I never really considered blogging, partly because the process seemed rather intimidating, partly because it looked like it could take up a lot of time, and partly because of sheer inertia. But recently D.G., perhaps after having received one too many of my rambling emails, suggested I use a blog instead of email as a “much better way to organize and archive interesting stuff, links, comments, etc.” (The issue of archiving seems especially important, since I am probably going to close my primary email account very soon, in favor of another.) And D.G. suggested WordPress as an example. And so, with his prodding, but with some trepidation, I signed up. I must admit that it was surprisingly painless.
But what to name the blog?? “Random Thought Generator” was already taken. “Random Notion Generator” seemed charming, since it evoked random number generator, but substituting notion for number. However, streams of thought, whether in monologue or dialogue, tend not to be completely random; one thought can lead to another, which in turn gives rise to yet another thought, in a manner unpredictable yet not fully random. The process seems not so much like a random number generator, but rather a chain. A Markov Chain.
Hence, The Markov Thought Chain. The very process of coming up with a name for the blog seems to have demonstrated how thoughts beget thoughts.
I think I will now start copying some thought chains from my emails to the MTC, just to get things started. Initializing the state machine, as it were.
The Markov Thought Chain 