Google threatened late Tuesday to pull out of its operations in China after it said it had uncovered a massive cyber attack on its computers that originated there.
As a result, the company said, it would no longer agree to censor its search engine in China and may exit the country altogether.
Google said that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human right activists, but that the attack also targeted 20 other large companies in the finance, technology, media and chemical sectors.
In a blog posting by David Drummnod, the corporate development and chief legal officer, Google said that it had found a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China."
"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered - cobined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web - have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China." Mr. Drummond wrote in a blog post.
He wrote that Google was no longer willing to censor results on its Chinese-language search engine and would discuss with Chinese authorities whether it could operate an uncensored search engine in that country.
"We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China," Mr. Drummond wrote, adding that the decision was being driven by executives in the United States, "without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China."
Google did not publicly link the Chinese government to the cyber attack, but people with knowledge of Google's investigation said they had enough evidence to justify the actions.
A United States expert on cyber warfare said that 34 companies were targeted, most of them high-technology companies in Silicon Valley. The attacks came from Taiwanese Internet addresses, according to James Mulvenon, an expert on Chinese cyberwarfare capabilities.
Mr. Mulvenon said that the stolen documents were sent electronically to a server controlled by Rackspace, based in San Antonio.
"For Google to pull up stakes and basically pull out of China, the attack must have been large in scope and very penetrating," Mr. Mulvenon said. "This attack highlights the fact that cyberwarfare has basically gone to the next level."
Mr. Drummond said that Google decided to speak publicly about the attack not only because of its security and human rights implications, but because "this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech."
Google entered the China market in 2006, agreeing to introduce a censored search engine. At the time, the company said that it believed that the benefits of its presence in China outweighed the downside of its being forced to censor some search results tehre, as it would provide more information and openness to Chinese citizens.
But the company said that it would continue to monitor restrictions in that country and review its decision periodically.
January 12, 2010
World's communication network due an energy diet
by Paul Marks
The internet and other communications networks could use one-ten-thousandth of the energy that they do today if smarter data-coding techniques were used to move information around. That's the conclusion of Bell Labs, the research centre in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where both the laser and transistor were invented.
The lab has launched a consortium of networking and computing firms called Green Touch that is committed to developing new power-saving technologies. The initial goal is to cut power use in the global telecoms network by 99.9 per cent by 2015.
At issue, says Gee Rittenhouse, head of research at Bell Labs, is the 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide belched into the atmosphere to power today's global telephone, internet and cellphone networks. "That's equivalent to the emissions from 50 million automobiles, or 20 per cent of the cars registered in the US," he says. The explosion in internet traffic taking place as mobiles go online and video viewing grows, plus future changes such as the arrival of 3D TV, will push those emissions even higher.
Back to basics
One way Bell Labs plans to develop low-power networks is by harnessing the theories of its late alumnus Claude Shannon that underlie all electronic communication, wired or wireless.
Shannon worked out that in a low-power channel, where unwanted "noise" is loud compared with the intended signal, a code can always be devised to extract the messages being transmitted. Today's fibre-optic and cellphone networks avoid having to take that approach by using high power levels. "But by using smarter codes we can extract those signals and reconstruct them accurately even in the presence of high noise," Rittenhouse says.
Other members of the Green Touch consortium include US mobile network AT&T, China Mobile – the world's largest cellphone operator – European mobile operator Telefonica, hardware manufacturers Samsung and Freescale Semiconductor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, California, the University of Melbourne, Australia and the French national computing lab INRIA.
Consolidated data
MIT engineer Muriel Médard says she will be looking for ways to bundle together internet data taking similar routes through the network to reduce the traffic on power-hungry trunk routes. "A lot of energy is dissipated in vain," she says.
At the University of Melbourne, Rod Tucker will focus on the power consumed by broadband modems, phones and cellphones when not in use.
"If you have broadband your modem is probably switched on all the time, consuming a few watts," he explains. "We'll be looking at ways to make modems and phones go into a sleep mode when not in use – but from which they can wake up quickly.
Samsung of South Korea is still firming up its ideas. "But memory and displays in communications systems are areas where we can particularly innovate," says engineer Young Mo Kim.
It's not just hardware that will be getting attention – changing user behaviour can also cut power use. For example by making cellphone battery life indicators more accurate or power-saving settings easier to change, users could be encouraged to use their cellphone batteries more efficiently. "The user aspects of communications energy-saving will be a clear focus," says Bell Labs president Jeong Kim.
October 25, 2009
INPUT/mind/OUTPUT/mind
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/
1/2/1/2/ 1/2/1/2/
&/or/#?
A writing revolution
Nearly everyone reads. Soon, nearly everyone will publish. Before 1455, books were handwritten, and it took a scribe a year to produce a Bible. Today, it takes only a minute to send a tweet or update a blog. Rates of authorship are increasing by historic orders of magnitude. Nearly universal authorship, like universal literacy before it, stands to reshape society by hastening the flow of information and making individuals more influential.
To quantify our changing reading and writing habits, we plotted the number of published authors per year, since 1400, for books and more recent social media (blogs, Facebook, and Twitter). This is the first published graph of the history of authorship. We found that the number of published authors per year increased nearly tenfold every century for six centuries. By 2000, there were 1 million book authors per year. One million authors is a lot, but they are only a tiny fraction, 0.01 percent, of the nearly 7 billion people on Earth. Since 1400, book authorship has grown nearly tenfold in each century. Currently, authorship, including books and new media, is growing nearly tenfold each year. That’s 100 times faster. Authors, once a select minority, will soon be a majority.
(Graph & excerpt from "A Writing Revolution" by Denis G. Pelli & Charles Bigelow in SEED Magazine)
We, the creators of the free information society, mean to wrest from the bourgeoisie, by degrees, the shared patrimony of humankind. We intend the resumption of the cultural inheritance stolen from us under the guise of "intellectual property," as well as the medium of electromagnetic transportation. We are committed to the struggle for free speech, free knowledge, and free technology. The measures by which we advance that struggle will of course be different in different countries, but the following will be pretty generally applicable:
By these and other means, we commit ourselves to the revolution that liberates the human mind. In overthrowing the system of private property in ideas, we bring into existence a truly just society, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
- Abolition of all forms of private property in ideas.
- Withdrawal of all exclusive licenses, privileges, and rights to use of electromagnetic spectrum. Nullification of all conveyances of permanent title to electromagnetic frequencies.
- Development of electromagnetic spectrum infrastructure that implements every person's equal right to communicate.
- Common social development of computer programs and all other forms of software, including genetic information, as public goods.
- Full respect for freedom of speech, including all forms of technical speech.
- Protection for the integrity of creative works.
- Free and equal access to all publicly-produced information and all educational material used in all branches of the public education system
(from "The dotCommunist Manifesto" by Eben Moglen)
October 24, 2009
Information, memory, & time travel: a tangential thought experiment
The scheme seems ingeniously simple and technically feasible. To overcome oblivion, say the authors, all you need are sensitive miniature sensors and several terabytes of storage, which are already or soon-to-be affordable. You can then record every minute of your life using video, audio, location and physiological signals, culminating in the commitment of this endless stream of information to your personal MyLifeBits account in your pocket and/or in cyberspace. Proper software will permit you to retrieve the information years later, and it will even pass by default to your progeny for eternity, with the hope that they will pay attention to it.
New Scientist: "Memory & Forgetting In The Digital Age" by Yadin Dudai
Dudai brings up some valuable criticisms of the claims being made by the authors, representing a certain faction of technologically minded futurists.
More worrisome than the idea itself is the prevailing assumption that such a recall would in fact be total. Even in its most outlandishly comprehensive form, such technology would merely opportune an augmented reiteration of a numerically unique prior occurrence. Assuming the commonly held empirical view of time, experiencing such a recollection would, no matter its immersiveness, retain distinction, even if only by merit of such numeric identity.
Let's suppose such a device has been built and that it is able to record and induce a recollection so immersive as to be indistinguishable from the original experience. By means of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI, yet another emerging innovation) the device thoroughly records the user's external context as well as affected perceptions and corresponding mental states. In fact the user of this device becomes so immersed in the recollection that he or she would have no idea that it was in fact a recollection, their brain state having been reverted to the time of the initial occurance. They may have forgotten the intervening memories, or else are unable to recollect them. Either way, they essentially live the experience as if for the first time. Of course, when the user is brought back to the present, they become aware of having gone back into their archived past. This shift may be disorienting, or perhaps as banal as turning off a television. Either way, they now have knowledge of having lived the experience, archived it, and subsequently recalled it. All the while, they are recording information. This means they may now recollect recollecting.
What happens when they step back into the moment of stepping back into another moment? Deffering any conclusions bearing resemblence to popular science fiction, this shows that even the most immersive recollection will retain its numerical uniqueness, if only in retrospect.
June 28, 2009
On Pure Capacity
In his discussion of the ideas presented by Democritus in The History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell casts the problem of void in a different light, suggesting that the problematic notion be reconsidered in terms of pure capacity rather than spatial terms. Democritus was a philosopher from ancient Greece, a contemporary of Socrates (though still considered to be among the pre-Socratic thinkers), who advocated a theory of physical reality that is a remarkably advanced precursor to today's atomic theory. In brief, he theorized that all matter is made up of imperceptible tiny particles called atoms. The most significant way this theory differs from our present day conception of atoms is that to the Atomists these were necessarily impenetrable, indestructible, and indivisible. There was no further divisions that could be made; atoms were thought to be the absolute smallest building blocks of which every physical thing we encounter is comprised. The Atomists held that the atoms existed in a pure and limitless void, through which they could move freely. At first, this seems natural, basically suggesting that there is a space in which the atoms exist. But if these atoms are the absolute smallest particle which makes up everything that exists, then this space cannot be made of anything that exists and is thus void. Needless to say, this is problematic, or at least it is if we consider void to be the absence of matter.
But if we look at it in terms of pure capacity, then the paradoxical statememnt of positively referring to a negative concept (e.g. "there is nothing here") is, if not eliminated, at least made more comprehensible. In other words, it makes sense to say that we cannot truly conceive of or positively refer to a negative concept such as void. But we can, and I think we do this in our everyday language, positively indicate a level of capacity or degree of something in particular, while we cannot make an utterance that references to, or even conceive of, "nothing."
But what about our concept of nothingness? How is it that we can meaningfully convey anything by this word at all? Certainly we intend to express this all of the time, and wouldn't it follow that we must have somewhere in our heads a concept of it that we understand ourselves if we have an intention to express something? How could someone wish to express something they have no concept of? Certainly if we meant to say "no capacity for x in regards to y" we would say just that, rather than convoluding our ideas with such misleading words as "nothing."
In support of Russell, the Atomists, and common speech, I cannot think of any instance outside of discussions in theology or metaphysics where "nothing" would hold such broad meaning as it does here. In general, if I say "there is nothing in the box," I am really saying that the box does not contain anything mentionable, that is anything besides air or possibly packing material. The person to whom I am communicating the absence of contents in the box would undoubtedly think me peculiar if I informed him that this box contains air. Utterances such as this are also highly dependent on context. A word like nothing, though a noun, is unique in so far as it cannot be conceived to exist independently of its context, as can most other nouns.
There is no question that we do, if in a limited capacity, understand negative concepts on their own. How this can be the case has been the concern of many philosophers throughout history, including Plato's famous argument of recollection in Meno and Immanuel Kant's theory of Transcendental Idealism, which he presents in his Critique of Pure Reason. As I said above, I think that it is the case that we always ascertain a negative idea like nothing by thinking of it in terms of its context, as an absence of the thing or idea to which it refers. But how do we arrive at understanding isolated negative concepts such as nothingness or void? The fact that we refer to them in a positive sense indicates that there is a transference. Rightly or not, it seems to me that we can arrive at a notion of pure nothingness in and of itself by means of induction: there is no ketchup in this bottle, I am short fifteen cents, etc., until we have an idea culminating in a general law-like understanding of absence-in-general, which we, for the most part correctly, apply to describe situations, both observed and hypothetical, that seem to fit its criteria. But to this law-like understanding of absence-in-general, we can only talk about positively, in so far as to do otherwise would be something like removing words from a sentence instead of adding them, or not thinking of an idea to think about it. So, language provides a meaningful and convenient shorthand for such complex inductive thoughts that we barely understand but can successfully convey nonetheless. I suggest that it is by pure analogy that we can successfully entertain and convey these sorts of thoughts, just as it is by pure analogy that the word "negative" refers to its meaning.
It also seems to be so with language in general: that words can somehow be related to the thoughts of their author in such a way that they more or less can reconstruct the author's mental state(s) in a second person is a profound notion. While the Atomists' views regarding the natural world, though insightful and correct to a certain extent, has been exceeded by modern physics, the theory could be applied with more success to our language, and then to the minds of speakers and hearers. Such a theory might culminate a unique take on some problems in philosophy mind, exploring the power of metaphor and symbols of language as mechanisms of pure capacity. Further, such a model might aspire to bridge the waring so-called clashing disciplines of "analytic" and "continental" philosophy.
But if we look at it in terms of pure capacity, then the paradoxical statememnt of positively referring to a negative concept (e.g. "there is nothing here") is, if not eliminated, at least made more comprehensible. In other words, it makes sense to say that we cannot truly conceive of or positively refer to a negative concept such as void. But we can, and I think we do this in our everyday language, positively indicate a level of capacity or degree of something in particular, while we cannot make an utterance that references to, or even conceive of, "nothing."
But what about our concept of nothingness? How is it that we can meaningfully convey anything by this word at all? Certainly we intend to express this all of the time, and wouldn't it follow that we must have somewhere in our heads a concept of it that we understand ourselves if we have an intention to express something? How could someone wish to express something they have no concept of? Certainly if we meant to say "no capacity for x in regards to y" we would say just that, rather than convoluding our ideas with such misleading words as "nothing."
In support of Russell, the Atomists, and common speech, I cannot think of any instance outside of discussions in theology or metaphysics where "nothing" would hold such broad meaning as it does here. In general, if I say "there is nothing in the box," I am really saying that the box does not contain anything mentionable, that is anything besides air or possibly packing material. The person to whom I am communicating the absence of contents in the box would undoubtedly think me peculiar if I informed him that this box contains air. Utterances such as this are also highly dependent on context. A word like nothing, though a noun, is unique in so far as it cannot be conceived to exist independently of its context, as can most other nouns.
There is no question that we do, if in a limited capacity, understand negative concepts on their own. How this can be the case has been the concern of many philosophers throughout history, including Plato's famous argument of recollection in Meno and Immanuel Kant's theory of Transcendental Idealism, which he presents in his Critique of Pure Reason. As I said above, I think that it is the case that we always ascertain a negative idea like nothing by thinking of it in terms of its context, as an absence of the thing or idea to which it refers. But how do we arrive at understanding isolated negative concepts such as nothingness or void? The fact that we refer to them in a positive sense indicates that there is a transference. Rightly or not, it seems to me that we can arrive at a notion of pure nothingness in and of itself by means of induction: there is no ketchup in this bottle, I am short fifteen cents, etc., until we have an idea culminating in a general law-like understanding of absence-in-general, which we, for the most part correctly, apply to describe situations, both observed and hypothetical, that seem to fit its criteria. But to this law-like understanding of absence-in-general, we can only talk about positively, in so far as to do otherwise would be something like removing words from a sentence instead of adding them, or not thinking of an idea to think about it. So, language provides a meaningful and convenient shorthand for such complex inductive thoughts that we barely understand but can successfully convey nonetheless. I suggest that it is by pure analogy that we can successfully entertain and convey these sorts of thoughts, just as it is by pure analogy that the word "negative" refers to its meaning.
It also seems to be so with language in general: that words can somehow be related to the thoughts of their author in such a way that they more or less can reconstruct the author's mental state(s) in a second person is a profound notion. While the Atomists' views regarding the natural world, though insightful and correct to a certain extent, has been exceeded by modern physics, the theory could be applied with more success to our language, and then to the minds of speakers and hearers. Such a theory might culminate a unique take on some problems in philosophy mind, exploring the power of metaphor and symbols of language as mechanisms of pure capacity. Further, such a model might aspire to bridge the waring so-called clashing disciplines of "analytic" and "continental" philosophy.
May 17, 2009
Thoughts Regarding CP Snow's "Two Cultures Divided"
“Two Cultures Divided” was a lecture given in 1959 by C.P. Snow, arguing that culture is fluent in the humanities while illiterate in science. I don't believe this has ever truly been the case. The vast majority of the people I've encountered (including those in art school) seem to be only capable of thinking in purely analytic terms. In my view, this is a root problem in our cultural psyche that must be resolved. I am by no means devaluing analytical thought (any coherent thought must contain a degree of analysis), but it's privileged reign as the sole method for understanding presents a worldview that is myopic, provincial, and destructive. Viewing the world in such a manner emphasizes the universally embraced means-ends dogma, which in itself is poisoning our society. We must eliminate it by learning to disregard all ends and practical measures. We must be sincere in our actions, aware of the intrinsic value in each of our daily activities. There must be autonomy in our day-to-day activities; by this I mean that we must recognize the value of this moment, rather than deferring its value to an unrealized hypothetical moment. We must widen our definition of knowledge and truth to contain poetic truths. Poetic knowledge and scientific knowledge are not at odds with each other. To distinguish them is a profound category mistake, one that has proven to be detrimental to humanity. I believe only when these are embraced not merely as equally valid, but also as IDENTICAL, will we overcome the practical maladies this conceptual misnomer has caused (hatred, global warming, etc.) If you are thinking to yourself, “how idealistic,” then it is only evidence of the problem’s ubiquity. To assign categories is to make judgments regarding the thing(s) that the categories are assigned to, and this is a direct consequent of the tyrannical grip the analytical has on our psyche. By this practice of placing an object (be it person, thing, argument, etc) into a category, we are confining our understanding of that object. I’m not suggesting that we ought to abandon names or language altogether, but that the perverse habit of confinement ought to be regarded as such. Rather, we ought to refine our analysis to description. Once our understanding of poetry and science have been merged into a single unified understanding, then we will be able to expand our concepts of things beyond the restrictive limits that centuries of dogmatic analysis has proclaimed to be the limits of sensible, coherent understanding and see coherence and meaning beyond the contradictions that have until this point marked off the bounds of what we are permitted to cognize. In other words, to say there is a divide between “humanities” and “science” is an illicit and superficial distinction; since they are at heart the same thing, (a process of induction rather than reduction), then they ought to be able to communicate as such.
March 23, 2009
Fragments On Chinese Landscape Painting
Poetry excells by its transparent luminosity. It is like echo in the air, color in form, the moon reflected in water or an image in a mirror; words have limits, but the meaning is inexhaustible.
On the pink-beige paper of a four-meter long handscroll unbounded ink washes alternately darken and pale to invisibility, in a style known as "apparition painting" - in Chinese, wangliang hua, in Japanese, moryo-ga. From foreground to hirizon the painting reveals an extraordinarily comprehensive landscape, mostly mountainous, simultaneously divided and knit together by water in all forms, from rivers and lakes to mists and clouds. A few sharply defined details - a bridge, a path, a viewing pavilion, a boat - guide the viewer's gaze along the bird's-eye view over mountains and streams.
The artistic expression by or addressed to Song scholars represents for the first time man's inner states; the mind-at-work becomes the object of philosophical investigation and of artistic representation.
And see these pictures, his thoughts would be a vast expanse of water.
Tranquil, you can perform all kinds of movements
Empty, you can internalize the myriad realms.
Experiencing the world, you walk among men;
Contemplating the self, you lie on cloudy mountains.
Heaven's wind suddenly sends the sound of the pagoda's bell,
Wakes me from pure reverie roaming Xiao Xiang!
Complex pictorial space draws the viewer's attention from the immediate to the intinite, and the ink-wash technique, which suggests forms rather than delineating them, invests the real landscape with the attributes of a dreamland.
March 15, 2009
The Poetic Structure of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Pictorial Dream Journey - Valerie Malenfer Oritz
One of my all time favorite pieces of art writing...
by Valerie Malenfer Oritz, originally appearing in Art Bulletin, volume 76, issue 2, (June 1994), p. 257-278
The Poetic Structure of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Pictorial Dream Journey - Valerie Malenfer Oritz
by Valerie Malenfer Oritz, originally appearing in Art Bulletin, volume 76, issue 2, (June 1994), p. 257-278
The Poetic Structure of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Pictorial Dream Journey - Valerie Malenfer Oritz
March 11, 2009
February 9, 2009
Descended into mist
“I wonder,” she began.
I looked at her.
“I don’t know...”
Our necks were craned, the glimmering speck descending into the mist.
Her words descended into mist
My ears craned to listen.
My ears craned into mist.
Something glimmered.
I looked at her.
“I don’t know...”
Our necks were craned, the glimmering speck descending into the mist.
Her words descended into mist
My ears craned to listen.
My ears craned into mist.
Something glimmered.
January 29, 2009
January 7, 2009
December 28, 2008
Trying my best to step into the same river twice
The river
where you set
your foot just now
is gone--
those waters
giving way to this,
now this.
Heraclitus
(translated by Brooks Haxton)
where you set
your foot just now
is gone--
those waters
giving way to this,
now this.
Heraclitus
(translated by Brooks Haxton)
December 27, 2008
For what is, is in contact with what is, Always looking to the beams of the sun
Parmenides
On Nature
PROLOGUE (1) The car that bears me carried me as far as ever my heart desired, when it had brought me and set me on the renowned way of the goddess, which leads the man who knows through all the towns. On that way was I borne along; for on it did the wise steeds carry me, drawing my car, and maidens showed the way. And the axle, glowing in the socket—for it was urged round by the whirling wheels at each end—gave forth a sound as of a pipe, when the daughters of the Sun, hasting to convey me into the light, threw back their veils from off their faces and left the abode of Night. There are the gates of the ways of Night and Day, fitted above with a lintel and below with a threshold of stone. They themselves, high in the air, are closed by mighty doors, and Avenging Justice keeps the keys that fit them. Her did the maidens entreat with gentle words and cunningly persuade to unfasten without demur the bolted bars from the gates. Then, when the doors were thrown back, they disclosed a wide opening, when their brazen posts fitted with rivets and nails swung back one after the other. Straight through them, on the broad way, did the maidens guide the horses and the car, and the goddess greeted me kindly, and took my right hand in hers, and spake to me these words: Welcome, O youth, that comest to my abode on the car that bears thee tended by immortal charioteers! It is no ill chance, but right and justice that has sent thee forth to travel on this way. Far, indeed, does it lie from the beaten track of men! Meet it is that thou shouldst learn all things, as well the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth, as the opinions of mortals in which is no true belief at all. Yet none the less shalt thou learn these things also,—how passing right through all things one should judge the things that seem to be. But do thou restrain thy thought from this way of inquiry, nor let habit by its much experience force thee to cast upon this way a wandering eye or sounding ear or tongue; but judge by argument1 the much disputed proof uttered by me. There is only one way left that can be spoken of…
THE WAY OF TRUTH
(2) Look steadfastly with thy mind at things though afar as if they were at hand. Thou canst not cut off what is from holding fast to what is, neither scattering itself abroad in order nor coming together.
(3) It is all one to me where I begin; for I shall come back again there.
(4, 5) Come now, I will tell thee—and do thou hearken to my saying and carry it away—the only two ways of search that can be thought of. The first, namely, that It is, and that it is impossible for it not to be, is the way of belief, for truth is its companion. The other, namely, that It is not, and that it must needs not be,—that, I tell thee, is a path that none can learn of at all. For thou canst not know what is not —that is impossible—nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.
(6) It needs must be that what can be spoken and thought is; for it is possible for it to be, and it is not possible for what is nothing to be. This is what I bid thee ponder. I hold thee back from this first way of inquiry, and from this other also, upon which mortals knowing naught wander two-faced; for helplessness guides the wandering thought in their breasts, so that they are borne along stupefied like men deaf and blind. Undiscerning crowds, who hold that it is and is not the same and not the same, and all things travel in opposite directions!
(7) For this shall never be proved, that the things that are not are; and do thou restrain thy thought from this way of inquiry.
(8) One path only is left for us to speak of, namely, that It is. In this path are very many tokens that what is is uncreated and indestructible; for it is complete, immovable, and without end. Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for now it is, all at once, a continuous one. For what kind of origin for it wilt thou look for? In what way and from what source could it have drawn its increase? ... I shall not let thee say nor think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be thought nor uttered that anything is not. And, if it came from nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than sooner? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides itself from that which is not. Wherefore, justice doth not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass away, but holds it fast. Our judgment thereon depends on this: "Is it or is it not?" Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real and true. How, then, can what is be going to be in the future? Or how could it come into being? If it came into being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future. Thus is becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of. Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is. Wherefore it is wholly continuous; for what is, is in contact with what is. Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without beginning and without end; since coming into being and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away. It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself. And thus it remaineth constant in its place; for hard necessity keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side. Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. The thing that can be thought and that for the sake of which the thought exists is the same; for you cannot find thought without something that is, as to which it is uttered. And there is not, and never shall be, anything besides what is, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable. Wherefore all these things are but names which mortals have given, believing them to be true—coming into being and passing away, being and not being, change of place and alteration of bright colour. Since, then, it has a furthest limit, it is complete on every side, like the mass of a rounded sphere, equally poised from the centre in every direction; for it cannot be greater or smaller in one place than in another. For there is no nothing that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor can aught that is be more here and less there than what is, since it is all inviolable. For the point from which it is equal in every direction tends equally to the limits.
THE WAY OF BELIEF
Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth. Henceforward learn the beliefs of mortals, giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words. Mortals have made up their minds to name two forms, one of which they should not name, and that is where they go astray from the truth. They have distinguished them as opposite in form, and have assigned to them marks distinct from one another. To the one they allot the fire of heaven, gentle, very light, in every direction the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is just the opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. Of these I tell thee the whole arrangement as it seems likely; for so no thought of mortals will ever outstrip thee.
(9) Now that all things have been named light and night, and the names which belong to the power of each have been assigned to these things and to those, everything is full at once of light and dark night, both equal, since neither has aught to do with the other.
(10, 11) And thou shalt know the substance of the sky, and all the signs in the sky, and the resplendent works of the glowing sun's pure torch, and whence they arose. And thou shalt learn likewise of the wandering deeds of the round-faced moon, and of her substance. Thou shalt know, too, the heavens that surround us, whence they arose, and how Necessity took them and bound them to keep the limits of the stars . . . how the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the sky that is common to all, and the Milky Way, and the outermost Olympos, and the burning might of the stars arose.
(12) The narrower bands were filled with unmixed fire, and those next them with night, and in the midst of these rushes their portion of fire. In the midst of these is the divinity that directs the course of all things; for she is the beginner of all painful birth and all begetting, driving the female to the embrace of the male, and the male to that of the female.
(13) First of all the gods she contrived Eros.
(14) Shining by night with borrowed light, wandering round the earth.
(15) Always looking to the beams of the sun.
(16) For just as thought stands at any time to the mixture of its erring organs, so does it come to men; for that which thinks is the same, namely, the substance of the limbs, in each and every man; for their thought is that of which there is more in them.
(17) On the right boys; on the left girls.
(19) Thus, according to men's opinions, did things come into being, and thus they are now. In time they will grow up and pass away. To each of these things men have assigned a fixed name.
On Nature
PROLOGUE (1) The car that bears me carried me as far as ever my heart desired, when it had brought me and set me on the renowned way of the goddess, which leads the man who knows through all the towns. On that way was I borne along; for on it did the wise steeds carry me, drawing my car, and maidens showed the way. And the axle, glowing in the socket—for it was urged round by the whirling wheels at each end—gave forth a sound as of a pipe, when the daughters of the Sun, hasting to convey me into the light, threw back their veils from off their faces and left the abode of Night. There are the gates of the ways of Night and Day, fitted above with a lintel and below with a threshold of stone. They themselves, high in the air, are closed by mighty doors, and Avenging Justice keeps the keys that fit them. Her did the maidens entreat with gentle words and cunningly persuade to unfasten without demur the bolted bars from the gates. Then, when the doors were thrown back, they disclosed a wide opening, when their brazen posts fitted with rivets and nails swung back one after the other. Straight through them, on the broad way, did the maidens guide the horses and the car, and the goddess greeted me kindly, and took my right hand in hers, and spake to me these words: Welcome, O youth, that comest to my abode on the car that bears thee tended by immortal charioteers! It is no ill chance, but right and justice that has sent thee forth to travel on this way. Far, indeed, does it lie from the beaten track of men! Meet it is that thou shouldst learn all things, as well the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth, as the opinions of mortals in which is no true belief at all. Yet none the less shalt thou learn these things also,—how passing right through all things one should judge the things that seem to be. But do thou restrain thy thought from this way of inquiry, nor let habit by its much experience force thee to cast upon this way a wandering eye or sounding ear or tongue; but judge by argument1 the much disputed proof uttered by me. There is only one way left that can be spoken of…
THE WAY OF TRUTH
(2) Look steadfastly with thy mind at things though afar as if they were at hand. Thou canst not cut off what is from holding fast to what is, neither scattering itself abroad in order nor coming together.
(3) It is all one to me where I begin; for I shall come back again there.
(4, 5) Come now, I will tell thee—and do thou hearken to my saying and carry it away—the only two ways of search that can be thought of. The first, namely, that It is, and that it is impossible for it not to be, is the way of belief, for truth is its companion. The other, namely, that It is not, and that it must needs not be,—that, I tell thee, is a path that none can learn of at all. For thou canst not know what is not —that is impossible—nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.
(6) It needs must be that what can be spoken and thought is; for it is possible for it to be, and it is not possible for what is nothing to be. This is what I bid thee ponder. I hold thee back from this first way of inquiry, and from this other also, upon which mortals knowing naught wander two-faced; for helplessness guides the wandering thought in their breasts, so that they are borne along stupefied like men deaf and blind. Undiscerning crowds, who hold that it is and is not the same and not the same, and all things travel in opposite directions!
(7) For this shall never be proved, that the things that are not are; and do thou restrain thy thought from this way of inquiry.
(8) One path only is left for us to speak of, namely, that It is. In this path are very many tokens that what is is uncreated and indestructible; for it is complete, immovable, and without end. Nor was it ever, nor will it be; for now it is, all at once, a continuous one. For what kind of origin for it wilt thou look for? In what way and from what source could it have drawn its increase? ... I shall not let thee say nor think that it came from what is not; for it can neither be thought nor uttered that anything is not. And, if it came from nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than sooner? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at all. Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides itself from that which is not. Wherefore, justice doth not loose her fetters and let anything come into being or pass away, but holds it fast. Our judgment thereon depends on this: "Is it or is it not?" Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real and true. How, then, can what is be going to be in the future? Or how could it come into being? If it came into being, it is not; nor is it if it is going to be in the future. Thus is becoming extinguished and passing away not to be heard of. Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, and there is no more of it in one place than in another, to hinder it from holding together, nor less of it, but everything is full of what is. Wherefore it is wholly continuous; for what is, is in contact with what is. Moreover, it is immovable in the bonds of mighty chains, without beginning and without end; since coming into being and passing away have been driven afar, and true belief has cast them away. It is the same, and it rests in the self-same place, abiding in itself. And thus it remaineth constant in its place; for hard necessity keeps it in the bonds of the limit that holds it fast on every side. Wherefore it is not permitted to what is to be infinite; for it is in need of nothing; while, if it were infinite, it would stand in need of everything. The thing that can be thought and that for the sake of which the thought exists is the same; for you cannot find thought without something that is, as to which it is uttered. And there is not, and never shall be, anything besides what is, since fate has chained it so as to be whole and immovable. Wherefore all these things are but names which mortals have given, believing them to be true—coming into being and passing away, being and not being, change of place and alteration of bright colour. Since, then, it has a furthest limit, it is complete on every side, like the mass of a rounded sphere, equally poised from the centre in every direction; for it cannot be greater or smaller in one place than in another. For there is no nothing that could keep it from reaching out equally, nor can aught that is be more here and less there than what is, since it is all inviolable. For the point from which it is equal in every direction tends equally to the limits.
THE WAY OF BELIEF
Here shall I close my trustworthy speech and thought about the truth. Henceforward learn the beliefs of mortals, giving ear to the deceptive ordering of my words. Mortals have made up their minds to name two forms, one of which they should not name, and that is where they go astray from the truth. They have distinguished them as opposite in form, and have assigned to them marks distinct from one another. To the one they allot the fire of heaven, gentle, very light, in every direction the same as itself, but not the same as the other. The other is just the opposite to it, dark night, a compact and heavy body. Of these I tell thee the whole arrangement as it seems likely; for so no thought of mortals will ever outstrip thee.
(9) Now that all things have been named light and night, and the names which belong to the power of each have been assigned to these things and to those, everything is full at once of light and dark night, both equal, since neither has aught to do with the other.
(10, 11) And thou shalt know the substance of the sky, and all the signs in the sky, and the resplendent works of the glowing sun's pure torch, and whence they arose. And thou shalt learn likewise of the wandering deeds of the round-faced moon, and of her substance. Thou shalt know, too, the heavens that surround us, whence they arose, and how Necessity took them and bound them to keep the limits of the stars . . . how the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the sky that is common to all, and the Milky Way, and the outermost Olympos, and the burning might of the stars arose.
(12) The narrower bands were filled with unmixed fire, and those next them with night, and in the midst of these rushes their portion of fire. In the midst of these is the divinity that directs the course of all things; for she is the beginner of all painful birth and all begetting, driving the female to the embrace of the male, and the male to that of the female.
(13) First of all the gods she contrived Eros.
(14) Shining by night with borrowed light, wandering round the earth.
(15) Always looking to the beams of the sun.
(16) For just as thought stands at any time to the mixture of its erring organs, so does it come to men; for that which thinks is the same, namely, the substance of the limbs, in each and every man; for their thought is that of which there is more in them.
(17) On the right boys; on the left girls.
(19) Thus, according to men's opinions, did things come into being, and thus they are now. In time they will grow up and pass away. To each of these things men have assigned a fixed name.
December 9, 2008
December 8, 2008
When you & I were young
When you & I were young
we would press our white faces from the car
& the rain on the windows would run through the gathering
dark
& the lampposts shone & dogs would run into the dying
frame
where the park was glowing dimly through the silence of the
lanes
& the radiators hum rose above the falling leaves
where so fragile & so young you had drifted into sleep
I've been for a walk
& every face I see seems to be mine
night-time comes
the birds have flown
a fever glows in every line
I love this season
this weary night
the flint the dreams the silent pines
the eeriness
is in the feeling
that I have finished everything
& a chill from the school was running back to her car
& her white face cried she was deaf & afraid of the dark
& the whispering house grew still as we stared into the night
in the garden & the lamps & the window's fading light
& though Christmas was the same, we had seen another
year
turning softly through the flames
Alasdair MacLean
we would press our white faces from the car
& the rain on the windows would run through the gathering
dark
& the lampposts shone & dogs would run into the dying
frame
where the park was glowing dimly through the silence of the
lanes
& the radiators hum rose above the falling leaves
where so fragile & so young you had drifted into sleep
I've been for a walk
& every face I see seems to be mine
night-time comes
the birds have flown
a fever glows in every line
I love this season
this weary night
the flint the dreams the silent pines
the eeriness
is in the feeling
that I have finished everything
& a chill from the school was running back to her car
& her white face cried she was deaf & afraid of the dark
& the whispering house grew still as we stared into the night
in the garden & the lamps & the window's fading light
& though Christmas was the same, we had seen another
year
turning softly through the flames
Alasdair MacLean
December 7, 2008
December 6, 2008
The Hour
This is the violet hour, the hour of hush and wonder, when the affections glow again and valor is reborn, when the shadows deepen magically along the edge of the forest and we believe that, if we watch carefully, at any moment we may see the unicorn.
- Bernard DeVoto "The Hour"
- Bernard DeVoto "The Hour"
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