Day: May 29, 2003

I think I’ve read most (all?) of Gibson’s novels and much of his short fiction. Reading the transcript of a recent speech he gave at the
Directors Guild of America’s Digital Day, Los Angeles on May 17, 2003 reminds me why. He’s talking about film, of course, considering his audience, but he doesn’t limit himself in any way.

Our ancestors, when they found their way to that first stone screen, were commencing a project so vast that it only now begins to become apparent: the unthinking construction of a species-wide, time-defying, effectively immortal prosthetic memory. Extensions of the human brain and nervous system, capable of surviving the death of the individual — perhaps even of surviving the death of the species. The start of building what would become civilization, cities, cinema. Vast stone calendars, megalithic machines remembering the need to plant on a given day, to sacrifice on another.

I certainly consider digital technologies as part of my personal effort to the create a “time-defying, effectively immortal prosthetic memory” — I know if I don’t write it down, I don’t remember it well enough to describe to others, even though the emotional impact resides and accrues.

One other phrase jumped out at me, in part because of Pattern Recognition, his newest novel, which I have yet to read. He describes man as:

“an animal distinguished by a peculiar ability to recognize patterns…”

What he didn’t write here is that we (humans) also have an incredible ability to try and fit patterns on anything, whether they exist or not.

My father loves a good nap. Here’s a note from EMERGIC, written by Rajesh Jain in India: “Sleeping is a universal love.” Amen.

Like so many of my classmates, I probably had an M.C. Escher poster on my dorm room wall at some point during high school or college. I certainly grew up with at least two jigsaw puzzles made from his artwork. An inventor in England was inspired, and created a wonderful illusion, where water flows uphill. Most amusing part of the article for me was the description of the man responsible: “Inventor James Dyson, he of the bagless vacuum cleaner” I guess everyone hopes to known, for whatever reason. Not having seen or used a bagless vacuum cleaner, I won’t comment on how ingenious the fellow might or might not be, but certainly the BBC found it noteworthy. Anyway, there are pictures, diagrams, and explanations of how the illusion of water flowing uphill was created.