further instructions how to read the next few parts of the punched tape. Stepwise, iterating these bootstrapping steps, the whole booting program is read in on the punched tape. As soon as the booting pragram is read in, the machine is able to read any punched tape.
<!-- Interwiki links (links to article in other languages) -->


As promised above, this bootstrapping solution can illustrate the similar solution of nature in solving [[embryogenesis]]: the pieces of "further information for processing" is "read-in" stepwise.<ref name=tape_embryo>[[#Daw96|Dawkins 1996]]: 29–32</ref>
[[Category:Fictional locomotives]]
[[Category:Rail transport in fiction]]
[[Category:The Railway Series characters]]
[[Category:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends characters]]
[[Category:1946 introductions]]


===== Details =====
[[cy:Tomas a'i Ffrindiau]]

[[de:Thomas, die kleine Lokomotive]]
* [[Homeotic gene]], [[homeobox]],<ref name=homeotic>[[#MayEo00|Maynard & Eörs 2000]]: 133–135</ref>
[[fi:Tuomas Veturi]]
* [[concentration gradient]], [[French flag model]],<ref name=grad>[[#MayEo00|Maynard & Eörs 2000]]: 131–132</ref> [[morphogen]], [[body plan]].
[[fr:Thomas et ses amis]]
* gene cascade,<ref>[[#MayEo00|Maynard & Eörs 2000]]: 133</ref> [[gene regulatory network]]
[[it:Il trenino Thomas]]

[[ja:きかんしゃトーマス]]
== Manifestations ==
[[ko:꼬마기관차 토마스와 친구들]]

[[la:Thomas the Tank Engine]]
The pattern above has been manifested in such diverse fields like theories trying to explain [[abiogenesis]],<ref name=clay/> complex communication schemes, building a complex infrastructure from scratch,<ref>[[#TrHu98|Traugott & Huddleston 1998]] (see [http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/lisa98/traugott.html online])</ref> explaining the emergence of such complex phenomena like mind or culture.<ref name=extrasomatic/>
[[nl:Thomas de stoomlocomotief]]

[[pl:Tomek i przyjaciele]]
=== Abiogenesis ===
[[pt:Thomas o trem azul]]

[[ro:Thomas the Tank Engine]]
Bootstrapping from one kind replicator to another one (prebiotic self-reproduction → genetic,<ref name=clay>[[#Lud93|Ludwig 1993]]: 277–260 (see [http://vx.netlux.org/lib/vml02.html#cn online])</ref> genetic → extrasomatic<ref name=extrasomatic>[[#Aga95|Agapow 1995]] (see [http://journal-ci.csse.monash.edu.au/ci/vol02/pmaevol/pmaevol.html online])</ref>) [http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/Lit/meme-ess.html]
[[sv:Thomas och vännerna]]

[[zh:火車頭日記]]
=== Autopoietic bootstrap ===

[http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:xuX6Lz81Fq0J:www.evol.nw.ru/labs/lab38/kazansky/A_KazanskyAIP.pdf+bootstrapping+system+theory&hl=hu&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=hu&client=firefox-a]

=== Hermeneutic circle and AI ===

In the notion of [[hermeneutic circle]], the circularity of the whole and its part resembles to the notion of [[bootstrapping]], and it yields fruitful insights in [[artificial intelligence]] research.<ref>[[#MHD86|Mallery & Hurwitz & Duffy 1986]]: 2 (see [ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-871.pdf online])</ref>

Search for "hermeneutic bootstrapping"
[http://www.scribd.com/doc/2943614/The-potential-of-hermeneutics-in-information-system-research]
[http://www.gongfa.com/likejieshililun.htm]
[http://eurhythmania.blogspot.com/2008/07/shattered-into-thousand-pieces.html]

=== Compilers ===
{{Main|Bootstrapping (compilers)}}

See also [[metacircular interpreter]]

=== Computing ===
{{Main|Bootstrapping (computing)}}

== Related phenomena ==

There are a lot of commonly-known phenomana that are related to the above schemen, but the authors describing them did not use the term "bootstrapping".

=== Evolution ===

Cascading cranes, as contrasted to [[skyhook]].<ref name=cascading_cranes>{{harvnb|Dennett|1998|p=80–81}}</ref>

=== Communication ===

We send a primitive message first, in a straightforward code,the only aim is only to attract attention, to communicate that it has some meaning, it can be regarded as a message at all. Later we specify a coding method, a "machinery" (e.g. a table, matrix orfunction) in this simple, primitive code. Finally, we can use the above specified "coding machinery" for coding further messages: we shift from the original, primitive method to the new one. The new coding can be much comfortable or swift than the former one, but because of its sophisticatedness it could have never been "taught" to the partner without using the former, "bootstrapping" method.

==== Knocking alphabet ====

The prisonars in Tzarist Russian prisons developed a means of communication: they "knocked" messages to each other on the wall. This Russian [[Tap Code|knocking alphabet]] raised an interesting chicken or egg problem in practice: although the "habitue" prisoners were able to send news and messages to each other, how could they teach the knocking alphabet itself to a novice fellow prisoner? They had to explain somehow what the coding system was, how the patterns of knocks could be assigned to the letters of the Russian alphabet. But the knocking code could be explained only by the knocking on the wall, because the captives had no chance to meet personally or exchange letters! How could they resolve this circulus vitiosus, this chicken or egg problem?

First, they used a simpler variant. They coded each letter of the alphabet by that many knockings as the number of the letter in the Russian alphabet was: one knock, A, two knocks, B etc. This simple system could easily be taught by simple examples "Who are you?" etc. Later they taught to the novice a more sophisticated coding system "on top of" this simple one. Indeed, they explained a "machine", a coding table, and the way it way it worked. After having explained the machinery of the coding, they shifted from the simple (but slow and uncomfortable) method to the sophisticated one.<ref>[[#Ken_88|Kennan 1888]]: 403–404 (scanned online pp [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0035%2F&tif=00413.TIF&cite=&coll=&frames=1&view=50 403] and [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0035%2F&tif=00414.TIF&cite=&coll=&frames=1&view=50 404], or search in the [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABP2287-0035-83)):: textual version])</ref>

==== Fictions and proposals ====

Also some fictions and proposals contain the pattern above. For example, the novel [[Contact (novel)|Contact]] (written by [[Carl Sagan]]) mentions the idea of sending first a series of [[prime number]]s (because we do not know abundant natural phenomena emitting prime-number-related patterns). Later the message contains a technical description of a machine, and the more interesting things will be transferred by the machine itself. A similar [[Motif (literature)|motif]] can be read in [[A for Andromeda]] (written by [[Fred Hoyle]]).

Also the [[artificial language]] called [[Lincos (language)|Lincos]] (proposed for sending messages to extraterrestral intelligent beings by mathematician Dr [[Hans Freudenthal]]) is based on sequence of levels.

=== Foundations of mathematics ===

if we build a system of logic, we often use set theory for "holding" collections, we often use natural numbers for indexing etc. That seems to be a circulus vitiosus: set theory and arithmetic is based on logic, logic is based on set theory and arithmetic? In fact, the problem can be resolved by a kind of bootstrapping: we build first a "dummy" version of arithmetic and set theory, integrated deeply in the very syntax of our system of logic, then we build our system of logic, afterwards we can use our system of logic to build the "unabridged" arithmetic and set theory.

The problem is discussed in details in a monograph, but without calling it "bootstrapping", instead, it is called "taming [[circulus vitiosus]] into spiral".<ref name=tame>[[#Ru88|Ruzsa 1988]]</ref> Another book of the same author shows waya making numeral-related statements without numerals in logical calculus.<ref>{{harvnb|Ruzsa|2000|p=99}}</ref>

A similar problem is given also as an exercise in the book about [[surreal number]]s by [[Donald Knuth]],<ref>[[#Knu87|Knuth 1987]]: 131 (= Problem 4, proposed after chpt 6)</ref> but also other introductory books mention the similar problem without details.<ref>[[#Csir94|Csirmaz 1994]]: 7–8 (see [http://www.renyi.hu/~csirmaz/l1.ps.gz online] in Hungarian)</ref>

Mathematical logic is also capable of inspecting its own methods, but only after a certain part has already built.<ref>[[#Csir94|Csirmaz 1994]]: 8 (see [http://www.renyi.hu/~csirmaz/l1.ps.gz online] in Hungarian)</ref>

A resolution attempt to the [[unexpected hanging paradox]] resorts to a series of leveled argumentation, resembling to bootstrapping.

A king promises to a captive, that he will be hanged on the next week, but during the whole week each day will pass so that he will not know the previous day whether he is hanged that day. The captive infers by induction that he cannot be hanged on Sunday. Then he iterated the induction and he infers that he cannot be hanged on Saturday, either. Soon, he infers that he cannot be hanged at all. The king simply throws a "seven-sided dice" and hangs the captive on Wednesday dawn. How can be the paradox solved? The solution can be layered in "levels" and is related also to Gödel's theorem.

== Etymology ==
===Origin of the word "bootstrap"===
{{Wiktionarypar2|bootstrapping|bootstrap|pull oneself up by one's bootstraps}}
[[Image:Dr Martens, black, old.jpg|thumb|left|A pair of boots with one bootstrap visible.]]

Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a tool to provide better leverage in pulling the boots on. The saying "to pull yourself up by your bootstraps." <ref>[http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0508b&L=ads-l&P=14972 Bootstrap citations from 1800s]</ref> was already in use during the 1800s as an example of an impossible task. Bootstrap as a metaphor, meaning to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts, was in use in 1922.<ref>[[Ulysses (novel)|''Ulysses'']] cited in the Oxford English Dictionary</ref> This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help. <ref>[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/290800.html Phrase Finder]</ref>

The computer word bootstrap began as a 1950s metaphor derived from using a strap to pull on leather boots without outside help. In computers, pressing a bootstrap button caused a hardwired program to read a bootstrap program from a punched card and then execute the bootstrap program which became a self-sustaining process that proceeded without external help. As a computing term, bootstrap has been used since at least 1958<ref>{{cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University]]}}</ref>.

The term bootstrap was used in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s 1941 short story ''[[By His Bootstraps]]'' about [[Recursion | recursive]] time travel.

=== Other languages ===

The Hungarian name for bootstrapping — "behúzás" — means "pulling-in", mostly used in computing.

The metaphor fits well to the early practice of computers, where first part of the [[punched tape]] the literally "pulled in" (by the encoded the [[booting]] code, holding the information for processing further) the remaining part of the punched tape.<ref name=punched_tape>[[#Daw96|Dawkins 1996]]: 29</ref>

My ''All whatworks is wonderful'' (series: World - University, publisher: Vince) describes bootstrapping (for early computers).

behúzás (kezdeti betöltés) boot
behúzófeszültség locking voltage [http://mek.oszk.hu/00000/00063/html/b.htm], [[locking voltage]]
[http://www.answers.com/topic/bootstrapping]

== See also ==

* [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bootstrap (word origin)‎]]
* [[Metacircular evaluator]]
* [[Chicken or egg]]

== Notes ==

{{reflist|2}}

== References ==

<!-- * {{cite book |last= |first= |title= |series= |publisher= |location= |year= |language= |isbn= |ref=}} -->
* <cite id=Aga95>{{cite journal |last=Agapow |first=Paul-Michael |title=Bootstrapping Evolution with Extra-Somatic Information |journal=Complexity International |volume=02 |issn=1320-0682 |url=http://journal-ci.csse.monash.edu.au/ci/vol02/pmaevol/pmaevol.html}}</cite>
* {{cite book |last=Csirmaz |first=László |coauthors=Hajnal, András |title=Matematikai logika |chapter=Bevezetés |publisher=Eötvös Loránd University |location=Budapest |year=1994 |language=Hungarian |format=postsript + gzip |chapterurl=http://www.renyi.hu/~csirmaz/l1.ps.gz |ref=Csir94}} The chapter means "Introduction", the title means ''Mathematical logic''. Each chapter is downloadable seriatim on [http://www.renyi.hu/~csirmaz/ author's page].
* {{cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |authorlink=Richard Dawkins |chapter=The digital river |title=[[River Out of Eden]]. A Darwinian View of Life |publisher=Basic Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-465-01606-5 |ref=Daw95}}
* {{cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |authorlink=Richard Dawkins |chapter=A digitális folyam |pages=11–33 |title=Folyam az Édenkertből. Darwinista elmélkedések az életről |series=Világ — Egyetem |publisher=Kulturtrade Kiadó |location=Budapest |year=1996 |language=Hungarian |isbn=963 7826 89 0 |ref=Daw96}} Translation of [[#Daw95|Dawkins 1995]].
* {{citation |last=Dennett |first=Daniel Clement |authorlink=Daniel Dennett |title=Darwin's dangerous idea |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1995 |isbn=0-670-03186-0}}
* {{citation |last=Dennett |first=Daniel Clement |authorlink=Daniel Dennett |title=Darwin veszélyes ideája |series=Test és Lélek |publisher=Typotex |place=Budapest |year=1998 |isbn=963 9132 15 2}}. Hungarian publication of {{harvnb|Dennett|1995}}
* <cite id=Ken_88>{{cite journal |last=Kennan |first=George |title=Russian Provincial Prisons |journal=The Century |volume=35 |issue=3 |year=1888 |month=January |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABP2287-0035-83))::}} The journal was a popular quarterly. See the cited pages [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0035%2F&tif=00413.TIF&cite=&coll=&frames=1&view=50 403] and [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0035%2F&tif=00414.TIF&cite=&coll=&frames=1&view=50 404] scanned online.
* {{cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |authorlink=Donald Knuth |chapter=Postscript |pages=113– |title=Surreal numbers. How Two Ex-Students Turned on to Pure mathematics and Found Total Happiness |publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company |location=Reading • Massachusetts |year=1974 |isbn=0-201-03812-9 |ref=Knu74}}
* {{cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |authorlink=Donald Knuth |chapter=Utószó |pages=129–136 |title=Számok valóson innen és túl |publisher=Gondolat |location=Budapest |year=1987 |isbn=963 281 864 4 |language=Hungarian |ref=Knu87}} Translation of [[#Knu74|Knuth 1974]].
* {{cite book |last=Ludwig |first=Mark A. |chapter=The Real World: Beginnings |title=Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution |publisher=American Eagle Publications |location=Tucson (Arizona) |year=1993 |isbn=0-929408-07-1 |chapterurl=http://vx.netlux.org/lib/vml02.html#cn |ref=Lud93}}
* <cite id=MHD86>{{cite paper |author=Mallery, John C. & Hurwitz, Roger & Duffy, Gavan |title=Hermeneutics: From Textual Explication to Computer Understanding? |version=A.I. Memo No. 871 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory |date=May 1986 |url=ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-871.pdf |format=PDF}}</cite>
* {{cite book |last=Maynard Smith |first=John |authorlink=John Maynard Smith |coauthors=[[Eörs Szathmáry|Szathmáry, Eörs]] |chapter=The evolution of many-celled organisms |pages=109–124 |title=The Origins of Life. From the birth of life to the origin of language |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |year=1999 |ref=MayEo99}}
* {{cite book |last=Maynard Smith |first=John |authorlink=John Maynard Smith |coauthors=[[Eörs Szathmáry|Szathmáry, Eörs]] |chapter=A többsejtű szervezetek evolúciója |pages=121–137 |title=A földi élet regénye. Az élet születésétől a nyelv kialakulásáig |series=Tudomány — Egyetem |publisher=Vince Kiadó |location=Budapest |year=2000 |isbn=963 9192 69 4 |language=Hungarian |ref=MayEo00}} The translation is based on [[#MayEo99|Maynard Smith & Eörs 1999]].
* {{cite book |last=Ruzsa |first=Imre |title=Logikai szintaxis és szemantika I |series= |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |location=Budapest |year=1988 |language=Hungarian |isbn=963 05 4720 1 |ref=Ru88}}
* {{cite book |last=Ruzsa |first=Imre |coauthors=Máté, András |title=Bevezetés a modern logikába |publisher=Osiris Kiadó |series=Osiris tankönyvek |location=Budapest |year=1997 |language=Hungarian |ref=RuMa97}}
* {{citation |last=Ruzsa |first=Imre |title=Bevezetés a modern logikába |series=Osiris tankönyvek |publisher=Osiris |publication-place=Budapest |year=2000 |isbn=963 379 978 3}}
* {{cite conference |last=Traugott |first= Steve |coauthors=Huddleston, Joel |title=Bootstrapping an Infrastructure |conference=12<sup>th</sup> Systems Administration Conference (LISA '98) |year=1998 |url=http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/lisa98/traugott.html |ref=TrHu98}}

== Further readings ==

[http://www.unige.ch/lettres/philo/espp07/abstracts.html The bootstrapping metaphor]
[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/BootstrappingPask.html Bootstrapping in knowledge reresentation]


[[:Category:Booting]]
[[:Category:Developmental biology]]
[[:Category:Language acquisition]]
[[:Category:Mathematical logic]]
[[:Category:Origin of life]]
[[:Category:Paradoxes]]

Revision as of 10:31, 11 October 2008

For other uses, see User:Physis/Bootstrapping (disambiguation).
Embryogenesis and punched card booting contain related manifestations of bootstrapping

The word bootstrapping is a highly productive metaphor, grasping the common, related or similar pattern in many diverse phenomena, crosscutting several sciences. These manifestations usually explain the origin of certain (usually complex or nontrivial) phenomena, or even implement them from scratch. Usually, these phenomena are such that their origin is not trivial to understand, as it is hidden behind a sophisticated shift process. A complex phenomenon may turn out to have being built "on top" of the "infrastructure" of another, mostly more basic level phenomen. This underlying "scaffolding" often has become obsolete with the emergence of the new one, it even disappeared, thus the history of the level-sifting process has not been preserved in the "architecture", making its understanding a challenge or even paradoxical (chicken or egg). Thus, the process of this passed takeover, "coup d’état" can usually be traced back only by indirect evidences (simulations, reverse engineering etc).

As mentioned, the metaphor is highly productive: scientists of various fields seem to introduce new manifestations with due certainty, usually keeping correctly the pattern.

Formalization attempts

RELATIONAL CLOSURE: a mathematical concept for distinction-making and complexity analysis. Francis HEYLIGHEN

Relatedness of some of the various manifestations

Does only a superficial analogy connect the various manifestations of "bootstrapping", or are at least some of them related along deeper principles?

Biology and computing

Digital "technologies" of biology

Modern genetic biology often uses deep and correct analogies with digital technologies.[1]

Thus some analogies, crosscutting the border between such different fields like biology and computing, are not casual things: both nature and thechnology had to resorted to the digital solutions in order to achieve reliable information transfer and information processing. In the transmission and processing of analog signals, the successive amplifications of the sign results in deterioration of information by cumulative errors into noise (somewhat similarly to Chinese whispers game[2]). This problem that could be fully solved by digital technology, and nature turned out to find also related solutions.[3]

Blueprint or recipe?

This is the message with color added to highlight its separate parts. The actual binary transmission carried no color information.

An egg is surely not a homonculus, this old kind of preformationism is not justified, moreover, it would lead to infinite regression. Or is the differentiation coded directly in the DNA? Is there a direct mapping from the DNA to the shape? Is DNA a blueprint? Althought there are admittedly tecchnological devices which surely can assamble shapes out of one-dimensional "blueprints" by a direct mapping (like television), but in biology, this modern kind of preformationism cannot be verified, either.[4] As all descendants of the original egg in the developing embryo are genetically identical, there cannot be a direct mapping from genetic information to shape and structure. Instead of being a blueprint, the shape and structure od living beings is rather encoded as a cookbok recipe. Series of commands, there is no one-one mapping from these command series to the possible results. We can study the relationship by selectively modifying the commands, but DNA codes are surely not "scannings" of shapes intto pixel representation.[5]

Cascading

The development of the embryo ais a result of repeatedly forking (mostly bifurcating) processes, that act locally. Recursive forking is an analogy, implementable easily by recursive programming, and it is easy to viszalize with a "tree-growing" example. The nalogy is very simplified, embryogenesis is a complicated process[6]

Justified analogy between embryogenesis and punched card booting

According to the above, a deep analogy can be drawn also between the bootstrapping process of computers and the development of the embryo.[7]

Chicken and egg paradox in embryogenesis

Developmental biology, morphogenesis, embryogenesis.

How does the digital information of the one-dimensional DNA "tape" translate into the spatial pattern of the living being, to those diverse plethora of body forms of the living, the continuous, analog variability? Do living beings have their body plan, and if so, how does it become enforced?

The cells of a complex living beings are not alike, and the different kinds of cells are organized, arranged into sophisticated forms. All these cells share the same genetic information, the differentiation is cased by their selective responses to the same code. In understanding how the whole process is possible, first of all, how embryogenesis takes place, we must understand the two key processes: the interplay between gene expression and its modulation.

These two processes interplay in a way that seems to raise a chicken and egg paradox. How can the pattern of highly differentiated cells develop out of a single cell? Is the pattern of differentiation contained entirely in the chemical content of the egg?

Instead of straightforward, simple mappings (either from the inside of the egg to that of the embryo, or from genotype to phenotype), a sophisticated bootstrapping process takes place, an interplay between

First, let us see the two key processes on their own.

Gene expression
Main article: Gene expression

A plethora of different chemical reactions are taking place inside a cell. How are the different reactions organized, how are they separated from each other? Physical separation is not the only solution. The enzymes, functioning as catalysts, are able to control several different reactions in ts shared environment. The enzymes are produced according to the information stored in DNA.[8]

Regulation of gene expression
Main article: Regulation of gene expression

It is the chemical materials inside a cell that determines the way the cell interprets the genetic "message": parts of the message are selectively "switched on" or "switched off".[9]

Their interplay

In understanding the interrelatedness of processes like gene expression, the role of enzymes and the epigenetic development, the cellular differentiation, we can reveal a chicken or egg paradox.

Genetic information determines the produced enzymes, and the presence of enzymes determine the mode of interpretation of the genetic information.

On the other hand, the functioning of the cell is exactly the production of enzymes and other chemical materials according to its genetic code. The differentiation is orchestrated by the chemical materials of the inside of the cell, which itself is result of enzyme-producing cells arranged by a former stage of the same differentiation process.

How can this chicken or egg paradox be resolved?

Computer analogy

For explaining the solution chosen by nature — a bootstrapping process — we can use the analogous problem and solution on the example of old, punched tape fed computers. How is the machine instructed to be able to interpret its own input punched tape? This is told by the booting program — but how is the booting program itself read in? (In old machines the booting program was not hardwired.) Again, this seems to raise a chicken or egg question.

The problem can be solved by a bootstrapping process: reading stepwise the information to set the rules of processing further. The most elementary things are input on keys, manually. They suffice to instruct the machine how to read the first few parts of the punched tape of the booting program. This small part of the tape contains further instructions how to read the next few parts of the punched tape. Stepwise, iterating these bootstrapping steps, the whole booting program is read in on the punched tape. As soon as the booting pragram is read in, the machine is able to read any punched tape.

As promised above, this bootstrapping solution can illustrate the similar solution of nature in solving embryogenesis: the pieces of "further information for processing" is "read-in" stepwise.[7]

Details

Manifestations

The pattern above has been manifested in such diverse fields like theories trying to explain abiogenesis,[13] complex communication schemes, building a complex infrastructure from scratch,[14] explaining the emergence of such complex phenomena like mind or culture.[15]

Abiogenesis

Bootstrapping from one kind replicator to another one (prebiotic self-reproduction → genetic,[13] genetic → extrasomatic[15]) [1]

Autopoietic bootstrap

[2]

Hermeneutic circle and AI

In the notion of hermeneutic circle, the circularity of the whole and its part resembles to the notion of bootstrapping, and it yields fruitful insights in artificial intelligence research.[16]

Search for "hermeneutic bootstrapping" [3] [4] [5]

Compilers

Main article: Bootstrapping (compilers)

See also metacircular interpreter

Computing

Main article: Bootstrapping (computing)

Related phenomena

There are a lot of commonly-known phenomana that are related to the above schemen, but the authors describing them did not use the term "bootstrapping".

Evolution

Cascading cranes, as contrasted to skyhook.[17]

Communication

We send a primitive message first, in a straightforward code,the only aim is only to attract attention, to communicate that it has some meaning, it can be regarded as a message at all. Later we specify a coding method, a "machinery" (e.g. a table, matrix orfunction) in this simple, primitive code. Finally, we can use the above specified "coding machinery" for coding further messages: we shift from the original, primitive method to the new one. The new coding can be much comfortable or swift than the former one, but because of its sophisticatedness it could have never been "taught" to the partner without using the former, "bootstrapping" method.

Knocking alphabet

The prisonars in Tzarist Russian prisons developed a means of communication: they "knocked" messages to each other on the wall. This Russian knocking alphabet raised an interesting chicken or egg problem in practice: although the "habitue" prisoners were able to send news and messages to each other, how could they teach the knocking alphabet itself to a novice fellow prisoner? They had to explain somehow what the coding system was, how the patterns of knocks could be assigned to the letters of the Russian alphabet. But the knocking code could be explained only by the knocking on the wall, because the captives had no chance to meet personally or exchange letters! How could they resolve this circulus vitiosus, this chicken or egg problem?

First, they used a simpler variant. They coded each letter of the alphabet by that many knockings as the number of the letter in the Russian alphabet was: one knock, A, two knocks, B etc. This simple system could easily be taught by simple examples "Who are you?" etc. Later they taught to the novice a more sophisticated coding system "on top of" this simple one. Indeed, they explained a "machine", a coding table, and the way it way it worked. After having explained the machinery of the coding, they shifted from the simple (but slow and uncomfortable) method to the sophisticated one.[18]

Fictions and proposals

Also some fictions and proposals contain the pattern above. For example, the novel Contact (written by Carl Sagan) mentions the idea of sending first a series of prime numbers (because we do not know abundant natural phenomena emitting prime-number-related patterns). Later the message contains a technical description of a machine, and the more interesting things will be transferred by the machine itself. A similar motif can be read in A for Andromeda (written by Fred Hoyle).

Also the artificial language called Lincos (proposed for sending messages to extraterrestral intelligent beings by mathematician Dr Hans Freudenthal) is based on sequence of levels.

Foundations of mathematics

if we build a system of logic, we often use set theory for "holding" collections, we often use natural numbers for indexing etc. That seems to be a circulus vitiosus: set theory and arithmetic is based on logic, logic is based on set theory and arithmetic? In fact, the problem can be resolved by a kind of bootstrapping: we build first a "dummy" version of arithmetic and set theory, integrated deeply in the very syntax of our system of logic, then we build our system of logic, afterwards we can use our system of logic to build the "unabridged" arithmetic and set theory.

The problem is discussed in details in a monograph, but without calling it "bootstrapping", instead, it is called "taming circulus vitiosus into spiral".[19] Another book of the same author shows waya making numeral-related statements without numerals in logical calculus.[20]

A similar problem is given also as an exercise in the book about surreal numbers by Donald Knuth,[21] but also other introductory books mention the similar problem without details.[22]

Mathematical logic is also capable of inspecting its own methods, but only after a certain part has already built.[23]

A resolution attempt to the unexpected hanging paradox resorts to a series of leveled argumentation, resembling to bootstrapping.

A king promises to a captive, that he will be hanged on the next week, but during the whole week each day will pass so that he will not know the previous day whether he is hanged that day. The captive infers by induction that he cannot be hanged on Sunday. Then he iterated the induction and he infers that he cannot be hanged on Saturday, either. Soon, he infers that he cannot be hanged at all. The king simply throws a "seven-sided dice" and hangs the captive on Wednesday dawn. How can be the paradox solved? The solution can be layered in "levels" and is related also to Gödel's theorem.

Etymology

Origin of the word "bootstrap"

Look up bootstrapping, bootstrap, or pull oneself up by one's bootstraps in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A pair of boots with one bootstrap visible.

Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a tool to provide better leverage in pulling the boots on. The saying "to pull yourself up by your bootstraps." [24] was already in use during the 1800s as an example of an impossible task. Bootstrap as a metaphor, meaning to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts, was in use in 1922.[25] This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help. [26]

The computer word bootstrap began as a 1950s metaphor derived from using a strap to pull on leather boots without outside help. In computers, pressing a bootstrap button caused a hardwired program to read a bootstrap program from a punched card and then execute the bootstrap program which became a self-sustaining process that proceeded without external help. As a computing term, bootstrap has been used since at least 1958[27].

The term bootstrap was used in Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 short story By His Bootstraps about recursive time travel.

Other languages

The Hungarian name for bootstrapping — "behúzás" — means "pulling-in", mostly used in computing.

The metaphor fits well to the early practice of computers, where first part of the punched tape the literally "pulled in" (by the encoded the booting code, holding the information for processing further) the remaining part of the punched tape.[28]

My All whatworks is wonderful (series: World - University, publisher: Vince) describes bootstrapping (for early computers).

behúzás (kezdeti betöltés) boot behúzófeszültség locking voltage [6], locking voltage [7]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dawkins 1996: 23–25
  2. ^ Dawkins 1996: 26
  3. ^ Dawkins 1996: 23–24
  4. ^ Dawkins 19994b: 264–265
  5. ^ Dawkins 19994b: 266–267
  6. ^ Dawkins 19994b: 51–53
  7. ^ a b Dawkins 1996: 29–32
  8. ^ Dawkins 1996: 28
  9. ^ Maynard Smith & Eörs 2000: 123–125
  10. ^ Maynard & Eörs 2000: 133–135
  11. ^ Maynard & Eörs 2000: 131–132
  12. ^ Maynard & Eörs 2000: 133
  13. ^ a b Ludwig 1993: 277–260 (see online)
  14. ^ Traugott & Huddleston 1998 (see online)
  15. ^ a b Agapow 1995 (see online)
  16. ^ Mallery & Hurwitz & Duffy 1986: 2 (see online)
  17. ^ Dennett 1998, p. 80–81
  18. ^ Kennan 1888: 403–404 (scanned online pp 403 and 404, or search in the textual version)
  19. ^ Ruzsa 1988
  20. ^ Ruzsa 2000, p. 99
  21. ^ Knuth 1987: 131 (= Problem 4, proposed after chpt 6)
  22. ^ Csirmaz 1994: 7–8 (see online in Hungarian)
  23. ^ Csirmaz 1994: 8 (see online in Hungarian)
  24. ^ Bootstrap citations from 1800s
  25. ^ Ulysses cited in the Oxford English Dictionary
  26. ^ Phrase Finder
  27. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University.
  28. ^ Dawkins 1996: 29

References

Further readings

The bootstrapping metaphor Bootstrapping in knowledge reresentation


Category:Booting Category:Developmental biology Category:Language acquisition Category:Mathematical logic Category:Origin of life Category:Paradoxes

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