recursion · process
Ask PrometheusWhen a pattern repeats by returning to its previous state and doing again what it did before.
Recursion (noun) means: When a pattern repeats by returning to its previous state and doing again what it did before. It emerges from pattern, repeats, previous: A pattern refers back to an earlier instance of itself in time, causing a repetition within itself. In the EmergenceLexicon it sits at computed level 15, chaining down to the four foundations (space, time, energy, pattern).
Examples
- A program computes factorial(5) by calling itself: it returns 5 times factorial(4), which calls factorial(3), and so on until factorial(1). computing
Emergence
through: A pattern refers back to an earlier instance of itself in time, causing a repetition within itself.
- self-reference
- infinite nesting
Chain to foundations
Neighborhood
Concepts that depend on this one above; what it is built from below.
Relations
| contrasts-with | oscillation.motion | oscillation alternates between states; recursion builds on prior self |
| abstracts | cycle.loop | recursion is a form of cycle with memory of depth |