12/23/00
Sound. Language. Music. Communication via the sound is very advanced,
capiable of transmitting complex ideas through abstract media. Music can
overlay words and phrases with eachother, include sounds that remind of
certain places or things, and music that triggers emotional response. The
density of aural communication is so great as to even describe a place, an
environment itself that one can picture oneself within.
How limited then our visual communication is in comparason. The written
word, simple, linear, straightforward. One idea at a time, taken in
sequence. Where is the asymetrical poetry of music? Written poetry must
still be inputed sequentially, then decoded into the abstract idea.
Art approaches this as a media, being able to use symbolic imagery on
canvas in any configuration. Let the eye hunt around, find the images and
decode them in any order, presenting a more complete abstract idea in a
single visual image. But still, mostly limited to one image. For visual
communication to resemble aural, one must be immersed in it. It must fill
the entire field of vision.
Writing has great difficulty approaching this. However, as an application
of communication, writing has the most to offer in implementation of
advanced communication. Encode the discrete ideas within abstract high
bandwidth format. Phonic letters simply will not do it. Only pictoral
languages such as Egyptian, Mayan or Oriental use this idea well. In
Chinese, each "letter" is a complete complex idea with many layers and
interpretations. Strung together they communicate discretely. But used
individually, hung about on their own, they offer the possibility of
immersive communication. Poetry with each word, not each line, stanza, or
poem as a whole.
It is no wonder Chinese is so difficult to learn. It is a high level form
of communication. But worse, I believe the images used in the characters
are less intuitive than they could be. It is difficult to learn to
distinguish the elements, though one can of course learn to recognize any
pattern with time.
Such a language could be reengineered with a better knowledge of intuitive
visual pattern matching. Some images and patterns are easier for humnans
to recognize, such as the elements of a face, basic geometric designs, and
certain animal forms. One could draw upon this base of intuitive symbology
to form a symbolic pictoral language that could be layered into pictograms
much like the form of Chinese. Elements would be designed so that any
could stack with eachother and be visually distinguished. Perhaps even use
color to add an additional dimention. Color afterall, being the visual
analog to music. Written language would carry emotion, much as song. It
would be sung rather than spoken. Music, Art and Language would merge into
one form of communication that speaks fully of expierence.
A picture is worth a thousand words. When words are pictures, they carry a
thousand ideas. Leave 1s and 0s for the computers. Let us indulge in the
beauty of shared abstract thought.
12/23/00
Energy falls from the sky, from the distant furnace of the sun. Fields of
solar panels collect light in its many waveforms. Chemical reactions
whithin generate electricity. Wells tapped by wires, the power flows away
to be collected and distributed elsewhere.
In the shade of the panels, blades of grass grab what light they can.
Photosynthesis converts light to energy. Energy transmutes one chemical to
another, building cells and roots. The blade grows as it reaches,
combining energy above with materials below to build life.
The cow munches lazily in the field. Grass is chewed and broken down to
its basic elements. Sunlight trapped within the cells is released, and
once again materials are combined to build protiens as energy is trapped
again in a new form. Muscle, tissue and bone that move the beast
laboriously to another field, to graze some more.
The herd is disturbed, a hunter's spear disrupts the delicate system that
converts grass into the creature that grazes. The body is broken down,
meat taken and cooked, distrubuted to the members of the tribe. All share
in the feast, that muscle is broken down to protien to make muscle again,
that the tribe may build shelter and pottery to hold grains and more meat.
Wires draw power collected from the solar cells, carried away to a distant
network of conduits. The roots of the city carry sunlight into the
shelters, where 2 slits in the wall await attention. A plug snaps into
place, the circuit is complete, and nutrients flow again into the game
console. The meat is entertained by the dancing lights, twitching fingers
fueled by a double cheesburger.