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March 23, 2008

Rainbow iceberg; dreaming in code; Arthur C. Clarke, Eliot Spitzer

Right time, right place: "Oyvind Tangen, 62, was on board the research ship G O Sars when he photographed the unusual ice formation, floating a few miles off the coast of the frozen continent."

The Telegraph (U.K.) has the short story (Rainbow iceberg in the Antarctic) and the science.

Dreaming in code: I woke with an upset stomach at 3:46 this morning. In that twilight moment as I woke, pages of Movable Type blog code were scrolling before my eyes, with a simultaneous display of how it behaved. (This was nonsensical, because I was watching a woman on a stage -- the code was changing how she displayed.)

But the code seemed perfectly valid, and I felt like it was downloading to me.

I wondered if it went on all the time and only my stomach waking me up made the stream available to me consciously.

I've been deep in coding the projo blogs upgrade, but I've given it a rest for a couple of days as I dealt with other aspects of work and family. The rhythm of this process is a classic one. Pulling back from implementing the details, I see the forest again but with more information, and new possibilities emerge that will be implemented by yet another plunge into detailed instructions to the software.

The in and out is like breathing.

The idea of accessing a Library in which all knowledge already rests seems ancient. Why knowledge would be parceled out in dribs and drabs in sleep is less easy to wrap the mind around.

AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena
Arthur C. Clarke's funeral in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday.

Cosmic trigger: Arthur C. Clarke's work whispered, "There is more." The nuts and bolts of his visions were scientifically plausible, but the part that stuck was ...Life may be more than you think it is.

That seed, once planted, grows like an extra layer.

If Clarke was able to extend the hard science into nonlinear ideas and possible realities, we could, too. Lightbulbs went on as he showed us more.

WaPo obit: Arthur C. Clarke; Sci-Fi Writer Foresaw Mankind's Possibilities

The Slashdot programmer core, on hearing the news (Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead At 90), builds an ad hoc memorial page of reactions, links, tributes, experiences with Clarke, his work, his ideas.

Flavor:

compro01:

...Clarke's three laws.

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Fishybell:

The biggest addition to society that Clarke, and all other science fiction writers, have added is not in the works of fiction themselves, but the spark of imagination infused in those reading it. Some will take that spark and build their lives around it turning fiction to fact.

The world will miss him.

Luen, on 2001: A Space Odyssey,

You seem to have dismissed the entire art of literature in one fell swoop. I find it somewhat condescending to only appreciate a great writer such as Clarke (or anyone else) insofar as they act as cheerleaders for other professions or ideals.

That said, I do share your opinion in part, and I don't want to sound like I'm flaming...

...To this day, from watching his film, almost no one can grasp his biggest concept on their own (that when we encounter a greater intelligence we will have no greater understanding of it than an ant would walking about on a tank). And to this day almost no one can spot the aliens right there in plain sight (and no, they aren't the monoliths).

You will be missed, Arthur and Stanley.

The limit of science lies in its inability to confirm aspects of reality for which it has not yet built measuring tools. These remain "mysteries."

The possible is also an art.

The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state. (Robert Henri, The Art Spirit)

When you know who's calling when the phone rings, do you call it "invisible technology"?

Powerhosed: Sifting the Wreckage for the Real Eliot Spitzer

Really good (accurate) headline on this NYT collection of glimpses of the N.Y. governor in four vignettes from July, September, December and March. Sober, solemn, sad.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 8:39 AM | Permalink