March 12, 2007
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A Short Chain of Lives
It was a beautiful summer* night here in San Francisco, so what better to do now than ponder the shape of history?
Here is a hint: It is something like a dime sitting on top of the Empire State Building.
And here is a treat: There is a commenter on Daily Kos who was born in 1929! Oh, how I pledge to prowl the holo-grid when I’m 78…
*I know, weird, right?
Posted March 12, 2007 at 11:05 | Comments (5) | Permasnark
File under: Briefly Noted, Gleeful Miscellany, Society/Culture
File under: Briefly Noted, Gleeful Miscellany, Society/Culture
Comments
"If patterns of ones and zeros were 'like' patterns of human lives and death, if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeros, then what kind of creature would be represented by a long string of lives and deaths?"
---Thomas Pynchon
... or whatever shape the holo-grid takes when you're 79! That's what you need to pledge, actually -- to roll with the punches. (Which may be what you're saying, above, in which case, I need my afternoon coffee, and now.)
Yes, definitely meant roll with the punches. And of course it will be something crazy -- not just a super-internet but some almost unimaginable othernet.
Then again, maybe there's something to be said for rocking it like Donald Knuth and giving up on email. Er, holo-mail. Whatever.
Where did pynchon say what he did in your quote? Was it him in one of his few remarks or one of his characters?
You're kidding, right? I've *never* read Pynchon coherently enough to remember the context. I feel proud and amazed that I am ableto glean any lasting effect at all.
But I think this was Pynchon, writing the inner thoughts of a character in Vineland, which amazed me but which I didn't finish.