The procedure of induction consists in accepting as true the simplest law that can be reconciled with our experiences.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (6.363)
A horizontal four point five if taken to the right
and plotted to the imaginary vertical equivalent is positively nine.
Absolutely speaking then the point I wish to make of c
fits in to zero = zero squared + six point three six three;
(since a and b are equally
an added, rooted, four point five. See?)
*and rounded down to three.
Which simply means that six point three
six three’s the point we want to see,
and since it’s greater than a two
it’s well outside the set of inescapable complexities
that give the Mandelbrot the shape we’ve come to recognise.
That’s not to say it didn’t start
its life within the set
before it fled equation to invisible and infinite
assured possibilities.
Invisible because we cannot see it on the edge
of the cardioidal bug type cratered lakeside universe.
It must have got away too fast to warrant an inspection,
or simply didn’t have the time to show off all its colours.
(once i stepped up to a lake in early morning hours
to swim beneath an early morning moon among the stars.
The sand it shattered like a sheet of ice, or maybe glass,
around my leading dipping toe
and into phosphorescent shards
of green. I walked and hopped and skipped and jumped
along the length of it
up to the muddy mangrove end and back again and past it up the other way until I hit the rocky end.
I turned that lakeside black and green until I had exhausted all the energy, and the little baitfish calmed. I guess they just got used to me.)
And infinite because it’s worth remembering.
When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.
— James Gleick (The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood)
For Bonnie, Kathi and Mark.
July 4th, 2011 at 3:56 am
ok thanks! information in excess or otherwise clutters the brainscape. it’s collected perhaps weekly to a giant depository where with some digging you might find somethings useful. and we can see a plethora, and that it is “streaming live” and also just streaming. and the potential for hoarding ha ha is introduced. its a pernicious journey for the information junkie. tossed to and fro by politic, inflected by opinion, treading theory in choppy waters and magnetized by new stuff that comes along and has to be examined ha ha. because it’s in the wiring…or maybe not, maybe at this point its a choice. the daily news for instance is loaded with ‘info’. and repeated several times daily, out and out. and except for npr its never anything good, its always jerking me around, so i dont want to spend on it. if news is bad enough it will reach me by word of mouth or other more direct less programmable means. so i can respond perhaps to an emergency.
but otherwise when i want to touch base with the pulse of the world i come here bird to the valued words and expressions of friends and compatriots across the globe, that to me, are worthy. there are people who can withstand the current while standing waist-deep in the rushing stream. yup, attention is expensive, on loan at a high interest rate, so be choosy, and dont let it be stolen.
July 7th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
aha! thanks Kathi. Your words here led my evercurious mind into a google search on such terms as ‘information pollution’ and ‘attention theft’. Lots of interesting reading to pursue out there but you’ve spoken to it better than the rest – to my mind :)
July 4th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Brad, the shift in this poem is magic. I don’t know what you are talking about, so I’m left with words and the rhythm of those words. Once you write of the swimmer in the lake, everything becomes clear. More than clear, in fact.
A thought-provoking quote from Gleick, too – although I’m more taken with the book’s subtitle.
July 7th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Thank you Tristan. I’m still puzzling over how to define where my writing has been so’s I can redefine it. In a sense, you have just described a response that I used to aim for, but perhaps lost the confidence in and the sight of.