[nologic01]

Wonderful post.

I have this loose hypothesis that stacking a lot of crooked timber builds something that you could almost call straight. But it takes time and it may not be stable.

In any case if biology gives you crooked timber you better become an expert carpender.

[s1artibartfast]

Conversely, a structure of crooked Timbers may be stronger due to its irregularity, it is just more difficult to understand and defies engineering.

I'm reminded of Inca temples with a irregular stones, which due to their differences make the structure more resistant to earthquakes. I'm also reminded of biological diversity and variation, which enable species to evolve and adapt.

If you want to get technical, think of the thousands of crooked proteins that make up our bodies, each with their unique properties, behaviors, and functions. Not even a proto-cell can be built with a uniform materials, only viruses and prions are identical.

[jjtheblunt]

You just made me think that Fourier analysis is like your crooked timber stacks: add an increasing number of properly chosen’crooked’ functions to one another and you can get arbitrarily close to something very different.