You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2008.
I took a stroll through the local public library the other day and happened across a book called “The Musical Illusionist” by Alex Rose. Very much in the vein of Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, but rather than stories (I’m not sure yet why “tales” is in the subtitle) Rose’s collection is more like musings in mini-essays about the measurements we have constructed to make sense of the world. Calendars and clocks for time, fractions and numbers for quantity. The reader is led through a gallery of history by an anonymous docent of the “Library of Tangents” (perhaps that’s our overarching tale).
The mini-essays are titled as “Special Exhibitions” … this morning on the bus, I read the exhibition called “In the Fullness of Time” and learned that the humble zero -0 – almost went on trial for heresy back in the good old days. Francis of Gaul supposedly reasoned:
“If zero was to be accepted, then infinity must be admitted as well. And once the infinite was embraced, it would necessarily open the door to… concepts so nonsensical they threatened to ‘topple the very chassis of reality.’”
Last week I heard someone ask two interesting questions: (1) Have you ever wanted to throw away all the gadgets – the cell phone, the laptop, the camera and so on? (2) What communication device do you wish would be invented?
My answer to 1 is a resounding YES! My answer to 2, is that I don’t want a device invented but rather a method. I want us to tap into that 90% of our brains that we don’t use, and in my daydream we’ll gain the abilities of telepathy and limitless memory. Who needs a camera when you can instantly conjure up the complete experience? Who needs telephones when you can send your feelings? Would language itself become obsolete? But the only drawback I see to this daydream is in our tendency to archive everything. If we rely on memory alone, what happens when people with specific memories die? Can entire histories be passed on purely as memories?
It was the following passage from Rose’s little book that led me to think about technology. I was thinking of how much we depend on those 1’s and 0’s that carry all our data around:
“Indeed, the pursuit of measure has been a relentless obsession… Not only have we calculated the age of the universe and the distance of the farthest star, but also the murky depths of our own internal engines, our nerve cells, our genome.
To echo Francis, what use is there for the supernatural once we have calculated all that is natural?”
I went to a gallery opening last night, despite the bitter cold. No, really … bitter cold. The high yesterday was 13* Fahrenheit. The warmest wind chill we had was 2* Fahrenheit. But you know what? I still love cold weather. 
Anyway, the gallery opening. I’m in a Museum Informatics class, and one of our assignments, naturally, is to visit museums. This gallery opening just happened to be this week, so I made the most of it. What a completely awesome way to see an art museum!! Usually, the atmosphere of this particular art museum is quiet, hushed whispers, empty. Last night, there was a very loud live band in the middle of the galleries, lots of people, wine, shouted conversations, laughing. It was great. And the art itself was not at all what I expected. Posters! by Jay Ryan.
And when I left the museum, I could see stars upon stars. I had forgotten how brilliantly clear the night sky can be on the coldest nights. Lesson learned: homework can be fun.
It’s the first day of Spring Semester. Technically, I’ve already had my first class — a course from Pittsburgh on Information Visualization, which started last week — but my first UIUC class will be this morning: Latin 101.
I’m also pleased to report that despite my fingers and legs freezing, despite my nose running and my eyes watering, I still love winter more than summer. I love wearing a scarf, gloves and ear warmers. I hate sweating while sitting still. Will I still be saying this by the end of February? Only time will tell.
One of my favorite morning commute routines is to look around the bus and see how many people are reading something, be it book, newspaper or magazine. This morning I was delighted to see that almost half of the bus (about a dozen riders) were reading something! And guess what … one of the items was an e-book reader. That’s the first time I’ve seen anyone here in C-U reading one of these. I asked the woman reading it how she liked it. She said she’s had it for a couple years and still enjoys using it, except for the process of getting new books onto it. She said that part can be a pain. She has her eye on the “lighter, thinner” e-book readers that are out now, but she’s waiting for the prices to come down.
In other news – as anyone on the LibraryThing email list knows, you can now peruse the collections of dead people. If you were to die tomorrow and suddenly become famous, what would your personal library look like? Hmm…
