许多科学家日益增加用同构(isomorphs)概念来研究和解释各种复杂现象。在生物学、地质学、交际学和语言学等领域中尤其是这样。就连道格拉斯·阿·贺夫斯达特的《永久不变的金辫子》(1979年纽约基础图书公司出版)一书里也有明显的体现。从脱氧核糖核酸(DNA)和核糖核酸(RNA)之间的关系到情节的时间顺序和语篇叙述顺序之间的关系这一宽阔的领域中,都可以应用同构,这是显而易见的。 非语言的同构几乎俯拾皆是:例如,建筑师的图样和造出的房屋,照片和所拍的主体,麦卡托投影图和实际的地表构造,以及“2—4—8”和“16—32—64”两组数字之间。同构不是同形,不是相同的一组事物,而是“相似”,它总是意味着有某些不同。建筑师的图样不是建筑,照片总会有某些视差(我们已经学 Many scientists are increasingly using the notion of isomorphs to study and explain complex phenomena. This is especially true in the fields of biology, geology, sociology and linguistics. Even Douglas A. Hofstadter’s Permanent Gold Braid, published by New York-based Book Company in 1979, is evident. It is obvious that the isomorphism can be applied in the broad field of the relationship between the sequence of DNA and RNA, the temporal order of plot, and the sequence of discourse. Non-verbal isomorphism is almost everywhere: for example, the architect’s drawings and the resulting houses, photographs and subjects taken, the projections of Mercator and the actual surface structure, and the “2-4-8” and “16-32-64” Between two sets of numbers. Isomorphism is not the same shape, not the same group of things, but “similar”, it always means that there are some differences. Architects’ drawings are not architectural and there is always some parallax in the pictures (we have learned