Click the image below for "Story Theory and the Number of the Beast"
(the latter, a Heinlein novel).
See also "Story Space."
Sunday, September 12, 2021
2001: A Story Space Odyssey
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Thursday, February 27, 2020
Deep Space Odyssey
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Friday, December 14, 2018
Small Space Odyssey
References in recent posts to physical space and
to mathematical space suggest a comparison.
Physical space is well known, at least in the world
of mass entertainment.
Mathematical space, such as the 12-dimensional
finite space of the Golay code, is less well known.
A figure from each space —
The source of the Conway-Sloane brick —
Quote from a mathematics writer —
“Looking carefully at Golay’s code is like staring into the sun.”
The former practice yields reflections like those of Conway and Sloane.
The latter practice is not recommended.
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Thursday, December 13, 2018
Big Space Odyssey
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Saturday, January 14, 2017
1984: A Space Odyssey
See Eightfold 1984 in this journal.
Related material —
"… the object sets up a kind of
frame or space or field
within which there can be epiphany."
"… Instead of an epiphany of being,
we have something like
an epiphany of interspaces."
— Charles Taylor, "Epiphanies of Modernism,"
Chapter 24 of Sources of the Self ,
Cambridge University Press, 1989
"Perhaps every science must start with metaphor
and end with algebra; and perhaps without the metaphor
there would never have been any algebra."
— Max Black, Models and Metaphors ,
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1962
Click to enlarge:
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Friday, April 8, 2016
Ogdoads: A Space Odyssey
"Like the Valentinian Ogdoad— a self-creating theogonic system
of eight Aeons in four begetting pairs— the projected eightfold work
had an esoteric, gnostic quality; much of Frye's formal interest lay in
the 'schematosis' and fearful symmetries of his own presentations."
— From p. 61 of James C. Nohrnberg's "The Master of the Myth
of Literature: An Interpenetrative Ogdoad for Northrop Frye,"
Comparative Literature , Vol. 53 No. 1, pp. 58-82, Duke University
Press (quarterly, January 2001)
See also Two by Four in this journal.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Space Odyssey
(An episode of Art Wars )
"Visual forms, he thought, were solutions to
specific problems that come from specific needs."
— Michael Kimmelman in The New York Times
obituary of E. H. Gombrich (November 7th, 2001)
"… deep cultural fears within the art world—
fears that art is elitist,
or some kind of confidence game,
or not a serious endeavor (a fear that has
dogged art since at least the time of Plato)."
— Philip Kennicott, quoted here on July 22, 2012
See also today's date in 2003.
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Monday, January 8, 2024
The Star Brick
From a post of January 3, 2024 —
"Hello darkness, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again."
The above image was flipped to reverse left and right.
Related reading: Other posts tagged Darkness and …
Related material: Other posts tagged Star Brick and . . .
"And we may see the meadow in December,
icy white and crystalline"
— Song lyric, "Midnight Sun"
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Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Flippant
From the Log24 search in the previous post for "Dimensions" —
"Hello darkness, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again."
The above image was flipped to reverse left and right.
Related reading: Other posts tagged Darkness and …
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Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Mexico City Blues
The New York Times yesterday ("2022-05-24T21:54:19.000Z")
on a Saturday, May 21, death —
"Colin Cantwell, an animator, conceptual artist and computer expert
who played significant production roles in seminal science fiction films
like '2001: A Space Odyssey,' 'Star Wars' and 'WarGames,' died
on May 21 at his home in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was 90."
Cantwell at Teotihuacan pyramid, September 26, 2019 —
A different image, also from September 26, 2019,
in other Log24 posts tagged Pyramid Game —
The letter labels, but not the tetrahedron, are from Whitehead’s
The Axioms of Projective Geometry (Cambridge U. Press, 1906),
page 13.
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Sunday, March 19, 2017
Gravedigger’s Handbook
In memory of Jimmy Breslin, who reportedly died today at 88 —
From "Dimensions," (Log24, Feb. 15, 2015) —
"Hello darkness, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again."
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Sunday, February 15, 2015
Dimensions
"Hello darkness, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again."
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Saturday, October 11, 2014
The Code of Beauty
Dialogue from "Django Unchained" —
"What's a bounty?" "It's like a reward."
Today's noon post links to posts on Tony Scott
that in turn lead to…
A post from June 27, 2005—
the date of Domino Harvey's death.
A link at the end of that post leads to…
"Dr. Chandra?" "Yes?" "Will I dream?"
See also…
Vikram Chandra, Geek Sublime:
The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty
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Thursday, November 22, 2012
The Red Line vs. the Red Eye
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
"The HP/Autonomy Debacle," by John C. Dvorak at pcmag.com on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012—
"The whole Autonomy thing was weird since the company seemed to be performing magic. On co-founder Michael Richard Lynch's Wikipedia page, the company is described as 'a leader in the area of computer understanding of unstructured information, an area which is becoming known as meaning-based computing .'
I do not know how gullible HP's board of directors is, but when I see the sudden emergence of something called 'meaning-based computing,' the alarms sound and the bullcrap meter begins to tag the red line."
A story by Terence K. Huwe in Online magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2011, defines meaning-based computing (MBC), discusses Autonomy , and llnks to…
John Markoff in The New York Times , March 4, 2011—
"Engineers and linguists at Cataphora, an information-sifting company based in Silicon Valley, have their software mine documents for the activities and interactions of people— who did what when, and who talks to whom. The software seeks to visualize chains of events. It identifies discussions that might have taken place across e-mail, instant messages and telephone calls.
Then the computer pounces, so to speak, capturing 'digital anomalies' that white-collar criminals often create in trying to hide their activities.
For example, it finds 'call me' moments— those incidents when an employee decides to hide a particular action by having a private conversation. This usually involves switching media, perhaps from an e-mail conversation to instant messaging, telephone or even a face-to-face encounter."
For example…
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Sunday, April 10, 2011
Bedeviled
From tonight's online New York Times —
John McCracken, Sculptor of Geometric Forms, Dies at 76
McCracken died in Manhattan on Friday, April 8.
From Christopher Knight in tonight's online LA Times —
… the works embody perceptual and philosophical conundrums. The colored planks stand on the floor like sculptures….
McCracken was bedeviled by Stanley Kubrick's famously obscure science-fiction epic, "2001: A Space Odyssey," with its iconic image of an ancient monolith floating in outer space. The 1968 blockbuster was released two years after the artist made his first plank.
"At the time, some people thought I had designed the monolith or that it had been derived from my work," he told art critic Frances Colpitt of the coincidence in a 1998 interview.
Two photos of McCracken's 1967 Black Plank seem relevant—
November 28, 2010 (Click to enlarge) —
December 28, 2010 (Click to enlarge) —
Material that an artist might view as related, if only synchronistically—
Two posts in this journal on the dates the photos were taken—
The Embedding on November 28 and Dry Bones on December 28.
The photos are of an exhibition titled "There is nothing to see here" at the
National Gallery of Art, October 30, 2010-April 24, 2011 —
For related nihilism from the National Gallery, see "Pictures of Nothing" in this journal.
Some less nihilistic illustrations—
A photo by one of the artists whose work is displayed above beside McCracken's—
"Accentuate the Positive."
— Clint Eastwood
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Friday, March 5, 2010
Space Case
"And there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space…"
— Don McLean, "American Pie"
Today's NY Times says Robert T. McCall, space artist, died at 90 on Feb. 26.
"His most famous image may be the gargantuan mural, showing events from the creation of the universe to men walking on the Moon, on the south lobby wall of the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington. More than 10 million people a year pass it.
Or it might be his painting showing a space vehicle darting from the bay of a wheel-shaped space station, which was used in a poster for Stanley Kubrick’s landmark 1968 film, '2001: A Space Odyssey.'"
Cover art by McCall, with autograph dated
8/19/05, from a personal web page
Hal in "2010"– "Will I dream?"
Log24 on the day that McCall died—
"Which Dreamed It?"
– Title of final chapter,Through the Looking Glass
"Go ask Alice… I think she'll know."
– Grace Slick, 1967
Related material: James Joyce in this journal–
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Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday May 26, 2008
Great Directors
“After his return to acting in ‘Tootsie,’ Pollack took movie roles under directors Robert Altman in ‘The Player’ (1992), Woody Allen in ‘Husbands and Wives’ (1992) and Stanley Kubrick in ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999). He said he chose roles in part to study other great directors.”
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Tuesday October 9, 2007
“William T. Golden, an investment banker, a philanthropist and a main architect of American science policy in the 20th century who had the idea for a presidential science adviser, died on Sunday [Oct. 7, 2007] in Manhattan. He was 97….
His death, at Mount Sinai Hospital, was announced by the American Museum of Natural History, where he was chairman for five years and most recently chairman emeritus. Mr. Golden had helped found the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
For more than 50 years, Mr. Golden was at the nexus of science and society as a man who knew almost everybody in science and government.
His willingness to ‘buy the first tank of gas,’ as he put it, for worthy projects led him to serve as a trustee or officer or board member of nearly 100 organizations, universities and government agencies….
In 1989, when he bought from Harvard the Black Rock Forest in the Hudson Highlands, which was threatened by development, Mr. Golden explored its nearly 4,000 acres by horseback. He later turned over the forest to a consortium to preserve it.”
— Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007
Click for details.
See also the following art,
suggested by the Golden obituary’s
Mount Sinai, Black Rock, and
forest themes, as well as by
the “Deep Beauty” entry from
the date of Golden’s death:
Click for details.
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Monday, September 1, 2003
Monday September 1, 2003
The Unity of Mathematics,
or “Shema, Israel”
A conference to honor the 90th birthday (Sept. 2) of Israel Gelfand is currently underway in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The following note from 2001 gives one view of the conference’s title topic, “The Unity of Mathematics.”
Reciprocity in 2001by Steven H. Cullinane
|
Related Reading
For four different proofs of Euler’s result, see the inexpensive paperback classic by Konrad Knopp, Theory and Application of Infinite Series (Dover Publications).
Related Websites
Evaluating Zeta(2), by Robin Chapman (PDF article) Fourteen proofs!
Zeta Functions for Undergraduates
Reciprocity Laws
Reciprocity Laws II
Recent Progress on the Langlands Conjectures
For more on
the theme of unity,
see
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Saturday, July 26, 2003
Saturday July 26, 2003
The Transcendent
Signified
“God is both the transcendent signifier
and transcendent signified.”
— Caryn Broitman,
Deconstruction and the Bible
“Central to deconstructive theory is the notion that there is no ‘transcendent signified,’ or ‘logos,’ that ultimately grounds ‘meaning’ in language….”
— Henry P. Mills,
The Significance of Language,
Footnote 2
“It is said that the students of medieval Paris came to blows in the streets over the question of universals. The stakes are high, for at issue is our whole conception of our ability to describe the world truly or falsely, and the objectivity of any opinions we frame to ourselves. It is arguable that this is always the deepest, most profound problem of philosophy. It structures Plato’s (realist) reaction to the sophists (nominalists). What is often called ‘postmodernism’ is really just nominalism, colourfully presented as the doctrine that there is nothing except texts. It is the variety of nominalism represented in many modern humanities, paralysing appeals to reason and truth.”
— Simon Blackburn, Think,
Oxford University Press, 1999, page 268
The question of universals is still being debated in Paris. See my July 25 entry,
That entry discusses an essay on
mathematics and postmodern thought
by Michael Harris,
professor of mathematics
at l’Université Paris 7 – Denis Diderot.
A different essay by Harris has a discussion that gets to the heart of this matter: whether pi exists as a platonic idea apart from any human definitions. Harris notes that “one might recall that the theorem that pi is transcendental can be stated as follows: the homomorphism
Harris illustrates this with
an X in a rectangle:
For the complete passage, click here.
If we rotate the Harris X by 90 degrees, we get a representation of the Christian Logos that seems closely related to the God-symbol of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. On the left below, we have a (1x)4×9 black monolith, representing God, and on the right below, we have the Harris slab, with X representing (as in “Xmas,” or the Chi-rho page of the Book of Kells) Christ… who is, in theological terms, also “the variable par excellence.”
|
Kubrick’s |
Harris’s |
For a more serious discussion of deconstruction and Christian theology, see
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