The Nostalgia of the Infinite

The Nostalgia of the Infinite by Giorgio de Chirico is the most famous example of the tower theme which appears in many of de Chirico’s works. Nostalgia implies a never ending landscape despite being confined to a narrow canvas and employing only sparse, simple elements. De Chirico does a masterful job invoking infinity by creating a vision that feels like it extends far beyond the corners of the canvas. He uses several techniques to create this illusion:

Scale: the human figures are swallowed up by the environment. They are ants compared to the tower. The arched building in foreground looms even larger--note its size relative to the human figures. Even their shadows overwhelm them.

Shadows: The arched building in the foreground casts a crisp shadow covering nearly the bottom third of the painting. Its shape and scale suggests that the arch is not a mere freestanding structure but part of a much bigger building that we are only seeing a corner of. Also note that behind the arch we can see a shadow suggesting a third structure to the right of the frame.

Perspective: the dramatic perspective in Nostalgia is impossible. It is wrong but it is wrong in a specific way: the perspective mimics what we see from a moving train. The horizontal axis has been truncated, leading to dramatic perspective shifts as we move from left to right. We are seeing only a brief glimpse of this tower as we pass through a bigger journey.

Time: The architecture invokes antiquity. The plain walls, the columns and arches all harken back to the past. However the fresh flags and human visitors suggest that this scene is not an ancient ruin but a living site. This landscape extends forward and backward in time, beyond the moment we are seeing it in.

Mystery: The composition of Nostalgia is simultaneously simple and perplexing. It resembles a lighthouse on dry land. It is situated in the middle of a desert. Whatever purpose the building serves, it cannot be glimpsed through its few, spare windows. Furthermore, de Chirico makes subtle use of surrealist elements. The tower casts no shadow.  Five flags mark its four corners. The sky is a shade of bluish green that is not quite impossible, but entirely unlikely. These elements suggest that this landscapes hold secrets beyond what meets the eye.

‘Sometimes the horizon is defined by a wall behind which rises the noise of a disappearing train. The whole nostalgia of the infinite is revealed to us behind the geometrical precision of the square. We experience the most unforgettable movements when certain aspects of the world whose existence we completely ignore, suddenly confront us with the revelation of mysteries lying all the time within our reach and which we cannot see because we are too short-sighted, and cannot feel because our senses are inadequately developed. Their dead voices speak to us from near-by, but they sound like voices from another planet.’ - Giorgio de Chirico

Stray notes:

• De Chirico's use of color is quite striking
• Nostalgia undoubtedly inspired Fumito Ueda's ICO cover [link]. Ueda's works likewise revel in suggesting never ending landscapes from small segments thereof.
• In line with his quote, de Chorizo really does like hiding the infinite behind a wall [link] (both land AND sea hiding back there?)

The Evolution of Information

(Post is largely inspired by http://goo.gl/orOPV , a lecture by David Weinberger.]

Many species utilize communication, but none has achieved success in it quite like humans. Vocal and visual signals are used to communicate information by many species, from birds to mammals, and other species use pheromones or chemical means of communication. But humans are unique in that they've developed language. Language allows us to communicate information in far greater depth and breadth than other such means found elsewhere in nature. I can't say for sure, but I think it's safe to say that verbal communication, probably our first medium of language, has initiated our species' digression from the rest of nature. Aside from our unique physical features (many of which actually leave us maladapted to survival), our capacity to communicate is a distinct natural feature that has made us the dominant species on Earth.

Means of communication have underwent several phases. Language enables us to share the mental impressions, concepts, ideas, or abstractions--that is, information. It was first employed (or, first employed well), presumably, through the use of voice. However, this suffered from the limitations inherent therein. Voice is limited in that sounds are transient and reach only those within certain proximity. With voice, the dissemination and preservation of information is wholly dependent on the memory of minds and the bodies that that carry them. Information was thus subject to the follies of mind and body.

Humans then developed written language. It may have first been by inscriptions on cave walls, on stones, leaves, or scrolls. This greatly expanded the limitations of language from when it's sole medium was voice. With written language, information got permanence. But it was still subject to the proximity limitations inherent in the medium; only those within proximity of these physical media could benefit from the information (e.g., stone tablets). It was probably difficult to "write" or inscribe language onto media, and thus still bound by the difficulty to communicate or distribute information in this manner.

Paper is arguably the greatest invention for the furtherance of language and its power as a tool to communicate information. Paper is lightweight and it is easy to inscribe information onto.  Tons of books were created, but it was not SO easy to inscribe so as to render mass production feasible. This made duplication troublesome, meaning the dissemination of information was bound by these limitations.

Think about how, at each of these critical shifts in the methods information was stored and transmitted, the technologies have transformed how humans live. We don't know much about what happened before written language, given that verbal information is quick to dissipate. But with the invention of written language came the birth of history, which allow us to look back and see the consequence of these technologies. I think these technologies let knowledge grow, which I consider to be information synthesized or processed by our understanding so as to be useful. Written language has greatly promoted science, math, art; I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that books have allowed the human species to go beyond this planet. Books have helped knowledge to persist and pass from generation to generation. The printing press has made this knowledge available to the masses, and has been a necessary component in all the things modern society enjoys.

Still, with books, we had to go to the library or bookstore, find the book with the information we're looking for, and obtain it. Then, if we needed more information, we needed to go back to get another book. If the library or bookstore didn't carry the book with the information you want, you were out of luck. If nobody wrote/published/distributed a book that had the information you wanted, you were out of luck. If the INFORMATION wasn't worthy of the funds to publish and distribute books (another limitation is that physical media is relatively expensive), that information never reached the minds that might have enjoyed it. Basically, it is time consuming work and you can only get as much information as books you can obtain. The physical limitations of books as means of communicating information is apparent.

I think we're at another critical moment in the evolution of information. We've finally invented a medium of language that subverts the problems of proximity and transience. We have the Internet (telecommunications in the past solved the problem of proximity--telephones and telegraph and radio and whatnot--but were transient). Information is no longer carried by a static medium but a dynamic one. It lives in the deliberate fluctuations of energy, constituting the bits that carry all of the information we could ever want. We now have the Internet through which we can access information in one physical location, without having to chase after books. Information has transcended the finite nature of paper media, and it is as infinite as information can be and readily accessible for the most spontaneous of inquiries (well not exactly all that accessible, but Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and so on are all working to help us easily find relevant information).

If the effects of language, written language, and paper are apparent to us, I think the implications of the Internet are nothing short of awesome. Knowledge has contributed to the creation of devices for its own proliferation--in that way, knowledge is self-serving--but we enjoy the collateral benefits. Books, radio, television, and the Internet are all such devices. Ultimately though, knowledge means nothing without us humans, but we humans owe our successes to information.

Truly, the adage "mind over matter" is appropriate when considering how information has empowered us. It's what helped us build shelter, fight disease, create order in society, and learn about the cosmos and beyond. I believe that the Internet, with the new powers it confers to information, will be the reason why future generations will consider humans of the 21st century as primitive creatures. And I believe such observations will be apt. I hope more people will respect this technology in light of the power of information, what it has done for our species, and what it can now do. I think it's important to understand what the Internet does, and we can't be shortsighted. The Internet isn't about technology companies or media companies. It isn't about social media companies or e-commerce companies. The Internet is about humanity, and the course of our fate has forever changed in the face of this invention.

TL;DR - Look what happened since the invention of paper as the medium for information. Think about what the Internet can do as a medium for information. Knowledge will take on new meaning.

Guess Who's Back

The beauty of Watson.

Watson has recently taken the spotlight by defeating two of the best Jeopardy! players around. The media is buzzing with predictions of a future before seen only in science fiction. Visions of Hal 9000, Vickie (from I, Robot), or even Data (Star Trek) have showered the press and the blogosphere. Certainly, Watson incites such science fiction imaginations. But I think Watson could have more profound implications in our immediate future. I've fallen behind on my reading, and while I can't say that I've seen all of the articles written about Watson, I have yet to come across the implication that, in my opinion, really qualifies Watson as an enormous leap in technology.

Put aside of what Watson was designed to do; that is, play Jeopardy!. Instead, think about how it does it and what it entails. Watson can parse natural language into the computational equivalent (see question 3 here). It can understand the dominant form of human communication and, with it, do whatever it is a computer does. The punchline, as it were, is this: Watson demonstrates the possibility of a new kind of interface with a computer. No longer do we need to know the language of computers in order to interact with them; instead, computers can understand our language. It (he) accepts input in the language on which we operate. And in doing so, it enables the possibility that computer literacy is equal to language proficiency. This shift in interaction, in my opinion, is what makes Watson so revolutionary.

Perhaps Watson is not yet ready to help us fully realize this idea. But for someone who doesn't quite understand the complicated algorithms involved in Watson's programming, I think this is fascinating and inspiring. By creating Watson, IBM has put in our reach what was before only imagined. The next step is to expand Watson's knowledge of words. Then porting this new interface to programs that already exist may be all that's required to expand its utility. I'm sure this process will not be easy, but what I've seen Watson do on Jeopardy! gives me hope that it's not impossible.

Technicalities

The Gentle Genie

A New Beginning