More Back of the Brain
And I had lunch with a guy the other day whose brother is a TV sports game-caller. Those guys call the game, naming the names, describing the plays, while there is a production booth in one ear and a computer screen in front of them, channelling "color" - stats, what's on deck, whatever. The game-caller assimilates all that and comes out (one hopes) with a coherent narrative.
Can't see a computer doing that, either. Just too much humanity involved...
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Back in the Back of the Brain
Yesterday, just for grins, while driving, I tried voicing a detective story. Just to see if I could.
And it came out. Unrehearsed, unplanned, with a plot line and characters - I left off as the new female client was telling me about this creepy guy who had made up lies about her in high school, had reappeared in her life, was showing up, without a word, wherever she went, and just looking at her...
OK can't say it's very original, and it may even be unlistenably bad, but the point is: where does that come from? I was driving. There was nothing in it recognizable from my past, at least nothing conscious... wait. Maybe that's really the point. The unconscious is what puts together a narrative, just as it does in dreams.
I think we explain all this on the basis that there is some kind of meaning behind the story. We tell a story because we are trying to make a point. But I am not persuaded that that's how the unconscious operates - I think the meaning comes later, we retell our stories and impose ideas by jiggering the plot. The unconscious just streams stuff out. It's synapses firing. It comes out in words because we know words. And it isn't gibberish because there is some kind of superfast mental process saying yeah-now-what-happens-here-is-a-choice-I'll-follow-it playing out in the background as the words are coming out - a logic, to that extent.
The good news is that they will never make a machine that can do that. The old query was whether androids dream. Maybe so, but I don't see how they ever will just riff, free-form, make up stories from the air.
Yesterday, just for grins, while driving, I tried voicing a detective story. Just to see if I could.
And it came out. Unrehearsed, unplanned, with a plot line and characters - I left off as the new female client was telling me about this creepy guy who had made up lies about her in high school, had reappeared in her life, was showing up, without a word, wherever she went, and just looking at her...
OK can't say it's very original, and it may even be unlistenably bad, but the point is: where does that come from? I was driving. There was nothing in it recognizable from my past, at least nothing conscious... wait. Maybe that's really the point. The unconscious is what puts together a narrative, just as it does in dreams.
I think we explain all this on the basis that there is some kind of meaning behind the story. We tell a story because we are trying to make a point. But I am not persuaded that that's how the unconscious operates - I think the meaning comes later, we retell our stories and impose ideas by jiggering the plot. The unconscious just streams stuff out. It's synapses firing. It comes out in words because we know words. And it isn't gibberish because there is some kind of superfast mental process saying yeah-now-what-happens-here-is-a-choice-I'll-follow-it playing out in the background as the words are coming out - a logic, to that extent.
The good news is that they will never make a machine that can do that. The old query was whether androids dream. Maybe so, but I don't see how they ever will just riff, free-form, make up stories from the air.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Keeping the Plate Full
OK last week we went to Sundance to see our kid's husband's premiere, then I quit my old firm, then I joined my new firm, then over the weekend we went and brought home a brand-new Westie:
And next weekend I am scheduled to take up beekeeping. Plus the band's got another gig coming.
And maybe take up bridge.
And biking season will be back when this Winter finally ends.
One thing I'm starting to learn: don't wait. Live life. Once in a while, when you can, get a puppy.
OK last week we went to Sundance to see our kid's husband's premiere, then I quit my old firm, then I joined my new firm, then over the weekend we went and brought home a brand-new Westie:
And next weekend I am scheduled to take up beekeeping. Plus the band's got another gig coming.
And maybe take up bridge.
And biking season will be back when this Winter finally ends.
One thing I'm starting to learn: don't wait. Live life. Once in a while, when you can, get a puppy.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Two Days Past Groundhog's Day
And so, if he sees his shadow, there's more Winter to come, and he goes back underground. If not, he stays out because winter is over. Just not good science. There sure was no sun that day, it was close to a blizzard, and today the temperature is about 5 degrees and the snow is firmly packed.
But it's an ancient holiday, the marker of mid-season, like its cousins Halloween and May Day. It is about breaking light and lengthening days, a confirmation that Spring will come. I hope he did go back underground, it's freezing out there, but I'm on board.
And so, if he sees his shadow, there's more Winter to come, and he goes back underground. If not, he stays out because winter is over. Just not good science. There sure was no sun that day, it was close to a blizzard, and today the temperature is about 5 degrees and the snow is firmly packed.
But it's an ancient holiday, the marker of mid-season, like its cousins Halloween and May Day. It is about breaking light and lengthening days, a confirmation that Spring will come. I hope he did go back underground, it's freezing out there, but I'm on board.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Land Ho
I left my old firm yesterday and joined a new one today.
The story of how I got here is long and occasionally fierce. I can't think how to dress it up in metaphor, so I won't, and I won't tell it straight, so that's that. Maybe there will be later musings on lessons learned and vengeance. But nothing really, at least nothing for now.
Today what matters is that I have sailed into Plymouth, the Indians are friendly, and under the watchful eye of the Big Guy the landscape looks well lit and promising.
I left my old firm yesterday and joined a new one today.
The story of how I got here is long and occasionally fierce. I can't think how to dress it up in metaphor, so I won't, and I won't tell it straight, so that's that. Maybe there will be later musings on lessons learned and vengeance. But nothing really, at least nothing for now.
Today what matters is that I have sailed into Plymouth, the Indians are friendly, and under the watchful eye of the Big Guy the landscape looks well lit and promising.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Among the Stars
Everyone should have the kind of close encounters with movie stars that we had at Sundance. Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, and Simon Baker were among the cast, and were all beautiful and talented and probably extremely wealthy. But at a gathering after the premiere they were also genuine and perfectly willing to engage in friendly, normal (if you consider the movie business normal) conversations with us, the in-laws. It was probably a testimony to JC and our daughter, whom they had befriended. But it also challenged the idea that fame and fortune inevitably corrupt. These were just our kids' colleagues. It was as if we had gone to their office party.
I happen to the think the movie, Margin Call, is spectacular. Of course I'm biased. But I do think this, and to hell with anyone who disagrees.
Everyone should have the kind of close encounters with movie stars that we had at Sundance. Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, and Simon Baker were among the cast, and were all beautiful and talented and probably extremely wealthy. But at a gathering after the premiere they were also genuine and perfectly willing to engage in friendly, normal (if you consider the movie business normal) conversations with us, the in-laws. It was probably a testimony to JC and our daughter, whom they had befriended. But it also challenged the idea that fame and fortune inevitably corrupt. These were just our kids' colleagues. It was as if we had gone to their office party.
I happen to the think the movie, Margin Call, is spectacular. Of course I'm biased. But I do think this, and to hell with anyone who disagrees.
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