QuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorAny decent home needs a library with a reading wheel!So true, and mine has cat-power assist. Helpful when really heavy books are in the queue!

Today I went back to The Blank Swan and made a list of references with substantial citations in the Index; so this is the tool kit that would be useful for understanding that book. We'll see where the path continues from there soon enough. Cranking the wheel aside, intellectual lineage is important and you'll enjoy a richer more rewarding read if you immerse yourself...* Indicates heavier weightingBadiou *BarthesBaudrillard *Bergson *BitbolBlanchotBorges *CantorCervantesDeLandaDeleuze *Derman (our own tribe)DerridaFeltham (Badiou commentator)Guattari *Hallward * (Deleuze commentator)Haug (our own tribe)Heidegger *HumeKant *Malpas (Heidegger commentator)Massumi * (Deleuze and Guattari commentator)Meillassoux *Menard * (Borges, Don Quixote)Nietzsche *Plato *SpinozaTaleb *Zourabichvili * (Deleuze commentator)The notes on "commentators" are based on the books listed in the Bibliography. These authors may be further accomplished in their own right, but the linkages are noteworthy.When my copy of "Medium" arrives, I'll post another list. Especially after you get to bat this one around for awhile. :DHere was the attempt to discuss The Blank Swan on this Forum: New Book - The Blank Swan: The End of Probability by Elie Ayache

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorQuoteIt's only in more advanced situations that one needs to understand how the crank was made and how to make a different one.Like to understand how the universe was made? (universe of derivatives? The Medium of Contingency?) "and how to make a different one." ?Fair enough. Different strokes for different... :)It is possible to create new universe or move from crank to crank. Banach, however proved it for any metric space, form which we are done for any specific case.Bonus: his theorem is computable.The fatal flaw with Banach is that the universe may not be a complete metric space (due to quantization, Plank-distance foam, singularities, or what not).This is my issue with mathematics -- it creates its own deductive universes spawned from axioms and then a big bang inflation of theorems. And maybe a shadow of any given mathematical universe seems to have a similar shape to something in our universe. But is it coincidence or is it meaningful? And, although math creates a black-and-white world of absolutely true and absolutely false statements, if the axioms are gray in the real world, then aren't all the statements gray, too.Collector's notion of understanding how the universe was made is an interesting one -- understanding the true crank that turns underneath it all (which may be different than the crank we thought was there) is very important. Yet a scientist might argue that until we can replicate a new universe (that is identical to the current one), we have not shown that we really understand how this one came into being.Furthermore, that issue highlights the difference between knowledge and control. Maybe we know how the universe, or markets, or derivatives came into being. But that does not imply we have the crank to make another one let alone the crank needed to make one with specific properties?

QuoteOriginally posted by: trackstarQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorAny decent home needs a library with a reading wheel!So true, and mine has cat-power assist. Helpful when really heavy books are in the queue!Shine a laser pointer on that wheel about 25 cm in front of the cat, hook up a generator to the wheel, and you'll power your house.(Or at least one might be able to power the modern day equivalent of the reading wheel)

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorQuoteIt's only in more advanced situations that one needs to understand how the crank was made and how to make a different one.Like to understand how the universe was made? (universe of derivatives? The Medium of Contingency?) "and how to make a different one." ?Fair enough. Different strokes for different... :)It is possible to create new universe or move from crank to crank. Banach, however proved it for any metric space, form which we are done for any specific case.Bonus: his theorem is computable.Banach was the PhD advisor of a PhD advisor of my family member. Legends.

Thank you all for your comments and various elaborations.trackstar, thank you for your words and for ordering the book.In answer to your question, no particular references or prior readings are required this time.I don't agree that 'until we can replicate a new universe (that is identical to the current one), we have not shown that we really understand how this one came into being'.We write books; books are created; they become part of the universe; they help us understand it; yet the new universe they form by agglomerating with the previous one is by construction not identical with the previous one.Yes, books are matter, they are not deductive objects that exist only in the mind, and perhaps the main thesis of mine is that the market and the book are made of the same matter.In other words, concerning the meaning of void and matter that concern me, one word of caution: beware the all too quick (and unfortunately all too common, on this forum) association with physics. For instance, when philosophers consider the distinction between form and matter, or meta-mathematicians and meta-physicians the distinction between formalism and material interpretation, they don't necessarily relate to the physical conception of matter. A few quotations from the book might help illustrating the point, as well as those willing to diverge rather quickly to diverge even quicker:From the very introduction:QuoteThis is an ambitious book. Its ultimate purpose is to introduce a new matter, in the sense of a new chemical compound. Matter to be created and defined, not empirically discovered. Matter, not in the sense of physics, but of metaphysics.The word matter here implies that something is absolute and mind-independent.The event is absolute because it is independent of the frame of reference of possibility. The event emerges from a void of possibility. Consider the creation, or the definition, or the forcing of matter that I propose in this book as the attempt to fill in that void and to write into that blank; to redefine the void positively as matter.From the ending:QuoteThere is a feeling of void and melancholy in our field because of the absence of matter. Ours is not a physical industry but a metaphysical one. The whole void and lack of foundation is inscribed in the apparently unnoticed finding that the contingent payoff is not equivalent to the contingent claim.QuoteIn The Blank Swan, I said that the whole book was trying to find the meaning of implied volatility. This is the same void as the blank interval between contingent payoff and contingent claim. The melancholy is the realization that nothing exists in the blank and that matter has to be created anew. Hence, the book.

QuoteOriginally posted by: katastrofaQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorQuoteIt's only in more advanced situations that one needs to understand how the crank was made and how to make a different one.Like to understand how the universe was made? (universe of derivatives? The Medium of Contingency?) "and how to make a different one." ?Fair enough. Different strokes for different... :)It is possible to create new universe or move from crank to crank. Banach, however proved it for any metric space, form which we are done for any specific case.Bonus: his theorem is computable.Banach was the PhD advisor of a PhD advisor of my family member. Legends.Wow! Banach was a genius.Stanislaw Mazur?

Dшв not read the book but some thoughts based on comments suggest that some ideas in the book are probably interesting to know but it also might more relate to philosophy than for finance. For example " I said that the whole book was trying to find the meaning of implied volatility" sounds quite strange. From my point of the essence of implied volatility is to quantify theoretically difference between BS option price and observed historical data. And the reason why theory and practice are different can be from the made assumptions beginning from the fact that S in practice can not be assumed to be does not a random process up to that the historical data can not be represented as independent observations of the same random variable. It is difficult to imagine that something new relevant to finance calculations can be developed.

The Medium of Contingency ∩ The Blank Swan = ?

The Medium of Contingency ∩ The Blank Swan = ?The void, of course.Or, equally, matter.

We were instructed not to mix physics into this discussion too freely, but I want to offer a little quiz.What is this? And what special feature is significant?

QuoteOriginally posted by: numbersixThe Medium of Contingency ∩ The Blank Swan = ?The void, of course.Or, equally, matter.So there is no overlap in content between the two books?

I believe I mention derivatives in both. Are you looking for a discount if you bought the bundle?

QuoteOriginally posted by: numbersixI believe I mention derivatives in both. Are you looking for a discount if you bought the bundle?Are you creating a market derived from these two underlyings?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: katastrofaQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorQuoteIt's only in more advanced situations that one needs to understand how the crank was made and how to make a different one.Like to understand how the universe was made? (universe of derivatives? The Medium of Contingency?) "and how to make a different one." ?Fair enough. Different strokes for different... :)It is possible to create new universe or move from crank to crank. Banach, however proved it for any metric space, form which we are done for any specific case.Bonus: his theorem is computable.Banach was the PhD advisor of a PhD advisor of my family member. Legends.Wow! Banach was a genius.Stanislaw Mazur?Mazur was their PhD advisor. A talented mathematician too (my relative), specialising in partial differential equation. It's a pity that so few people study their works nowadays, while so much nonsense is being published...QuoteOriginally posted by: trackstarQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorAny decent home needs a library with a reading wheel!So true, and mine has cat-power assist. Helpful when really heavy books are in the queue!This looks like the whole 15 minutes of my cats' enjoyment! BTW, does your cat have a plaque / tartar problem and do you clean their teeth in any way? (I ask about it every encountered cat person, because my cats have it and they hate having their teeth cleaned.)