Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Indexes

It looks like Hofstadter's index was computer generated. Probably using the MS Word feature. I had assumed that this was the way that most people do it in the last decade or so until I read David Applebaum's "The Stop." I had to make almost as many pen and ink additions to his index as I have to Ouspenski's "In Search of the Miraculous" over the last 20 years. Some people still index by human labor and not with a computer! But there are some things that a computer can't catch. For example: a computer program such as MS Word would not make the link from "compulsive" to Karen Horney's neurosis in page 123 of Applebaum's "The Stop." Even the author himself may not have been aware of the literary connection. In this case he gave no credit to her, or any other other early scientists.