recursion

Which came first?  The chicken or the egg? 

In a brief conversation with Marty Folsom (Seattle-area theologian/counselor), he highlighted some possible connections between recursion theory and relational theology.  The language of recursion was new to me and I have much to learn.  This is where I’m in trying to get a handle on it.

First an image or two:

To get a visual of recursion click here or here:

The Dutch chocolate maker Droste is famous for the visual effect on its boxes of cocoa. The image contains itself on a smaller scale. This is sometimes called the “Droste effect” and is a form of recursion.

“Recursion is the process a procedure goes through when one of the steps of the procedure involves rerunning the entire same procedure. A procedure that goes through recursion is said to be recursive. Something is also said to be recursive when it is the result of a recursive procedure.

“To understand recursion, one must recognize the distinction between a procedure and the running of a procedure. A procedure is a set of steps that are to be taken based on a set of rules. The running of a procedure involves actually following the rules and performing the steps. An analogy might be that a procedure is like a menu in that it is the possible steps, while running a procedure is actually choosing the courses for the meal from the menu.

“A procedure is recursive if one of the steps that makes up the procedure calls for a new running of the procedure. Therefore a recursive four course meal would be a meal in which one of the choices of appetizer, salad, entrée, or dessert was an entire meal unto itself. So a recursive meal might be potato skins, baby greens salad, chicken Parmesan, and for dessert, a four course meal, consisting of crab cakes, Caesar salad, for an entrée, a four course meal, and chocolate cake for dessert, so on until each of the meals within the meals is completed.

“It is important to note that a recursive procedure must complete every one of its steps. Even if a new running is called in one of its steps, each running must run through the remaining steps. What this means is that even if the salad is an entire four course meal unto itself, you still have to eat your entrée and dessert.” (wikipedia)

Recursion is not just for funky meals, it impacts social systems, learning, family systems and relating with one another.

Though I don’t know the theory well enough, to state this with any certitude, recursion theory appears to intersect with some aspects of social constructive theory, perichoresis and developmental theory (at least for a starter).  It even reminded me a bit of Eberhard Jüngel’s great text: God’s Being is in Becoming.

FYI – Marty has an article on the topic that will be published shortly.  I’ll try to post a link as one becomes available.  If you know of any theological applications of recursion I’d love to see them.

• A Freeman’s Theology: The problem with God 
• The Tao of Recursion
• Reversion in the Corporeal

Peace, dwight