Oooh, my stomach...
Hi
My mind stomach, it aches. I feel like... I ate too much? I'm all bloated and just want to sit and digest. I've been away for three weeks, and now people want to see me. But you know what? I want to see me too.
GEB is awesome, I just read the bit about the graphs made of themselves, with the spiraling forever of little dots on a graph. So cool. I stare into it forever trying to watch it get smaller. The restrictions of media loom! It also gets me thinking: is it possible to accurately represent infinity, and if not, is infinity impossible? I mean, we can all have a good laugh writing equations that, if graphed, would be infinite in some dimension, but that cannot be completely graphed. Does the fact that we can never graph them completely show that they are infinite; does it show that infinities only exist in thought experiments? The professor says "draw a straight line. Ah! but what you have drawn is not a line, it is a line segment. We call it a line, and we understand that it represents a line continuing on forever in either direction far past the confines of the paper; a true line can only exist in your heart, here [points to his heart]."
MR. GEB shows me a series of numbers that come from Q(n)=Q(n-(Q+1))+Q(n-(Q+2)) (or something, I don't have the book with me so I'm just hazarding a guess) and tells me that the pattern keeps getting more and more complex, keeps acting more and more crazy. If you carried that number on to the millionth billionth digit and then asked it if it is exercising it's own free will in choosing the next digit, it might answer: "of course, I am God's own child."
***
Somebody in the room was all like "what's 'wet paint' in Spanish?!" They were going to call a friend, or poll the audience, or something. They said "don't worry, I can figure this out. I have the technology." I, sitting on this computer, with babel fish, looking up "wet paint" in Spanish, say "pintura mojada?" They guy looks like he's seen a ghost.
Ha ha ha! Then a Spanish guy walks buy, and he sees "pintura mojada" and laughs. "Pintura fresca," he says, "it should say 'pintura freshca,' I say," he said. I say! This is all happening in real time, mind you.
z.
PS as opposed to any kind of fake time.
My mind stomach, it aches. I feel like... I ate too much? I'm all bloated and just want to sit and digest. I've been away for three weeks, and now people want to see me. But you know what? I want to see me too.
GEB is awesome, I just read the bit about the graphs made of themselves, with the spiraling forever of little dots on a graph. So cool. I stare into it forever trying to watch it get smaller. The restrictions of media loom! It also gets me thinking: is it possible to accurately represent infinity, and if not, is infinity impossible? I mean, we can all have a good laugh writing equations that, if graphed, would be infinite in some dimension, but that cannot be completely graphed. Does the fact that we can never graph them completely show that they are infinite; does it show that infinities only exist in thought experiments? The professor says "draw a straight line. Ah! but what you have drawn is not a line, it is a line segment. We call it a line, and we understand that it represents a line continuing on forever in either direction far past the confines of the paper; a true line can only exist in your heart, here [points to his heart]."
MR. GEB shows me a series of numbers that come from Q(n)=Q(n-(Q+1))+Q(n-(Q+2)) (or something, I don't have the book with me so I'm just hazarding a guess) and tells me that the pattern keeps getting more and more complex, keeps acting more and more crazy. If you carried that number on to the millionth billionth digit and then asked it if it is exercising it's own free will in choosing the next digit, it might answer: "of course, I am God's own child."
***
Somebody in the room was all like "what's 'wet paint' in Spanish?!" They were going to call a friend, or poll the audience, or something. They said "don't worry, I can figure this out. I have the technology." I, sitting on this computer, with babel fish, looking up "wet paint" in Spanish, say "pintura mojada?" They guy looks like he's seen a ghost.
Ha ha ha! Then a Spanish guy walks buy, and he sees "pintura mojada" and laughs. "Pintura fresca," he says, "it should say 'pintura freshca,' I say," he said. I say! This is all happening in real time, mind you.
z.
PS as opposed to any kind of fake time.