Why "Prizmatic"?

The word Prizmatic is a metaphor for geeky multifaceted thinking, this explanation, itself, being a geeky multifaceted explanation:  it consists of a self-referential multidimensional description of a concept, or meme--the Prizmatic Meme (I think I inherited this meme, mutated, from the book Godel, Escher, Bach, although this meme was not labeled as such in that book). Like a gem with many facets, this Prizmatic Meme represents a thought process with many components.

The word meme in this context is a label which represents something complex, in this case the label is Prizmatic and the complexity is what is being described in the explanation (this explanation) under the above heading Why "Prizmatic"?.  An advantage of referring to this complexity as a meme is that in the future the complexity can be referred to simply as the Prizmatic Meme without continually having to repeat long explanations of what Prizmatic represents.

A prism in general is something that refracts light, typically dispersing it into its individual rays (creating a rainbow), although, theoretically, I suppose, a rainbow could conceivably be shone into a prism in such a way that all of the colors are combined and come out as white light (in contrast, with paints, all colors combined theoretically make black).  A prism is a metaphor in the Prizmatic Meme for an issue that can be broken down into its rainbow components or viewed as black or white depending upon the viewpoint and context.

A gem has many facets which potentially form many prisms for a multidimensional view of an issue.  Multidimensional in this sense means that a lot of variables (i.e., parameters or arguments) are considered in reaching a conclusion.  Consider a decision for going to a particular movie in a theater, for example.  If you are going to the movie because you want to see that particular movie, that is a one-dimensional argument that has one parameter with the argument (value) of that parameter being the movie title.  If you are going to a movie in the afternoon because the tickets are cheaper at that time, then it becomes a two-dimensional argument with one dimension being the title of the movie and the other argument being the time of day.  A third dimension might be if this is the last day the movie is shown in the theater (so that you had better see it today if you want to see it in the theater).  A fourth dimension might be if a crowd is expected at the viewing.  Each one of these variables (title, time, last day, crowd) is like a facet on one or more gems: shine a light through and see the result.

The z in Prizmatic is from leet speak (such as warez) to represent a geeky context to the multidimensional thinking.  Geekiness covers a lot of ground but includes scientific, logical, and Asperger's-like tendencies, for example.

Like a shiny gem,
Multifaceted thinking
Shows complexity.

Suggested Comments:

What are some other examples of multidimensional thinking?