Guessing Game [Some links on Luc Steels]
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Luc Steels will be presenting his work on the grounding of language during the Crystalpunk Bonanza of Origins on 13-01-07. He is a very busy man so we are very fortunate that he is willing to find the time to come. He will hopefully talk about the Talking Heads or the Guessing Game (PDF-link) or on even more recent work about the collaborative agreements that arise in tagging things in Del.icio.us-like services. In an article Derek Bickerton explains the relevance of Steels current research in the ongoing debate on the origin and evolution of language:
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Luc Steels will be presenting his work on the grounding of language during the Crystalpunk Bonanza of Origins on 13-01-07. He is a very busy man so we are very fortunate that he is willing to find the time to come. He will hopefully talk about the Talking Heads or the Guessing Game (PDF-link) or on even more recent work about the collaborative agreements that arise in tagging things in Del.icio.us-like services. In an article Derek Bickerton explains the relevance of Steels current research in the ongoing debate on the origin and evolution of language:
We cannot unearth the evolution of language from the fossil or archaeological records, nor can we carry out laboratory experiments. But we can do computer simulations of it, and this has been a rapidly growing industry over the last several years. The main thrust of the movement is to show that once communication is intended, language can self-generate and self-organize until it arrives at a rule-governed system, with little (according to some) or no (according to others) assistance from any specific genetic endowment. Obviously this requires time, but evolutionary time is not in short supply.
The most convenient source for an overview of this approach is Briscoe (2002). In his introduction, Briscoe explicitly associates the approach with the claim by Hurford (1999) that language evolution and the evolution of languages can be handled by the same methods–not a very auspicious beginning. However, the main problem of research in this field so far concerns the unrealistic initial conditions assumed by the researchers, in particular that "agents have direct access to each other's meanings". This is a serious flaw, as Steels points out. since we (and a fortiori our remote ancestors) had no such access to others' meanings when we first acquired language. But Steels's "guessing game" includes equally unrealistic initial conditions. For instance, two robots may be confronted with an array of a red square, a red triangle, a blue triangle and a green circle; one robot has to produce a word to describe one of these objects and the other robot has to guess which object the first robot means. The first robot "may say malewina to mean [UPPER EXTREME-LEFT LOW-REDNESS]" (to indicate the red square in "their own language"). But here we are back again with an initial holophrastic language and all of its defects discussed
Steels is not alone in assuming decomposition of holophrases as a major engine of language development. Kirby (2000) begins with an artificially limited corpus of five proper nouns (which may be "Agents" or "Objects") and five action verbs, giving rise to a hundred possible three-word sentences. Simulated individuals are repeatedly asked to produce a string corresponding to one or other of these hundred possible meanings, but since they have neither words no grammar, they say nothing. From time to time, however, they produce at random "some invented string of symbols" (Kirby 200: 308) which may consist of multiple units (e.g. ecdeaabdda) or single units (e.g. d). If you go on doing this for long enough, apparently, populations of simulated individuals will converge on the same string for the same meaning.
Quilts, Dreams and a Haunting by Cellular Automata
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
This Oklahoma quilt, date unknown, is titled Grandmother's Dream. It is meant to represent the mystical dream as experienced by the dreamer: psychoactive needlework in other words. The first references that come up when seeing this are to mandala's and, because of the cubes, to CA's. As a matter a fact a rule for this quilt-set probably exist, apart from this one cube just off-center that is in a different colour-tone.
Scan made from 'Dreams' by Coxhead and Hiller
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
This Oklahoma quilt, date unknown, is titled Grandmother's Dream. It is meant to represent the mystical dream as experienced by the dreamer: psychoactive needlework in other words. The first references that come up when seeing this are to mandala's and, because of the cubes, to CA's. As a matter a fact a rule for this quilt-set probably exist, apart from this one cube just off-center that is in a different colour-tone.
Scan made from 'Dreams' by Coxhead and Hiller
Chess is an Art Appearing in the Form of a Game
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Maaaany chess-quotes.
A loooong timeline of religio-political interference in chess.
A riiiich collection of chess pictures.
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Maaaany chess-quotes.
A loooong timeline of religio-political interference in chess.
A riiiich collection of chess pictures.
Napoleon and the Automaton
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
Where worldly power and the dream of AI colldide. Napoleon was a very bad player, and the 3 games left of him are most likely fake. One of these is a game against the Mechanical Turk which he lost, like the war with Russia... A quote from a quote quoted from chesshistory.com:
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
Where worldly power and the dream of AI colldide. Napoleon was a very bad player, and the 3 games left of him are most likely fake. One of these is a game against the Mechanical Turk which he lost, like the war with Russia... A quote from a quote quoted from chesshistory.com:
When Napoleon entered Berlin, in 1806, somebody thought of the neglected Turk, and Mr Maelzel, a clever mechanic, was ordered to in pest [sic – presumably inspect] and repair the dusty old enigma. From cobwebbed dreams of King Fritz and the brave Empress, the veteran chess player awakened to encounter a greater man, fresh from the field of recent victories. On this remarkable meeting we may dwell for a moment, since its history has been faithfully preserved by an eye witness and has never before met the public view.
The emperor, on this occasion, signified his wish to do battle with the Turk, and accordingly Maelzel arranged a second table, near that of the Turk, proposing to repeat the moves on both tables. This was Maelzel’s usual mode of exhibition. Napoleon, characteristically overstepping the barrier which separated the Turk from the audience, struck his hand on the automaton’s chessboard and exclaimed, ‘I will not contend at a distance! We fight face to face.’ A grave nod indicated the Turk’s assent, and the game began. The emperor was disastrously vanquished. Shortly afterward a second exhibition was ordered. On this memorable occasion the emperor placed a large magnet on the automaton’s board. Maelzel smilingly moved the iron, so as not to embarrass the game. The Turk played on with his usual skill; the fatal échec (check) was heard again and again, and a second time Napoleon was defeated.
The pieces were no sooner arranged than the emperor quietly removed a shawl from the shoulders of a lady near by, and with great care enveloped the face, the neck and the body of the Turk, completing his arrangements with an exclamation of satisfaction. With a muffled nod the Moslem agreed to the new conditions and this third time also victory declared itself for the Turk. For a moment the emperor regarded his antagonist, then, with a gesture of scorn, he swept the chessmen from the board, and crying: ‘Bagatelle!’ strode over knight and pawn and so out of the room.
The World is a Game of Chess
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The most famous metaphorical link between the world as chess is I think the one by Thomas Huxley but the tradition is much older. Shown (source) is a "copper plate engraving from the 15th century. The work of an unknown alsatian artist, signed 'BR' with an anchor. The picture is a version of the well known mediaeval allegory in which life is presented as a game of chess."
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The most famous metaphorical link between the world as chess is I think the one by Thomas Huxley but the tradition is much older. Shown (source) is a "copper plate engraving from the 15th century. The work of an unknown alsatian artist, signed 'BR' with an anchor. The picture is a version of the well known mediaeval allegory in which life is presented as a game of chess."
WH Auden on Glossolalia
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
It is extraordinary that sects of religious enthusiasts, from the Montanists down to Catholic Apostolics, should have imagined that to make verbal noises which nobody could understand was evidence of Divine Inspiration, a repetition of the miracle of Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost was exactly the opposite, the miracle of instantaneous translation – everybody could understand what everybody else was saying.
In his great book Enthusiasm, Father Ronald Knox gives us two examples of “speaking with tongues”: “Hippo gerosto niparos boorasti farini O fastor sungor boorinas epoopongos menati” and “Hey amei hassan alla do hoc alors lovre has heo massan amor ho ti prov hir aso me”
AH Auden from A Certain World, a commonplace book
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
It is extraordinary that sects of religious enthusiasts, from the Montanists down to Catholic Apostolics, should have imagined that to make verbal noises which nobody could understand was evidence of Divine Inspiration, a repetition of the miracle of Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost was exactly the opposite, the miracle of instantaneous translation – everybody could understand what everybody else was saying.
In his great book Enthusiasm, Father Ronald Knox gives us two examples of “speaking with tongues”: “Hippo gerosto niparos boorasti farini O fastor sungor boorinas epoopongos menati” and “Hey amei hassan alla do hoc alors lovre has heo massan amor ho ti prov hir aso me”
AH Auden from A Certain World, a commonplace book
Peg Solitaire [Not to be confused with Patience]
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Solitaire is a funky one-player puzzle game I played a lot as a child but never fully solved. I need not mention it has been solved by the AI people, but play it here for some healthy frustration: remember the last peg should be in the one empty field at time=0.
On the subject of Peg Solitaire Libre one option is to play it backwards, suggested by the great Leibnitz himself.
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Solitaire is a funky one-player puzzle game I played a lot as a child but never fully solved. I need not mention it has been solved by the AI people, but play it here for some healthy frustration: remember the last peg should be in the one empty field at time=0.
On the subject of Peg Solitaire Libre one option is to play it backwards, suggested by the great Leibnitz himself.
Alea evangelii
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Missing a lot, the Wikipedia entry on the ancient Saxon game Alea evangelii at least shows the strangest think about it very clearly: the objectives of black and white are different. Because of this obviously it is hard to find the right balance to allow equal opportunities to both players.
The game, (source) is described in manuscript from King Æthelstan's court (c. 925-940 A. D.) which attempts to give the board and the arrangement of the pieces upon it scriptural significance as a harmony of the gospels. Have not yet been able to find info about how this was done, but the theme of game-boards as star maps is well known to the crystalpunk comparative boardologist.
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Missing a lot, the Wikipedia entry on the ancient Saxon game Alea evangelii at least shows the strangest think about it very clearly: the objectives of black and white are different. Because of this obviously it is hard to find the right balance to allow equal opportunities to both players.
The game, (source) is described in manuscript from King Æthelstan's court (c. 925-940 A. D.) which attempts to give the board and the arrangement of the pieces upon it scriptural significance as a harmony of the gospels. Have not yet been able to find info about how this was done, but the theme of game-boards as star maps is well known to the crystalpunk comparative boardologist.
Hnefatafl [Viking Chess]
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
One game turns out to be many, it borders moving away into the distance when approached. The reverse engineering of Hnefatafl or Tafl, a branch of games stretching from Iceland to Brittain to Scandinavia and possible even to the Roman Empire is a supreme example of boardology.
Sten Helmfrid gives a detailed overview of the sources, variantions and rules, taking us along medieval texts and Archaeological findings to show how games are part of life and culture. Another article by Sire Bohémond de Nicée goes even further by trying to connect the Nordic Tafl with a game today played in Egypt and Somalia.
Play it here
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
One game turns out to be many, it borders moving away into the distance when approached. The reverse engineering of Hnefatafl or Tafl, a branch of games stretching from Iceland to Brittain to Scandinavia and possible even to the Roman Empire is a supreme example of boardology.
Sten Helmfrid gives a detailed overview of the sources, variantions and rules, taking us along medieval texts and Archaeological findings to show how games are part of life and culture. Another article by Sire Bohémond de Nicée goes even further by trying to connect the Nordic Tafl with a game today played in Egypt and Somalia.
Play it here
The Earth was Probably Born by Accident
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The Earth was probably born by accident; but, in accordance with one of the most general laws of evolution, scarcely had this accident happened than it was immediatly made use of and recast into something naturally directed.
Teilhard de Chardin - The Phenomenon of Man
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The Earth was probably born by accident; but, in accordance with one of the most general laws of evolution, scarcely had this accident happened than it was immediatly made use of and recast into something naturally directed.
Teilhard de Chardin - The Phenomenon of Man
The Danaan play Chess [like demons]
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Try searching for chess at sacred-texts.com and be overwhelmed by the number of things it find. However it is likely that most references to chess are translation errors (or deliberate choices) and where it says chess a whole range of Tafl games are meant.
One of the themes resurfacing is the chess-board as a way for celtic spirits to get something they want from humans but can't get:
Those damn Danaan while this story is similar.
Only the Scots, according to Walter Scott, have the better end of the deal:
Pic
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Try searching for chess at sacred-texts.com and be overwhelmed by the number of things it find. However it is likely that most references to chess are translation errors (or deliberate choices) and where it says chess a whole range of Tafl games are meant.
One of the themes resurfacing is the chess-board as a way for celtic spirits to get something they want from humans but can't get:
A Game of Chess
Shortly afterwards he appears to King Eochy, as already related on the Hill of Tara. He tells the king that he has come to play a game of chess with him, and produces a chessboard of silver with pieces of gold studded with jewels. To be a skilful chess-player was a necessary accomplishment of kings and nobles in
Ireland, and Eochy enters into the game with zest. Midir allows him to win game after game, and in payment for his losses he performs by magic all kinds of tasks for Eochy, reclaiming land, clearing forests, and building causeways across bogs - here we have a touch of the popular conception of the Danaans as earth deities associated with agriculture and fertility. At last, having excited Eochy's cupidity and made him believe himself the better player, he proposes a final game, the stakes to be at the pleasure of the victor after the game is over. Eochy is now defeated.
"My stake is forfeit to thee," said Eochy.
"Had I wished it, it had been forfeit long ago", said Midir.
"What is it that thou desirest me to grant?" said Eochy.
"That I may hold Etain in my arms and obtain a kiss from her," said Midir.
The king was silent for a while; then he said: "One month from to-day thou shalt come, and the thing thou desirest shall be granted thee."
Those damn Danaan while this story is similar.
Only the Scots, according to Walter Scott, have the better end of the deal:
Several families of the Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to the distinction of an attendant spirit who performed the office of the Irish banshie. Amongst them, however, the functions of this attendant genius, whose form and appearance differed in different cases, were not limited to announcing the dissolution of those whose days were numbered. The Highlanders contrived to exact from them other points of service, sometimes as warding off dangers of battle; at others, as guarding and protecting the infant heir through the dangers of childhood; and sometimes as condescending to interfere even in the sports of the chieftain, and point out the fittest move to be made at chess, or the best card to be played at any other game.
Pic
The Strange World of Bruno Marchal
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Bruno Marchal, one of the guest of the Crystalpunk Bonanza is a Belgium logician with some truly astonishing ideas about the outer edges of computation and philosophy. His Universal Dovetail Argument got me spellbound when I first heard about it at the XXXXX festival organised by Howse and Kemp (also speaking at the Bonanza). I did a failed attempt to recap his talk, but hearing him talk about it will be the better option. This text also contains a half-assed description of the talk by Otto Rossler. Most of Marchal is in French but these 2 papers are in English:
- Mechanism and Personal Identity (PDF-link)
- Amoeba, Planaria, and Dreaming Machines (PDF-link)
The above quote shows beauty of his style of experimenting in thought.
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Bruno Marchal, one of the guest of the Crystalpunk Bonanza is a Belgium logician with some truly astonishing ideas about the outer edges of computation and philosophy. His Universal Dovetail Argument got me spellbound when I first heard about it at the XXXXX festival organised by Howse and Kemp (also speaking at the Bonanza). I did a failed attempt to recap his talk, but hearing him talk about it will be the better option. This text also contains a half-assed description of the talk by Otto Rossler. Most of Marchal is in French but these 2 papers are in English:
- Mechanism and Personal Identity (PDF-link)
- Amoeba, Planaria, and Dreaming Machines (PDF-link)
The above quote shows beauty of his style of experimenting in thought.
Arimaa [The Game of Real Intelligence]
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The 1997 defeat by Kasparov to Deep Blue was en event not yet fully digested for its meaning and implication. Computer engineer Omar Syed responded by designing a new game that would show that computers are still not intelligent. What computers can't do made elaborate. Arimaa is played with chess pieces and board behaving differently. The rules are targeted to create situations with extremely large permutation spaces that computers can't deal with. For instance by allowing players to set-up their initial board freely, it is in effect preventing the build-up of a library of pre-computed opening moves. Philosophy apart, would it be fun to play?
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The 1997 defeat by Kasparov to Deep Blue was en event not yet fully digested for its meaning and implication. Computer engineer Omar Syed responded by designing a new game that would show that computers are still not intelligent. What computers can't do made elaborate. Arimaa is played with chess pieces and board behaving differently. The rules are targeted to create situations with extremely large permutation spaces that computers can't deal with. For instance by allowing players to set-up their initial board freely, it is in effect preventing the build-up of a library of pre-computed opening moves. Philosophy apart, would it be fun to play?
The Zymoglyphic Museum
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
Zymoglyphic must be, will be, cannot be but, a word I will use very very often in the time to come....
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
Zymoglyphic must be, will be, cannot be but, a word I will use very very often in the time to come....
Isaiah Berlin on Romanticism
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The sciences may be of use in practical matters; but no concatenation of concepts will give one an understanding of a man, of a work of art, of what is conveyed by essence, of a human being, a movement, a culture; nor for that matter of the Deity, which speaks to one everywhere if only one has ears to hear and eyes to see. What is real is individual, that is, is what it is in virtue of its uniqueness, its differences from other things, events, thoughts, and not in virtue of what it has in common with them, which is all that the generalising sciences seek to record. 'Feeling alone', said Hamann, 'gives to abstractions hands, feet, wings'; and again 'God speaks to us in poetical words, addressed to the senses, not in abstractions for the learned', and so must anyone who has something to say that matters, who speaks to another person.
Hamann took little interest in theories or speculations about the external world; he cared only for the inner personal life of the individual, and therefore only for art, religious experience, the senses, personal relationships, which the analytic truths of scientific reason seemed to him to reduce to meaningless ciphers. 'God is a poet, not a mathematician', and it is men who, like Kant, suffer from a 'gnostic hatred of matter' that provide us with endless verbal constructions – words that are taken for concepts, and worse still, concepts that are taken for real things.
The most extravagant of the German romantics, Novalis or Tieck, looked on the universe not as a structure that can be studied or described by whatever methods are most appropriate, but as a perpetual activity of the spirit and of nature which is the selfsame spirit in a dormant state; of this constant upward movement the man of genius is the most concious agent, who thus embodies the forward activity that advances the life of the spirit most significantly. While some, like Schelling and Coleridge, conceive this activity as the gradual growth into self-consciousness of the world-spirit that is perpetually moving toward self-perfection, other conceive the cosmic process as having no goal, as a purposeless and meaningless movement, which men, because they cannot face this bleak and despair-inducing truth, seek to hide from themselves by constructing comforting illusions in the form of religions that provide rewards in another life, or metaphysical systems that claim to provide rational justifications both for what there is in the world and for what men do and can do and should do; or scientific systems that perform the task of appearing to give sense to a process that is, in fact, purposeless, a formless flux which is what it is, a brute fact, signifying nothing.
Isaiah Berlin from The Counter-Enlightment (Against the Current, 1979)
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
The sciences may be of use in practical matters; but no concatenation of concepts will give one an understanding of a man, of a work of art, of what is conveyed by essence, of a human being, a movement, a culture; nor for that matter of the Deity, which speaks to one everywhere if only one has ears to hear and eyes to see. What is real is individual, that is, is what it is in virtue of its uniqueness, its differences from other things, events, thoughts, and not in virtue of what it has in common with them, which is all that the generalising sciences seek to record. 'Feeling alone', said Hamann, 'gives to abstractions hands, feet, wings'; and again 'God speaks to us in poetical words, addressed to the senses, not in abstractions for the learned', and so must anyone who has something to say that matters, who speaks to another person.
Hamann took little interest in theories or speculations about the external world; he cared only for the inner personal life of the individual, and therefore only for art, religious experience, the senses, personal relationships, which the analytic truths of scientific reason seemed to him to reduce to meaningless ciphers. 'God is a poet, not a mathematician', and it is men who, like Kant, suffer from a 'gnostic hatred of matter' that provide us with endless verbal constructions – words that are taken for concepts, and worse still, concepts that are taken for real things.
The most extravagant of the German romantics, Novalis or Tieck, looked on the universe not as a structure that can be studied or described by whatever methods are most appropriate, but as a perpetual activity of the spirit and of nature which is the selfsame spirit in a dormant state; of this constant upward movement the man of genius is the most concious agent, who thus embodies the forward activity that advances the life of the spirit most significantly. While some, like Schelling and Coleridge, conceive this activity as the gradual growth into self-consciousness of the world-spirit that is perpetually moving toward self-perfection, other conceive the cosmic process as having no goal, as a purposeless and meaningless movement, which men, because they cannot face this bleak and despair-inducing truth, seek to hide from themselves by constructing comforting illusions in the form of religions that provide rewards in another life, or metaphysical systems that claim to provide rational justifications both for what there is in the world and for what men do and can do and should do; or scientific systems that perform the task of appearing to give sense to a process that is, in fact, purposeless, a formless flux which is what it is, a brute fact, signifying nothing.
Isaiah Berlin from The Counter-Enlightment (Against the Current, 1979)
Behavioural Cut-Ups and Magick
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Some people learn very little new tricks. Genesis (breyer) P-Orridge on thee Cut-Up in hees typicyl annoyingk semii-Crowlyan stylee:
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Some people learn very little new tricks. Genesis (breyer) P-Orridge on thee Cut-Up in hees typicyl annoyingk semii-Crowlyan stylee:
History, that which travels thee macrocosm of space and time, lives inside words like an ectoplasmic hermit crab in a stolen shell. Words in turn live inside us too, like more hermit crabs, protecting themselves from discovery of their secret, and words live outside us freeranging in our culture like viruses waiting for an appropriate host. This function has be deeply investigated by W.S. Burroughs in literature, and to a lesser extent through tape and film, and collage works earlier in his career. However, looking back with an overview in 1987, this first layer and its direct symbiotic relationship with all interpretations of control and all thee interactions and permutations it exposes satisfied him and occupied him enough. Brion Gysin, "Thee Master", who largely introduced W.S.B. to this whole scenario, saw further, saw thee other layers, was not satisfied. He studied languages, western and eastern Etymology, had devastating knowledge of European migrations and interactions going back as far as records allowed. He was aware of thee process touched upon earlier. He observed first hand for 23 years thee threads of pulse and frequency generated through Moroccan music. Where thee master musician has certain phrases and sequences of sound that are thee equivalent of a spoken language and guide and instruct thee players as thee music is performed. Music that therefore literally "speaks" of primal roots and impulses of behaviour. That triggers endorphine assisted alpha-wave neurological states that inspire and reveal thee fluidity of occult physics. That all is light, which is nothing more than an idea, and that light is, within that, infinite particles exploding and racing in every direction simultaneously. A quaquaversatility. And that is thee nearest to a key we might get. And from this Brion gave us paintings and drawings which began with thee desert, with desert light. And then seemed at first glance to becoum more abstract, myriad scratchings and markings swirling until he showed you they were thee desert still, thee light itself, thee very particles of sight. And they were thee desert dwellers, thee keepers of thee music, thee speakers of frequency. Thee expressors of magick lore. Thee inhabitants of Pan, drowning in unspoken rituals.
The Alignment Game [3 in a Row, etc....]
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Friedrich Berger in his fabulous article 'From circle and square to the image of the world: a possible interpretation for some petroglyphs of merels boards' (PDF-LINK) writes about the history of the alignment game best known as Nine Men's Morris. After a comparative boardological overview of variations in game-play and board-shape in different places and times as far back as ancient Egypt (but rejected by Berger) and China follows an excusion in the game as symbol for the world. Based on rock-carvings the shape of the board, the center radiating outwards in cellular fashion is linked to mandala's, the compass and divination boards, as such once again forging a link between the origin of games and pre-historic models of virtual reality.
Merels (its other most common name) is unique in that it is the only ancient game that is played both in China and the rest of Asia, Africa and Europe in more or less the same way.
You can play it here but there are other (and hopefully stronger) versions online. The game has been 'solved' and a perfect game will always end in a draw (PDF-link).
- Posted: 20.Jan.2007.
Friedrich Berger in his fabulous article 'From circle and square to the image of the world: a possible interpretation for some petroglyphs of merels boards' (PDF-LINK) writes about the history of the alignment game best known as Nine Men's Morris. After a comparative boardological overview of variations in game-play and board-shape in different places and times as far back as ancient Egypt (but rejected by Berger) and China follows an excusion in the game as symbol for the world. Based on rock-carvings the shape of the board, the center radiating outwards in cellular fashion is linked to mandala's, the compass and divination boards, as such once again forging a link between the origin of games and pre-historic models of virtual reality.
Merels (its other most common name) is unique in that it is the only ancient game that is played both in China and the rest of Asia, Africa and Europe in more or less the same way.
You can play it here but there are other (and hopefully stronger) versions online. The game has been 'solved' and a perfect game will always end in a draw (PDF-link).
Computer Aided Game-Invention
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Found a paper (PDF) by Ingo Alfhofer about a piece of software that is supposed to quickly compute the fun of new games in terms of duration of game and the qouta of draws. This is interesting in that it reminds me of research done to quantify novelty in for instance Cellular Automata. How exactly do you define 'useful emergency' in an evolving environment of which most are in a continues state of noise, in order to allow the computer to search for it. This paper asks the same question: how can you tell if a game is fun without playing it.
The picture is unrelated (and can't recall where it came from). Or maybe not. Games are an art to be enjoyed in leisure and concentration. The high demand for novel games that is tacitly agreed to be true in AI work like this, might be a fatal mistake. We don't need more games, but more focus on the games we already have but don't really understand.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Found a paper (PDF) by Ingo Alfhofer about a piece of software that is supposed to quickly compute the fun of new games in terms of duration of game and the qouta of draws. This is interesting in that it reminds me of research done to quantify novelty in for instance Cellular Automata. How exactly do you define 'useful emergency' in an evolving environment of which most are in a continues state of noise, in order to allow the computer to search for it. This paper asks the same question: how can you tell if a game is fun without playing it.
The picture is unrelated (and can't recall where it came from). Or maybe not. Games are an art to be enjoyed in leisure and concentration. The high demand for novel games that is tacitly agreed to be true in AI work like this, might be a fatal mistake. We don't need more games, but more focus on the games we already have but don't really understand.
Play that Gibbon Song to Me
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Gibbon Science. The basic vocal behaviour of white-handed gibbons has been described already and, whenever possible, we used the same terminology. Individual vocal units are termed ‘notes’, of which seven different types can be distinguished: (1) ‘wa’, (2) ‘hoo’, (3) ‘leaning wa’, (4) ‘oo’, (5) ‘sharp wow’, (6) ‘waoo’, and (7) ‘other’. The ‘hoo’ was originally considered part of the ‘wa’ group, but we found that this class was consistently lower-pitched than ‘wa’, of lower amplitude, and usually covering a frequency range of less than 100 Hz. These three parameters were perceptually salient and they allowed us to reliably discriminate between ‘wa’ and ‘hoo’ notes.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Gibbon Science. The basic vocal behaviour of white-handed gibbons has been described already and, whenever possible, we used the same terminology. Individual vocal units are termed ‘notes’, of which seven different types can be distinguished: (1) ‘wa’, (2) ‘hoo’, (3) ‘leaning wa’, (4) ‘oo’, (5) ‘sharp wow’, (6) ‘waoo’, and (7) ‘other’. The ‘hoo’ was originally considered part of the ‘wa’ group, but we found that this class was consistently lower-pitched than ‘wa’, of lower amplitude, and usually covering a frequency range of less than 100 Hz. These three parameters were perceptually salient and they allowed us to reliably discriminate between ‘wa’ and ‘hoo’ notes.
Cyborg Chess
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Gary Kasporov is a strange, difficult and brilliant man. I was going to post about his political career, of which journalists have duly noted that his talent for strategic will be needed if he is to succeed in bringing down that KGB-freemason Putin. Chess after all is war made little.
Kasparov is also behind cyborg-chess (or advanced chess) in which computing power and human creativity form an alliance. Augmented chess, annotated board-space, the whole vocab of locative media comes back to me. One of the aims is blunder-free chess, but would this not be a fallacy, taking away the drama.
PIC.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Gary Kasporov is a strange, difficult and brilliant man. I was going to post about his political career, of which journalists have duly noted that his talent for strategic will be needed if he is to succeed in bringing down that KGB-freemason Putin. Chess after all is war made little.
Kasparov is also behind cyborg-chess (or advanced chess) in which computing power and human creativity form an alliance. Augmented chess, annotated board-space, the whole vocab of locative media comes back to me. One of the aims is blunder-free chess, but would this not be a fallacy, taking away the drama.
PIC.
Chess Books from the Archives
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
This small gallery includes pictures of chess book by Marcel Duchamp.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
This small gallery includes pictures of chess book by Marcel Duchamp.
Laplace's Demon
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
"We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at any given moment knew all of the forces that animate nature and the mutual positions of the beings that compose it, if this intellect were vast enough to submit the data to analysis, could condense into a single formula the movement of the greatest bodies of the universe and that of the lightest atom; for such an intellect nothing could be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes."
Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
"We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at any given moment knew all of the forces that animate nature and the mutual positions of the beings that compose it, if this intellect were vast enough to submit the data to analysis, could condense into a single formula the movement of the greatest bodies of the universe and that of the lightest atom; for such an intellect nothing could be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes."
Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace
FRUSTRA8TOR
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
What Santa Claus brought: apparently it is invented by a famoud Dutch football player, but it actually is a smart reinvention-repackaging of the 8-queen problem we grassroots AI buffs know as a classic AI exercise. The problem with it as as far as long-term game-play is concerned that it offers no learning curve. It just happens that there are 92 ways to solve it, but there does not exist some trick, skill or insight that you can learn to find any one of them. It is just a matter of trying them all. What this game offers are short-cuts; instead of dealing with 8 queens it has already given the position of 3 or 2 queens, making the search for the rest less hard.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
What Santa Claus brought: apparently it is invented by a famoud Dutch football player, but it actually is a smart reinvention-repackaging of the 8-queen problem we grassroots AI buffs know as a classic AI exercise. The problem with it as as far as long-term game-play is concerned that it offers no learning curve. It just happens that there are 92 ways to solve it, but there does not exist some trick, skill or insight that you can learn to find any one of them. It is just a matter of trying them all. What this game offers are short-cuts; instead of dealing with 8 queens it has already given the position of 3 or 2 queens, making the search for the rest less hard.
Draughts [The game that is played but not loved]
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Draughts or Checkers (as the Yankees call it) or Alquerque (which is its ur-version according to boardalogists) appears to have never been endowed with the special properties of chess or go. Wikipedia mentions many local variations, but has no history for it and what I find elsewhere is meagre. Unexpected as the richness of the history of board games is usually overwhelming.
Draughts to me, and some others, was always second rate in comparison to chess. The board too crowded, the game-play lacking in excitement, the mandatory jumps a weak point that prevented a large range of styles of playing, but at the same time needed because of the limited moves available.
However draughts does appear in the Libro de los Juegos a medieval book of games that is the first book (and masterpiece) in the Western literature of games.
One intersting bit I do remember is that top draughts players can usually play a reasonable game of chess while this is not true for top chess players who usually are crap in draughts.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Draughts or Checkers (as the Yankees call it) or Alquerque (which is its ur-version according to boardalogists) appears to have never been endowed with the special properties of chess or go. Wikipedia mentions many local variations, but has no history for it and what I find elsewhere is meagre. Unexpected as the richness of the history of board games is usually overwhelming.
Draughts to me, and some others, was always second rate in comparison to chess. The board too crowded, the game-play lacking in excitement, the mandatory jumps a weak point that prevented a large range of styles of playing, but at the same time needed because of the limited moves available.
However draughts does appear in the Libro de los Juegos a medieval book of games that is the first book (and masterpiece) in the Western literature of games.
One intersting bit I do remember is that top draughts players can usually play a reasonable game of chess while this is not true for top chess players who usually are crap in draughts.
The Ways of the Professional
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Lee ChangHo a Korean star Go-player, has many nicknames, the most suitable of which is "Stone Statue of Buddha" or "Stone Buddha." It reflects the fact that he does not show changes of emotions and state of mind as much as or as often as other players.
The nickname also says much about his playing style. Employing his superior calculating ability, he often concedes to an opponent's intention rather than getting into a nasty conflict. His style is peaceful and defensive. More often than not, he somehow comes out victorious without inflicting a deep wound, let alone delivering a fatal blow. Without much change in facial expression -- win or lose.
Quoting loosely, Rui Naiwei says Yi lets you do what you want yet wins over you at the end. Chang Hao, a top rated Chinese player, once said You get to know how strong Yi is only when you play him.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Lee ChangHo a Korean star Go-player, has many nicknames, the most suitable of which is "Stone Statue of Buddha" or "Stone Buddha." It reflects the fact that he does not show changes of emotions and state of mind as much as or as often as other players.
The nickname also says much about his playing style. Employing his superior calculating ability, he often concedes to an opponent's intention rather than getting into a nasty conflict. His style is peaceful and defensive. More often than not, he somehow comes out victorious without inflicting a deep wound, let alone delivering a fatal blow. Without much change in facial expression -- win or lose.
Quoting loosely, Rui Naiwei says Yi lets you do what you want yet wins over you at the end. Chang Hao, a top rated Chinese player, once said You get to know how strong Yi is only when you play him.
The Solid Form Of Language
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
Here is one sentence to write on the inside of your heart: Writing is an “outgrowth of drawing” that acquires certain formal characteristics. It comes from a review by Stephen Taylor of an essay by Robert Bringhurst, both of which I never heard of before. It comes with a great pic of Chinese Wild Cursive script and contains many well thought about passages. About all you need.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
(Click for full size)
Here is one sentence to write on the inside of your heart: Writing is an “outgrowth of drawing” that acquires certain formal characteristics. It comes from a review by Stephen Taylor of an essay by Robert Bringhurst, both of which I never heard of before. It comes with a great pic of Chinese Wild Cursive script and contains many well thought about passages. About all you need.
Binary and the Turtle
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
The link between binary code and the I Ching, is one those things I try to keep away from for now as it is a subject for much new-age dribbling and I know absolutly nothing about the I Ching, but this is too good not to mention.
"The lines of numbers in the magic square add together to make the same combination in any direction. This was said to have been inspired by unusual markings on the back of a tortoise emerging from the Yellow River in China around 4 thousand years ago."
Next you are telling Go me was brought along with a canary from the 7 seas after the deluge.
PS: It turns out that this perceived link goes back to Leibniz, the inventer of binary code.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
The link between binary code and the I Ching, is one those things I try to keep away from for now as it is a subject for much new-age dribbling and I know absolutly nothing about the I Ching, but this is too good not to mention.
"The lines of numbers in the magic square add together to make the same combination in any direction. This was said to have been inspired by unusual markings on the back of a tortoise emerging from the Yellow River in China around 4 thousand years ago."
Next you are telling Go me was brought along with a canary from the 7 seas after the deluge.
PS: It turns out that this perceived link goes back to Leibniz, the inventer of binary code.
Shatranj [Persian Chess]
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Sam Sloan in an excellent overview on the history of chess and its academic tradition refers to Shatranj as the Arabic-Persian (700-1700) phase in which chess was very near modern chess. Spreading along with the Arabic expansion the game reached the West. It was played throughout the Arabic territory, where it already begot its own literary tradition. In medieval times it was also played on an oblong board which seems not very satisfying.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Sam Sloan in an excellent overview on the history of chess and its academic tradition refers to Shatranj as the Arabic-Persian (700-1700) phase in which chess was very near modern chess. Spreading along with the Arabic expansion the game reached the West. It was played throughout the Arabic territory, where it already begot its own literary tradition. In medieval times it was also played on an oblong board which seems not very satisfying.
Wittgenstein and Chess
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
From a Wittgenstein lecture
Aphorism 31 from the Philosophical Investigations puts it like this:
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
From a Wittgenstein lecture
Words and chess pieces are analogous; knowing how to use a word is like knowing how to move a chess piece. Now how do the rules enter into playing the game? What is the difference between playing the game and aimlessly moving the pieces? I do not deny there is a difference, but I want to say that knowing how a piece is to be used is not a particular state of mind which goes on while the game goes on. The meaning of a word is to be defined by the rules for its use, not by the feeling that attaches to the words.
Aphorism 31 from the Philosophical Investigations puts it like this:
When one shews someone the king in chess and says: "This is the king", this does not tell him the use of this piece-unless he already knows the rules of the game up to this last point: the shape of the king. You could imagine his having learnt the rules of the game without ever having been strewn an actual piece. The shape of the chessman corresponds here to the sound or shape of a word.While this page writes about his language games.
One can also imagine someone's having learnt the game without ever learning or formulating rules. He might have learnt quite simple board-games first, by watching, and have progressed to more and more complicated ones. He too might be given the explanation "This is the king",-- if, for instance, he were being strewn chessmen of a shape he was not used to. This explanation again only tells him the use of the piece because, as we might say, the place for it was already prepared. Or even: we shall only say that it tells him the use, if the place is already prepared. And in this case it is so, not because the person to whom we give the explanation already knows rules, but because
Consider this further case: I am explaining chess to someone; and I begin by pointing to a chessman and saying: "This is the king; it can move like this, .... and so on." -- In this case we shall say: the words "This is the king" (or "This is called the 'king' ") are a definition only if the learner already 'knows what a piece in a game is'. That is, if he has already played other games, or has watched other people praying 'and understood'-and similar things. Further, only under these conditions will he be able to ask relevantly in the course of learning the game: "What do you call this?"--that is, this piece in a game. We may say: only someone who already knows how to do something with it can significantly
ask a name.
And we can imagine the person who is asked replying: "Settle the name yourself"-and now the one who asked would have to manage everything for himself.
in another sense he is already master of a game.
Some Coleridge
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Always a Coleridge fan I found myself re-reading the excellent and recommended Richard Holmes Biography. It turns out the first ever biography of STC was by his friend and doctor Gillman, which is good fun because it contains so much of the schemes and marginalia of the great disgressionist himself.
The pic
here is an example of STC at its best:
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
Always a Coleridge fan I found myself re-reading the excellent and recommended Richard Holmes Biography. It turns out the first ever biography of STC was by his friend and doctor Gillman, which is good fun because it contains so much of the schemes and marginalia of the great disgressionist himself.
The pic
here is an example of STC at its best:
Lecture I. Tuesday Evening, January 27, 1818. — On the manners, morals, literature, philosophy, religion, and the state of society in general, in European Christendom, from the eighth to the fifteenth century (that is, from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1400), more particularly in reference to England, France, Italy, and Germany: in other words, a portrait of the (so called) dark ages of Europe.
II. On the tales and metrical romances common, for the most part, to England, Germany, and the North of France; and on the English songs and ballads; continued to the reign of Charles the First. — A few selections will be made from the Swedish, Danish, and German languages, translated for the purpose by the Lecturer.
III. Chaucer and Spenser; of Petrarch; of Ariosto, Pulci, and Boiardo.
IV. V. and VI. On the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare. In these Lectures will be comprised the substance of Mr. Coleridge's former Courses on the same subject, enlarged and varied by subsequent study and reflection.
VII. On Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger; with the probable causes of the cessation of Dramatic 'Poetry' in England with Shirley and Otway, soon after the Restoration of Charles the Second.
VIII. Of the Life and all the Works of Cervantes, but chiefly of his Don Quixote. The Ridicule of Knight-Errantry shewn to have been but a secondary object in the mind of the Author, and not the principal Cause of the Delight which the Work continues to give in all Nations, and under all the Revolutions of Manners and Opinions.
IX. On Rabelais, Swift, and Sterne: on the Nature and Constituents of genuine Humour, and on the Distinctions of the Humorous from the Witty, the Fanciful, the Droll, the Odd, &c.
X. Of Donne, Dante, and Milton.
XI. On the Arabian Nights Entertainments, and on the romantic use of the supernatural in Poetry, and in works of fiction not poetical. On the conditions and regulations under which such Books may be employed advantageously in the earlier Periods of Education.
XII. On tales of witches, apparitions, &c. as distinguished from the magic and magicians of asiatic origin. The probable sources of the former, and of the belief in them in certain ages and classes of men. Criteria by which mistaken and exaggerated facts may be distinguished from absolute falsehood and imposture. Lastly, the causes of the terror and interest which stories of ghosts and witches inspire, in early life at least, whether believed or not.
XIII. On colour, sound, and form, in nature, as connected with Poesy: the word, 'Poesy' used as the 'generic' or class term, including poetry, music, painting, statuary, and ideal architecture, as its species. The reciprocal relations of poetry and philosophy to each other; and of both to religion, and the moral sense.
XIV. On the corruptions of the English language since the reign of Queen Anne, in our style of writing prose. A few easy rules for the attainment of a manly, unaffected, and pure language, in our genuine mother-tongue, whether for the purposes of writing, oratory, or conversation. Concluding Address."
Alexander paints
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
from The World Through Blunted Vision by Patrick Trevor-Roper. The question: in what can we learn about the origin of art in humans by studying it in other species/minds.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
from The World Through Blunted Vision by Patrick Trevor-Roper. The question: in what can we learn about the origin of art in humans by studying it in other species/minds.
Where Chess meets Psychogeography and Literature
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
The Knight's Tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once.
There are several billion solutions to the problem, of which about 122,000,000 have the knight finishing on a square from which it attacks the starting square. Such a tour is described as closed. Otherwise the tour is open. Oulipio writers such as Perec would use such paths as constraints in their work, while locally a possible link between algorithmic psychogeography is made.
A knight's tour libre would be to find the longest path that do not cross. Twixt is a game of making such links in competition on a board.
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
The Knight's Tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once.
There are several billion solutions to the problem, of which about 122,000,000 have the knight finishing on a square from which it attacks the starting square. Such a tour is described as closed. Otherwise the tour is open. Oulipio writers such as Perec would use such paths as constraints in their work, while locally a possible link between algorithmic psychogeography is made.
A knight's tour libre would be to find the longest path that do not cross. Twixt is a game of making such links in competition on a board.
Wiener and the Ghost
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
... The fable of the monkey's paw, written by W. W. Jacobs, an English Writer of the beginning of the century. A retired English workingman is sitting at his table with his wife and a friend, a returned British sergeant-major form India. The sergeant-major shows his host an amulet in the form of a dried, wizened monkey's paw. This has been endowed by an Indian holy man, who has wished to show the folly of defying fate, with the power of granting three wishes to each of three people. The soldier says he knows nothing of the first 2 wishes of the first owner, but the last one was for death. He himself, as he tells his friends, was the second owner but will not talk of the horror of his own experiences. He cats the paw into the fire, but his friend retrieves it and wishes to test its powers. His first is for 200 pound. Shortly thereafter there is a knock at the door, and an official of the company by which is his son is employed enters the room. The father learns that his son has been killed in the machinery, but that the company, without recognising any responsibility or legal obligation, wishes the father to pay the sum of 200 pound as a lotatium. The grief-stricken father makes his second wish – that his on may return – and when there is another knock at the door and it is opened, something appears which, we are not told in so many words, is the ghost of the son. The final wish is that this ghost should go away.
In all these stories the point is that the agencies of magic are literal minded; and if we ask for a boon from them, we must ask for what we are really want and not for what we think we want. The new and real agencies of the learning machine are also literal-minded. If we program a machine for winning a war, we must think well what we mean by winning. A learning machine must be programmed with experience. The only experience of a nuclear war which is not immediately catastrophic is the experience of a war game. If we are to use this experience as a guide for our procedure in a real emergency, the values of winning which we have employed in the programming games must be the same values which we hold at heart in the actual outcome of a war. We can fail in this only at our immediate, utter, and irretrievable peril. We cannot expect the machine to follow us in those prejudices and emotional compromises by which we enable ourselves to call destruction by the name of victory.
If we ask for victory and do not know what we mean by it, we shall find the ghost knocking at our door.
Norbert Wiener, On learning and Self-Reproducing Machines. (1961)
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
... The fable of the monkey's paw, written by W. W. Jacobs, an English Writer of the beginning of the century. A retired English workingman is sitting at his table with his wife and a friend, a returned British sergeant-major form India. The sergeant-major shows his host an amulet in the form of a dried, wizened monkey's paw. This has been endowed by an Indian holy man, who has wished to show the folly of defying fate, with the power of granting three wishes to each of three people. The soldier says he knows nothing of the first 2 wishes of the first owner, but the last one was for death. He himself, as he tells his friends, was the second owner but will not talk of the horror of his own experiences. He cats the paw into the fire, but his friend retrieves it and wishes to test its powers. His first is for 200 pound. Shortly thereafter there is a knock at the door, and an official of the company by which is his son is employed enters the room. The father learns that his son has been killed in the machinery, but that the company, without recognising any responsibility or legal obligation, wishes the father to pay the sum of 200 pound as a lotatium. The grief-stricken father makes his second wish – that his on may return – and when there is another knock at the door and it is opened, something appears which, we are not told in so many words, is the ghost of the son. The final wish is that this ghost should go away.
In all these stories the point is that the agencies of magic are literal minded; and if we ask for a boon from them, we must ask for what we are really want and not for what we think we want. The new and real agencies of the learning machine are also literal-minded. If we program a machine for winning a war, we must think well what we mean by winning. A learning machine must be programmed with experience. The only experience of a nuclear war which is not immediately catastrophic is the experience of a war game. If we are to use this experience as a guide for our procedure in a real emergency, the values of winning which we have employed in the programming games must be the same values which we hold at heart in the actual outcome of a war. We can fail in this only at our immediate, utter, and irretrievable peril. We cannot expect the machine to follow us in those prejudices and emotional compromises by which we enable ourselves to call destruction by the name of victory.
If we ask for victory and do not know what we mean by it, we shall find the ghost knocking at our door.
Norbert Wiener, On learning and Self-Reproducing Machines. (1961)
Excerpt from Giordano Bruno
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
... some spirits reside in more subtle matter, others in more dense matter; some reside in composite bodies, others in more simple bodies; some in observable bodies, others in unobservable bodies. As a result the operations of the soul are sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult, sometimes more weaker, sometimes well adapted, sometimes impossible. Some spirits operate within one genus, others act more efficaciously in another genus. Thus, humans possess certain operations and actions and desires not found in demons, and vice versa.
It is easy for demons to penetrate through bodies and to initiate thoughts in us. The reason for the latter is that they convey certain impressions directly to our internal senses, just as we ourselves sometimes seem to think of something suggested by the internal senses. This knowledge seems to occur according to the following comparison and analogy. If one wishes to generate a thought in someone standing at a distance, one must shout so that the thought is produced in their internal sense through their hearing it. But if the person is closer, a shout is not needed, only a quieter voice. And if a person is immediately nearby, a whisper in the ear suffices. But demons have no need for ears or voices or whispers because they penetrate into the internal sense directly, as we said. Thus, they send not only dreams and voices and visions to be heard and seen, but also certain thoughts which are hardly noticed by some. They communicate truths sometimes through enigmas, and sometimes through sense impressions. Sometimes they may even deceive. Not all things are granted to everyone, although they always happen in definite sequence and order.
Not all spirits and demons have the same level of existence, power and knowledge. Indeed we know that there are many more species of them then there are sensible things.
....
The role of the imagination is to receive images derived from the senses and to preserve, combine and divide them. This happens in two ways. First,it occurs by the free creative choice of the person who imagines, for example poets, painters, story writers and all who combine images in some organised way. Second, it occurs without such deliberate choice. The latter also happens in two ways: either through some other cause which chooses and selects, or through an external agent. The latter, again, is twofold. Sometimes the agent is mediated, as when a man uses sounds or appearances to bring about stimulations through the eyes or ears. And sometimes the agent is unmediated, as when a spirit, rational soul or demon acts on the imagination of someone asleep or awake, to produce internal images in such a way that something seems to have been apprehended by the external senses.
Giordano Bruno from 'On Magic' (1588) in Cause, Principle and Unity (Cambridge 1998)
- Posted: 19.Jan.2007.
... some spirits reside in more subtle matter, others in more dense matter; some reside in composite bodies, others in more simple bodies; some in observable bodies, others in unobservable bodies. As a result the operations of the soul are sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult, sometimes more weaker, sometimes well adapted, sometimes impossible. Some spirits operate within one genus, others act more efficaciously in another genus. Thus, humans possess certain operations and actions and desires not found in demons, and vice versa.
It is easy for demons to penetrate through bodies and to initiate thoughts in us. The reason for the latter is that they convey certain impressions directly to our internal senses, just as we ourselves sometimes seem to think of something suggested by the internal senses. This knowledge seems to occur according to the following comparison and analogy. If one wishes to generate a thought in someone standing at a distance, one must shout so that the thought is produced in their internal sense through their hearing it. But if the person is closer, a shout is not needed, only a quieter voice. And if a person is immediately nearby, a whisper in the ear suffices. But demons have no need for ears or voices or whispers because they penetrate into the internal sense directly, as we said. Thus, they send not only dreams and voices and visions to be heard and seen, but also certain thoughts which are hardly noticed by some. They communicate truths sometimes through enigmas, and sometimes through sense impressions. Sometimes they may even deceive. Not all things are granted to everyone, although they always happen in definite sequence and order.
Not all spirits and demons have the same level of existence, power and knowledge. Indeed we know that there are many more species of them then there are sensible things.
....
The role of the imagination is to receive images derived from the senses and to preserve, combine and divide them. This happens in two ways. First,it occurs by the free creative choice of the person who imagines, for example poets, painters, story writers and all who combine images in some organised way. Second, it occurs without such deliberate choice. The latter also happens in two ways: either through some other cause which chooses and selects, or through an external agent. The latter, again, is twofold. Sometimes the agent is mediated, as when a man uses sounds or appearances to bring about stimulations through the eyes or ears. And sometimes the agent is unmediated, as when a spirit, rational soul or demon acts on the imagination of someone asleep or awake, to produce internal images in such a way that something seems to have been apprehended by the external senses.
Giordano Bruno from 'On Magic' (1588) in Cause, Principle and Unity (Cambridge 1998)
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