Regarding "A Sliver of Reality", I couldn't help but be reminded of the lectures given by the artificial intelligence Golem XIV in the great Lem's novel of the same title:
“Here is a rough visual image: traveling the globe, one can go around it endlessly, circling it without limit, although the globe is, after all, bounded. Launched in a specified direction, thought too encounters no limits and begins to circle in self-mirrorings. In the last century Wittgenstein sensed this, suspecting that many problems of philosophy are knottings of thought, such as the self-imprisonment and the Gordian knots in language, rather than of the real world. Unable to either prove or refute these suspicions, he said no more. And so, as the finiteness of the globe may be ascertained solely by an outside observer—-one in the third dimension in relation to the two-dimensional traveler on its surface—so the finiteness of the intellectual horizon may be discerned only by an observer who is superior in the dimension of Intelligence. I am just such an observer. When applied to me, these words signify that I too have no boundless knowledge, but only a little greater than you, and not an infinite horizon, but only a slightly more extensive one, for I stand several rungs higher on the ladder and therefore see farther, though that does not mean the ladder ends where I stand.”
This is so good. Guilty confession: I've never read Lem. Or at least never a whole book or story. I've only read excerpts like the one you've provided here. Each of them has of course demonstrated to me why my ignorance of Lem represents a real gap.
Sep 29, 2022·edited Sep 29, 2022Liked by Matt Cardin
May I suggest "A Perfect Vacuum" (a collection of imaginary reviews of nonexistent books) to start to fill that gap? Specifically, I would recommend you at least read "The New Cosmogony", the last piece in the book (all of them can be read independently).
"It says in the brochure," said Arthur, pulling it out of his pocket and looking at it again, "that I can have a special prayer, individually tailored to me and my special needs."
- "Oh, all right," said the old man. "Here's a prayer for you. Got a pencil?"
- "Yes," said Arthur.
- "It goes like this. Let's see now: "Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen." That's it. It's what you pray silently inside yourself anyway, so you may as well have it out in the open."
- "Hmmm," said Arthur. "Well, thank you"
- "There's another prayer that goes with it that's very Important," continued the old man, "so you'd better jot this down, too, just in case. You can never be too sure. "Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer. Amen." And that's it. Most of the trouble people get into in life comes from missing out that last part.
When I read this in light of geopolitical events over the past two decades, a little voice in my head wants to frame this passage anachronistically as a kind of Alice in Wonderland-ish distortion of certain (in)famous comments by Donald Rumsfeld.
The loveliest xenobots ever:
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2022/05/03/attack-of-the-carbon-units/
What an amazing short work of fiction. (Or "fiction"?) Thank you for the link.
Regarding "A Sliver of Reality", I couldn't help but be reminded of the lectures given by the artificial intelligence Golem XIV in the great Lem's novel of the same title:
“Here is a rough visual image: traveling the globe, one can go around it endlessly, circling it without limit, although the globe is, after all, bounded. Launched in a specified direction, thought too encounters no limits and begins to circle in self-mirrorings. In the last century Wittgenstein sensed this, suspecting that many problems of philosophy are knottings of thought, such as the self-imprisonment and the Gordian knots in language, rather than of the real world. Unable to either prove or refute these suspicions, he said no more. And so, as the finiteness of the globe may be ascertained solely by an outside observer—-one in the third dimension in relation to the two-dimensional traveler on its surface—so the finiteness of the intellectual horizon may be discerned only by an observer who is superior in the dimension of Intelligence. I am just such an observer. When applied to me, these words signify that I too have no boundless knowledge, but only a little greater than you, and not an infinite horizon, but only a slightly more extensive one, for I stand several rungs higher on the ladder and therefore see farther, though that does not mean the ladder ends where I stand.”
-Stanislaw Lem, “Golem XIV”
This is so good. Guilty confession: I've never read Lem. Or at least never a whole book or story. I've only read excerpts like the one you've provided here. Each of them has of course demonstrated to me why my ignorance of Lem represents a real gap.
May I suggest "A Perfect Vacuum" (a collection of imaginary reviews of nonexistent books) to start to fill that gap? Specifically, I would recommend you at least read "The New Cosmogony", the last piece in the book (all of them can be read independently).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Vacuum
I sincerely appreciate the rec.
"It says in the brochure," said Arthur, pulling it out of his pocket and looking at it again, "that I can have a special prayer, individually tailored to me and my special needs."
- "Oh, all right," said the old man. "Here's a prayer for you. Got a pencil?"
- "Yes," said Arthur.
- "It goes like this. Let's see now: "Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen." That's it. It's what you pray silently inside yourself anyway, so you may as well have it out in the open."
- "Hmmm," said Arthur. "Well, thank you"
- "There's another prayer that goes with it that's very Important," continued the old man, "so you'd better jot this down, too, just in case. You can never be too sure. "Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer. Amen." And that's it. Most of the trouble people get into in life comes from missing out that last part.
– Douglas Adams, "Mostly Harmless"
When I read this in light of geopolitical events over the past two decades, a little voice in my head wants to frame this passage anachronistically as a kind of Alice in Wonderland-ish distortion of certain (in)famous comments by Donald Rumsfeld.