December 2009
December 31, 2009
I Just Had To Let It Go
People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
People asking questions lost in confusion
Well I tell them there's no problem
Only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind
I tell them there's no hurry...
I'm just sitting here doing time
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
------John Lennon
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
People asking questions lost in confusion
Well I tell them there's no problem
Only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind
I tell them there's no hurry...
I'm just sitting here doing time
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
------John Lennon
The Artist's Signature
The universe seems ... to have been determined and ordered in accordance with number, by the forethought and the mind of the creator of all things; for the pattern was fixed, like a preliminary sketch, by the domination of number preexistent in the mind of the world-creating God.
------Nicomachus Of Gerasa
Arithmetic I, 6 (ca. A.D. 100)
---------------------
The Argus computer was so persistent and inventive in its attempts to contact Eleanor Arroway that it almost conveyed an urgent personal need to share the discovery.
The anomaly showed up most starkly in Base 11 arithmetic, where it could be written out entirely as zeros and ones. Compared with what had been received from Vega, this could be at best a simple message, but its statistical significance was high. The program reassembled the digits into a square raster, an equal number across and down. The first line was an uninterrupted file of zeros, left to right. The second line showed a single numeral one, exactly in the middle, with zeros to the borders, left and right. After a few more lines, an unmistakable arc had formed, composed of ones. The simple geometrical figure had been quickly constructed, line by line, self-reflexive, rich with promise. The last line of the figure emerged, all zeros except for a single centered one. The subsequent line would be zeros only, part of the frame.
Hiding in the alternating patterns of digits, deep inside the transcendental number, was a perfect circle, its from traced out by unities in a field of noughts.
The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a miracle---another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here. It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature. Standing over humans. gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe.
The circle had closed.
She found what she had been searching for.
------From "Contact"
------Nicomachus Of Gerasa
Arithmetic I, 6 (ca. A.D. 100)
---------------------
The Argus computer was so persistent and inventive in its attempts to contact Eleanor Arroway that it almost conveyed an urgent personal need to share the discovery.
The anomaly showed up most starkly in Base 11 arithmetic, where it could be written out entirely as zeros and ones. Compared with what had been received from Vega, this could be at best a simple message, but its statistical significance was high. The program reassembled the digits into a square raster, an equal number across and down. The first line was an uninterrupted file of zeros, left to right. The second line showed a single numeral one, exactly in the middle, with zeros to the borders, left and right. After a few more lines, an unmistakable arc had formed, composed of ones. The simple geometrical figure had been quickly constructed, line by line, self-reflexive, rich with promise. The last line of the figure emerged, all zeros except for a single centered one. The subsequent line would be zeros only, part of the frame.
Hiding in the alternating patterns of digits, deep inside the transcendental number, was a perfect circle, its from traced out by unities in a field of noughts.
The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a miracle---another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here. It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature. Standing over humans. gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe.
The circle had closed.
She found what she had been searching for.
------From "Contact"
December 28, 2009
December 21, 2009
Tears
"Drive me back to the academy," Buckman said. "I don't think I can drive; I'm shaking too bad." He felt something on his face; putting up his hand, he found that his chin was wet. "What's this on me?" he said, amazed.
"You're crying," Herb said.
-------------------
Something dripped from his nose onto the fabric of his coat. My God, he thought in horror. I'm crying again. He put up his hand and wiped the greaselike wetness from his eyes. Who for? he asked himself. Alys? For Taverner? The Hart woman? Or for all of them?
No, he thought. It's a reflex. From fatigue and worry. It doesn't mean anything. Why does a man cry? he wondered. Not like a woman; not for that. Not for sentiment. A man cries over the loss of something, something alive. A man can cry over a sick animal that he knows won't make it. The death of a child: a man can cry for that. But not because things are sad.
A man, he thought, cries not for the future or the past but for the present.
------Philip K. Dick
"You're crying," Herb said.
-------------------
Something dripped from his nose onto the fabric of his coat. My God, he thought in horror. I'm crying again. He put up his hand and wiped the greaselike wetness from his eyes. Who for? he asked himself. Alys? For Taverner? The Hart woman? Or for all of them?
No, he thought. It's a reflex. From fatigue and worry. It doesn't mean anything. Why does a man cry? he wondered. Not like a woman; not for that. Not for sentiment. A man cries over the loss of something, something alive. A man can cry over a sick animal that he knows won't make it. The death of a child: a man can cry for that. But not because things are sad.
A man, he thought, cries not for the future or the past but for the present.
------Philip K. Dick
December 18, 2009
December 17, 2009
真理時空間
佳織は今日も、いや今夜といった方がいいかもしれないが、数理物理処理ソフトウェアの“プリンキピア”を使ってある関数を探していた。今夜で七日目になる。その間、一日の睡眠時間は平均三時間弱。二二歳の若さとはいえ、さすがに体力も知力もそろそろ限界にきていた。
だが、七日目の午前二時に、佳織は探し求めていた関数をついに見つけた。ドキドキドキ。彼女の心拍数は上がった。心の平静をとりもどすのに、数十分間を要した。
この関数を使えば、世界中の誰もが幸せになれる！ 佳織は興奮の中で思った。
その関数とは、人生の真理が存在する時空間をみちびきだすことができるものだった。神経工学を利用して人の意識がその時空間と接触するように操作すれば、その人は［人生の真理］を見ることができる。
人類史に、新たな夜明けが訪れようとしていた。
だが、七日目の午前二時に、佳織は探し求めていた関数をついに見つけた。ドキドキドキ。彼女の心拍数は上がった。心の平静をとりもどすのに、数十分間を要した。
この関数を使えば、世界中の誰もが幸せになれる！ 佳織は興奮の中で思った。
その関数とは、人生の真理が存在する時空間をみちびきだすことができるものだった。神経工学を利用して人の意識がその時空間と接触するように操作すれば、その人は［人生の真理］を見ることができる。
人類史に、新たな夜明けが訪れようとしていた。
December 15, 2009
December 14, 2009
December 11, 2009
December 07, 2009
December 02, 2009
HANA-BI
北野武の『HANA-BI』を観た。
観終わった直後の印象は、暴力シーン連続の吐き気がする映画というものだったが、翌日から、その印象は間違いであったことに気づき、その映画が意味するところを徐々に理解しはじめた。
部下の殉死と同僚の下半身不随を自分の責任であると思い、白血病を患っている妻を持つ、たけしが演じる元刑事である西は、ある重大な決心をする。
銀行強盗を犯し、全ての経済的責任を清算した後、彼は妻と共に旅にでる。もちろん、のこされている時間をもうむだにしないためにである。その旅の途中で、追ってきたやくざを銃殺する。翌日、浜辺に立つ西のところへ元部下の刑事二人がやって来て、「やくざの死体を見ました」と言う。「ちょっと、待ってくんねえか。・・・・もうちょっと待ってくれ」と西は言う。
彼を逮捕するために車の中で待ち受けている刑事が言う。「おれは、あんな風には生きられないんだろうな」
南国の浜辺を思わせる、白い砂浜の上、燦々と振りそそぐ陽光のもとで、妻は西に言う。「ありがとう・・・・・ごめんね」西に軽く身を寄せる妻。
次のシーンで、銃声が二度鳴り響く。
暴力的なまでに過酷な現実の中を流れる、よわよわとした、だが確実に存在する愛について、作者は語りたかったのだろうか？
観終わった直後の印象は、暴力シーン連続の吐き気がする映画というものだったが、翌日から、その印象は間違いであったことに気づき、その映画が意味するところを徐々に理解しはじめた。
部下の殉死と同僚の下半身不随を自分の責任であると思い、白血病を患っている妻を持つ、たけしが演じる元刑事である西は、ある重大な決心をする。
銀行強盗を犯し、全ての経済的責任を清算した後、彼は妻と共に旅にでる。もちろん、のこされている時間をもうむだにしないためにである。その旅の途中で、追ってきたやくざを銃殺する。翌日、浜辺に立つ西のところへ元部下の刑事二人がやって来て、「やくざの死体を見ました」と言う。「ちょっと、待ってくんねえか。・・・・もうちょっと待ってくれ」と西は言う。
彼を逮捕するために車の中で待ち受けている刑事が言う。「おれは、あんな風には生きられないんだろうな」
南国の浜辺を思わせる、白い砂浜の上、燦々と振りそそぐ陽光のもとで、妻は西に言う。「ありがとう・・・・・ごめんね」西に軽く身を寄せる妻。
次のシーンで、銃声が二度鳴り響く。
暴力的なまでに過酷な現実の中を流れる、よわよわとした、だが確実に存在する愛について、作者は語りたかったのだろうか？
