Log24

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Westworld

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 9:45 am

On a new HBO series that opens at 9 PM ET tonight —

Watching Westworld , you can sense a grand mythology unfolding before your eyes. The show’s biggest strength is its world-building, an aspect of screenwriting that many television series have botched before. Often shows will rush viewers into plot, forgetting to instill a sense of place and of history, that you’re watching something that doesn’t just exist in a vacuum but rather is part of some larger ecosystem. Not since Lost  can I remember a TV show so committed to immersing its audience into the physical space it inhabits. (Indeed, Westworld  can also be viewed as a meta commentary on the art of screenwriting itself: brainstorming narratives, building characters, all for the amusement of other people.)

Westworld  is especially impressive because it builds two worlds at once: the Western theme park and the futuristic workplace. The Western half of Westworld  might be the more purely entertaining of the two, with its shootouts and heists and chases through sublime desert vistas. Behind the scenes, the theme park’s workers show how the robot sausage is made. And as a dystopian office drama, the show does something truly original.

Adam Epstein at QUARTZ, October 1, 2016

"… committed to immersing its audience
  into the physical space it inhabits…."

See also, in this journal, the Mimsy Cube

"Mimsy Were the Borogoves,"
classic science fiction story:

"… he lifted a square, transparent crystal block, small enough to cup in his palm– much too small to contain the maze of apparatus within it. In a moment Scott had solved that problem. The crystal was a sort of magnifying glass, vastly enlarging the things inside the block. Strange things they were, too. Miniature people, for example– They moved. Like clockwork automatons, though much more smoothly. It was rather like watching a play."

A Crystal Block —

Cube, 4x4x4

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Word and Object

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 7:00 pm

From actor James Spader, whose birthday is today —

"… my father taught English. My mother taught art…."

— Spader in a 2014 interview

See as well the 2013 film "Words and Pictures"
and Log24 posts on a 2007 film, "The Last Mimzy."

Above: A scene from Spader's TV series "The Blacklist"
that was aired on Thursday, February 5, 2015.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Nobel Jam

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 7:00 pm

From this date five years ago in The Guardian

Alice Munro: An Appreciation by Margaret Atwood

"The central Christian tenet is that
two disparate and mutually exclusive elements— 
divinity and humanity— got jammed together
in Christ, neither annihilating the other.
The result was not a demi-god, or a God
in disguise: God became totally a human being
while remaining at the same time totally divine.
To believe either that Christ was only a man or
that he was simply God was declared heretical
by the early Christian church. Christianity thus
depends on a denial of either/or classifying logic
and an acceptance of both-at-once mystery.
Logic says that A cannot be both itself and non-A
at the same time; Christianity says it can. The
formulation 'A but also non-A' is indispensable to it."

Related literary material— "Excluded Middle" and "Couple of Tots."

See also "The Divided Cube" and "Mimsy Were the Borogoves."

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Awake in Seattle

Filed under: General — m759 @ 2:02 pm

From University Book Store, Seattle, Washington—

http://www.log24.com/noindex-pdf/110407-GarberAndShields.jpg

Related material—

The Use and Abuse
of Donnie Darko

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110407-SourceCodeTrailer.jpg

Scene from a film based on the old SF story 'Mimsy Were the Borogoves'

From a page on Reality Hunger: A Manifesto  at DavidShields.com—

"The book's epigraph is a statement from Picasso: 'All art is theft.'"

Update of 3 PM EDT April 7—

"… we get inspiration from everywhere, and there's a bright line between inspiration and slavish imitation. (I was going to throw in the Picasso quote 'All art is theft' here, but I've looked that up in both the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (and the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, just in case) and in the new Yale Book of Quotations, and can't find it. So I'll just have to steal without the glamour of Picasso having said it was okay.)"

Weblog post by Erin McKean

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Midnight in the Garden (continued)

Filed under: General — m759 @ 12:00 am

From Rough Magic , starring Russell Crowe and Bridget Fonda (1995)—

Bridget Fonda in 'Rough Magic'

Bridget brought her rabbits,
There was magic in the air…

— Adapted from "Garden Party"—

Can't please everyone, so you
Got to please yourself.

From The Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader

"… Sometimes, perhaps, I am a little impatient, waiting for the day
when they can be governed by wisdom instead of this rough magic."

"All in good time, Coriakin," said Aslan.

"Yes, all in very good time, Sir," was the answer.

From Another Manic Monday (Feb. 21)—

We are now at the Year of the Rabbit

(Click images for sources.)

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110221-DarkoRabbitSm.jpg IMAGE- Scene from a film based on the old SF story 'Mimsy Were the Borogoves'

Friday, March 4, 2011

Ageometretos Medeis Eisito*

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 7:11 pm

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

IMAGE- Future Bead Game Master Joseph Knecht's mission to a Benedictine monastery

See also “Mapping Music” from Harvard Magazine , Jan.-Feb. 2007—

“Life inside an orbifold is a non-Euclidean world”

— as well as the cover story “The Shape of Music” from Princeton Alumni Weekly ,
Feb. 9, 2011, and “Bead Game” + music in this  journal (click, then scroll down).
Those impressed by the phrase “non-Euclidean” may also enjoy
Non-Euclidean Blocks and Pilate Goes to Kindergarten.

The “Bead Game” + music search above includes, notably, a passage describing a
sort of non-Euclidean abacus in the classic 1943 story “Mimsy Were the Borogoves.”
For a visually related experience, see the video “Chord Geometries Demo: Chopin
on a Mobius Strip” at a music.princeton.edu web page.

* Motto of the American Mathematical Society, said to be also the motto of Plato’s Academy.

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Abacus Conundrum*

From Das Glasperlenspiel  (Hermann Hesse, 1943) —

“Bastian Perrot… constructed a frame, modeled on a child’s abacus, a frame with several dozen wires on which could be strung glass beads of various sizes, shapes, and colors. The wires corresponded to the lines of the musical staff, the beads to the time values of the notes, and so on. In this way he could represent with beads musical quotations or invented themes, could alter, transpose, and develop them, change them and set them in counterpoint to one another. In technical terms this was a mere plaything, but the pupils liked it.… …what later evolved out of that students’ sport and Perrot’s bead-strung wires bears to this day the name by which it became popularly known, the Glass Bead Game.”

From “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” (Lewis Padgett, 1943)—

…”Paradine looked up. He frowned, staring. What in—
…”Is that an abacus?” he asked. “Let’s see it, please.”
…Somewhat unwillingly Scott brought the gadget across to his father’s chair. Paradine blinked. The “abacus,” unfolded, was more than a foot square, composed of thin,  rigid wires that interlocked here and there. On the wires the colored beads were strung. They could be slid back and forth, and from one support to another, even at the points of jointure. But— a pierced bead couldn’t cross interlocking  wires—
…So, apparently, they weren’t pierced. Paradine looked closer. Each small sphere had a deep groove running around it, so that it could be revolved and slid along the wire at the same time. Paradine tried to pull one free. It clung as though magnetically. Iron? It looked more like plastic.
…The framework itself— Paradine wasn’t a mathematician. But the angles formed by the wires were vaguely shocking, in their ridiculous lack of Euclidean logic. They were a maze. Perhaps that’s what the gadget was— a puzzle.
…”Where’d you get this?”
…”Uncle Harry gave it to me,” Scott said on the spur of the moment. “Last Sunday, when he came over.” Uncle Harry was out of town, a circumstance Scott well knew. At the age of seven, a boy soon learns that the vagaries of adults follow a certain definite pattern, and that they are fussy about the donors of gifts. Moreover, Uncle Harry would not return for several weeks; the expiration of that period was unimaginable to Scott, or, at least, the fact that his lie would ultimately be discovered meant less to him than the advantages of being allowed to keep the toy.
…Paradine found himself growing slightly confused as he attempted to manipulate the beads. The angles were vaguely illogical. It was like a puzzle. This red bead, if slid along this  wire to that  junction, should reach there— but it didn’t. A maze, odd, but no doubt instructive. Paradine had a well-founded feeling that he’d have no patience with the thing himself.
…Scott did, however, retiring to a corner and sliding beads around with much fumbling and grunting. The beads did  sting, when Scott chose the wrong ones or tried to slide them in the wrong direction. At last he crowed exultantly.
…”I did it, dad!”
…””Eh? What? Let’s see.” The device looked exactly the same to Paradine, but Scott pointed and beamed.
…”I made it disappear.”
…”It’s still there.”
…”That blue bead. It’s gone now.”
…Paradine didn’t believe that, so he merely snorted. Scott puzzled over the framework again. He experimented. This time there were no shocks, even slight. The abacus had showed him the correct method. Now it was up to him to do it on his own. The bizarre angles of the wires seemed a little less confusing now, somehow.
…It was a most instructive toy—
…It worked, Scott thought, rather like the crystal cube.

* Title thanks to Saturday Night Live  (Dec. 4-5, 2010).

Another Manic Monday

Filed under: General — m759 @ 10:48 am

"The curriculum begins with a game called Winding Around Positions.
There are twelve stations that could represent hours on a clock
or the Chinese years zodiac."

— The current (March 2011) Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Background — "Winding Games" (pdf, 1.43 MB)—

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110221-ChineseZodiac.jpg

For the not-too-tightly wound —

“Always with a little humor.” – Dr. Yen Lo  (See The China Candidate and Humorism)

We are now at the Year of the Rabbit

(Click images for sources.)

http://www.log24.com/log/pix11/110221-DarkoRabbitSm.jpg IMAGE- Scene from a film based on the old SF story 'Mimsy Were the Borogoves'

Saturday, May 8, 2010

A Better Story —

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 1:00 pm

Or, “Get me rewrite!”

Today’s New York Times online–

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein imagines a story about academics discussing literary theory—

“Rumors had reached us of a doctrine called Theory emanating from distant corners of the university. We in the Department of Philosophy understood it immediately as a grand hoax. I will not dwell on my particular amusement, in which I was so tragically at odds with my collaborator, Theo Rhee….

… It was at this moment that Hans Furth appeared and ambled over….”

And thanks to Google Books, here he is—

“…I can imagine the decisive evolutionary beginnings of humans and societies… not in an adult version, but in the playful mentality of children…. An unlikely story? Perhaps. I am looking out for a better story.”

Hans G. Furth, Desire for Society: Children’s Knowledge as Social Imagination, published by Springer, 1996, p. 181

As am I. (See previous post.) One possibility, from 1943— “Mimsy Were the Borogoves.”

Another possibility, from 1953—  not Theo Rhee, but rather “Loo Ree.”

Friday, February 19, 2010

Mimzy vs. Mimsy

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , , — m759 @ 11:00 am

 

Deep Play:

Mimzy vs. Mimsy

From a 2007 film, "The Last Mimzy," based on
the classic 1943 story by Lewis Padgett
  "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"–

http://www.log24.com/log/pix10/100219-LastMimzyTrailer.jpg

As the above mandala pictures show,
the film incorporates many New Age fashions.

The original story does not.

A more realistic version of the story
might replace the mandalas with
the following illustrations–

The Eightfold Cube and a related page from a 1906 edition of 'Paradise of Childhood'

Click to enlarge.

For a commentary, see "Non-Euclidean Blocks."

(Here "non-Euclidean" means simply
other than  Euclidean. It does not imply any
  violation of Euclid's parallel postulate.)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tuesday September 8, 2009

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 12:25 pm

Froebel's   
Magic Box  
 

Box containing Froebel's Third Gift-- The Eightfold Cube
 
 Continued from Dec. 7, 2008,
and from yesterday.

 

Non-Euclidean
Blocks

 

Passages from a classic story:

… he took from his pocket a gadget he had found in the box, and began to unfold it. The result resembled a tesseract, strung with beads….

Tesseract
 Tesseract

 

"Your mind has been conditioned to Euclid," Holloway said. "So this– thing– bores us, and seems pointless. But a child knows nothing of Euclid. A different sort of geometry from ours wouldn't impress him as being illogical. He believes what he sees."

"Are you trying to tell me that this gadget's got a fourth dimensional extension?" Paradine demanded.
 
"Not visually, anyway," Holloway denied. "All I say is that our minds, conditioned to Euclid, can see nothing in this but an illogical tangle of wires. But a child– especially a baby– might see more. Not at first. It'd be a puzzle, of course. Only a child wouldn't be handicapped by too many preconceived ideas."

"Hardening of the thought-arteries," Jane interjected.

Paradine was not convinced. "Then a baby could work calculus better than Einstein? No, I don't mean that. I can see your point, more or less clearly. Only–"

"Well, look. Let's suppose there are two kinds of geometry– we'll limit it, for the sake of the example. Our kind, Euclidean, and another, which we'll call x. X hasn't much relationship to Euclid. It's based on different theorems. Two and two needn't equal four in it; they could equal y, or they might not even equal. A baby's mind is not yet conditioned, except by certain questionable factors of heredity and environment. Start the infant on Euclid–"

"Poor kid," Jane said.

Holloway shot her a quick glance. "The basis of Euclid. Alphabet blocks. Math, geometry, algebra– they come much later. We're familiar with that development. On the other hand, start the baby with the basic principles of our x logic–"

"Blocks? What kind?"

Holloway looked at the abacus. "It wouldn't make much sense to us. But we've been conditioned to Euclid."

— "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," Lewis Padgett, 1943


Padgett (pseudonym of a husband-and-wife writing team) says that alphabet blocks are the intuitive "basis of Euclid." Au contraire; they are the basis of Gutenberg.

For the intuitive basis of one type of non-Euclidean* geometry– finite geometry over the two-element Galois field– see the work of…


Friedrich Froebel
 (1782-1852), who
 invented kindergarten.

His "third gift" —

Froebel's Third Gift-- The Eightfold Cube
© 2005 The Institute for Figuring
 
Photo by Norman Brosterman
fom the Inventing Kindergarten
exhibit at The Institute for Figuring

Go figure.

* i.e., other than Euclidean

Monday, September 7, 2009

Monday September 7, 2009

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , , — m759 @ 12:00 am

Magic Boxes

"Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas– only I don't exactly know what they are!…. Let's have a look at the garden first!"

— A passage from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. The "garden" part– but not the "ideas" part– was quoted by Jacques Derrida in Dissemination in the epigraph to Chapter 7, "The Time before First."

Commentary
 on the passage:

Part I    "The Magic Box,"  shown on Turner Classic Movies earlier tonight

Part II: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," a classic science fiction story:

"… he lifted a square, transparent crystal block, small enough to cup in his palm– much too small to contain the maze of apparatus within it. In a moment Scott had solved that problem. The crystal was a sort of magnifying glass, vastly enlarging the things inside the block. Strange things they were, too. Miniature people, for example– They moved. Like clockwork automatons, though much more smoothly. It was rather like watching a play."

Part III:  A Crystal Block

Cube, 4x4x4

Four coloring pencils, of four different colors

Image of pencils is by
Diane Robertson Design.

Related material:
"A Four-Color Theorem."

Part IV:

David Carradine displays a yellow book-- the Princeton I Ching.

"Click on the Yellow Book."

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Sunday September 6, 2009

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 11:18 pm
Magic Boxes

Part I: “The Magic Box,” shown on Turner Classic Movies tonight

Part II: “Mimsy Were the Borogoves,” a classic science fiction story:

“… he lifted a square, transparent crystal block, small enough to cup in his palm– much too small to contain the maze of apparatus within it. In a moment Scott had solved that problem. The crystal was a sort of magnifying glass, vastly enlarging the things inside the block. Strange things they were, too. Miniature people, for example–

They moved. Like clockwork automatons, though much more smoothly. It was rather like watching a play.”

http://www.log24.com/log/pix09A/GridCube165C2.jpg

http://www.log24.com/log/pix09A/090906-Pencils.jpg

Image of pencils is by
Diane Robertson Design.

Related material:
A Four-Color Theorem.”

Powered by WordPress