Thursday, July 29, 2010

Flatland (English)

Manuelo Fraggan is tremendously fascinated by the book Flatland:

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "a square",[1] Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture.

However, the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions; in a foreword to one of the many publications of the novella, noted science writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions."[2] As such, the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics, and computer science students.

The story is about a two-dimensional world referred to as Flatland which is occupied by geometric figures, line-segments (females) and regular polygons with various numbers of sides. The narrator is a humble Square, a member of the social caste of gentlemen and professionals in a society of geometric figures, who guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions.

The square has a dream about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland) which is inhabited by "lustrous points." He attempts to convince the realm's ignorant monarch of a second dimension but finds that it is essentially impossible to make him see outside of his eternally straight line.

The narrator is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland for himself. This sphere, who remains nameless, visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland of the existence of Spaceland.

From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension. After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste).

After the Square's mind is opened to new dimensions, he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth (and fifth, and sixth ...) spatial dimension. Offended by this presumption and incapable of comprehending other dimensions, the Sphere returns his student to Flatland in disgrace.

He then has a dream in which the Sphere visits him again, this time to introduce him to Pointland. The point (sole inhabitant, monarch, and universe in one) perceives any attempt at communicating with him as simply being a thought originating in his own mind (cf. Solipsism):

'You see,' said my Teacher, 'how little your words have done. So far as the Monarch understand them at all, he accepts them as his own – for he cannot conceive of any other except himself – and plumes himself upon the variety of Its Thought as an instance of creative Power. Let us leave this God of Pointland to the ignorant fruition of his omnipresence and omniscience: nothing that you or I can do can rescue him from his self-satisfaction.'[3]
— the Sphere

The Square recognizes the connection between the ignorance of the monarchs of Pointland and Lineland with his own (and the Sphere's) previous ignorance of the existence of other, higher dimensions.

Once returned to Flatland, the Square finds it difficult to convince anyone of Spaceland's existence, especially after official decrees are announced – anyone preaching the lies of three dimensions will be imprisoned (or executed, depending on caste). Eventually the Square himself is imprisoned for just this reason.

Men are portrayed as polygons whose social class is directly proportional to the number of sides they have; therefore, triangles, having only three sides, are at the bottom of the social ladder and are considered generally unintelligent, while the Priests are composed of multi-sided polygons whose shapes approximate a circle, which is considered to be the "perfect" shape.

On the other hand, females consist only of lines and are required by law to sway back and forth and sound a "peace-cry" as they walk, because when a line is coming towards an observer in a 2-D world, their body appears merely as a point. The Square talks of accounts where men have been killed (both by accident and on purpose) by being stabbed by women. This explains the need for separate doors for women and men in buildings. Also, colors in Flatland were banned when lower classes painted themselves to appear to be higher ordered.

In the world of Flatland, classes are distinguished using the "Art of Hearing", the "Art of Feeling" and the "Art of Sight Recognition". Classes can be distinguished by the sound of one's voice, but the lower classes have more developed vocal organs, enabling them to feign the voice of a polygon or even a circle. Feeling, practised by the lower classes and women, determines the configuration of a person by feeling one of their angles.

The "Art of Sight Recognition", practised by the upper classes, is aided by "Fog", which allows an observer to determine the depth of an object. With this, polygons with sharp angles relative to the observer will fade out more rapidly than polygons with more gradual angles. The population of Flatland can "evolve" through the Law of Nature, which states: "a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on."

This rule is not the case when dealing with isosceles triangles (Soldiers and Workmen), for their evolution occurs through eventually achieving the status of an equilateral triangle, removing them from serfdom. The smallest angle of an isosceles triangle gains thirty arcminutes (half a degree) each generation. Additionally, the rule does not seem to apply to many-sided polygons; the sons of several hundred-sided polygons will often develop fifty or more sides more than their parents.

The isosceles triangles with the smallest angle are the soldier class (if they weren't criminals), while the triangles closer to being regular are menial laborers. An equilateral Triangle is a member of the craftsman class. Squares and Pentagons are the "gentlemen" class, as doctors, lawyers, and other professions. Hexagons are the lowest rank of nobility, all the way up to (near) circles, who make up the priest class. The higher order polygons have much less of a chance of producing sons, preventing flatland from being overcrowded with noblemen.

Regular polygons were considered in isolation until chapter 7 of the book when the issue of irregularity, or physical deformity, became considered. In a two dimensional world a regular polygon can be identified by a single angle and/or vertex. In order to maintain social cohesion, irregularity is to be abhorred, with moral irregularity and criminality cited, "by some" (in the book), as inevitable additional deformities, a sentiment concurred by the author.

If the error of deviation is above a stated amount the irregular faces euthanasia; if below, he becomes the lowest rank of civil servant. In this study of what was to later to become known as eugenics, an irregular polygon should not be destroyed at birth, but rather allowed to develop in order to see if its irregularity could be “cured” or reduced to within society's level of tolerance. If the deformity could not be corrected then the irregular should be “painlessly and mercifully consumed.”[4]

In the book, the three-dimensional Sphere has the ability to stand inches away from a Flatlander and observe them without being seen, to remove Flatland objects from closed containers and to teleport them via the third dimension without traversing the space in between and is capable of seeing and touching the inside and outside of everything in the two-dimensional universe. At one instance, the Sphere gently pokes the narrator's intestines and launches him into three dimensions as proof of his powers.

Flatland (Roman) från Wikipedia

Manuelo Fraggan är mycket fascinerad av romanen: Flatland.
Flatland (Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions) är en science fictionroman från 1884 skriven av den engelske rektorn och författaren Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926).

Flatland är en satir över det viktorianska samhället och den första science fictionroman som rör sig med begreppet dimensioner, något bland andra science fictionförfattaren Isaac Asimov påpekat. [1] Romanen är mycket läst bland naturvetenskapligt inriktade studenter i engelskspråkiga länder. Den har filmatiserats flera gånger och inspirerat till flera uppföljare av andra författare.

Handlingen utspelar sig i Flatland, en tvådimensionell värld. Berättaren, en enkel kvadrat (lågadelns och yrkesmännens kast) förklarar livet i två dimensioner för läsaren. Kvadraten drömmer om ett besök i en endimensonell värld (Lineland, "streckland") och försöker förgäves övertyga Flatlands monark om dess existens. Berättaren besöks sedan av en tredimensionell sfär, en existens han inte kan begripa förrän han själv sett den tredimensionella världen Spaceland ("Rymdland"). Sfären visar sig besöka Flatland en gång vart tusende år, med syfte att hitta en apostel som kan få flatländarna att förstå och erkänna en tredimensionell värld. Spacelands innevånare vet att Flatlands ledare känner till sfärens existens, men dessa tystar alla innevånare som får kännedom om sfären. Efter att kvadraten fått veta detta får han uppleva hur de som bevittnat sfärens budskap fängslas eller avrättas.

Efter att ha fått insikt om den tredje dimensionen försöker kvadraten få sfären att tänka sig en fjärde dimension (och en femte och en sjätte) men förolämpad av såna antaganden och oförmögen att föreställa sig något sådant för sfären bryskt tillbaka kvadraten till Flatland.

Kvadraten drömmer sedan om att sfären besöker honom igen, nu för att visa honom Pointland ("Punktland"). Punkten, Pointlands enda innevånare, kung och hela universum, uppfattar alla försök att kommunicera med honom som uppkomna i hans egna tankar och går därför inte att nå.

Kvadraten inser nu likheten medan Pointlands kungs oförmåga att alls förstå andra dimensioner, Flatlands innevånares oförmåga att förstå Lineland och hans egen och sfärens tidigare oförmåga att förstå andra dimensioner. Tillbaka i Flatland är det dock svårt för honom att övertyga någon om Spacelands existens och till slut fängslas han av Flatlands myndigheter.

I Flatland beskrivs män som månghörningar vars sociala status beror av antalet sidor de har. Trianglarna är den lägsta kasten medan prästerskapet, den högsta kasten, har former med så många sidor att de närmar sig cirkeln, den perfekta formen i Flatland. Kvinnor består bara av linjer och måste föra ett särskilt ljud samt svänga fram och tillbaka med kroppen när de går för att inte uppfattas som enbart punkter. Färger är förbjudna för att inte de lägre kasterna ska kunna framhäva sig med dem. En månghörnings barn kan dock få fler hörn än han själv och på så vis stiga i status jämfört med sina föräldrar. När bokens sfär besöker Flatland får den "övernaturliga" egenskaper som att kunna se och passera rakt igenom de tvådimensionella varelser som sfären är osynlig för.

De komplicerade sociala strukturerna i Flatland har uppfattas som en satir över klassamhället i det viktorianska England på författarens egen tid.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Retro-futurism

Retrofuturism är en estetisk stil som bygger på svunna tiders uppfattningar om framtiden, särskilt förutspådda estetiska, sociala och tekniska strömningar som inte kommit att förverkligas. Retrofuturismen kan sägas vara en specialisering av science fiction, kombinerad med nostalgi. Men de nostalgiskt betraktade framtidsskildringarna behöver inte vara fiktion, utan omfattar även vetenskapliga förutsägelser, prognoser och framtidsstudier. Termen myntades 1983 av den amerkanske konstnären Lloyd Dunn (född 1957), som även utgav tidskriften Retrofuturism (1988-1993).

Vanliga teman i retrofuturism är flygande farkoster och rymdfart.

Den kulturella genren steampunk, som utgår från industriella revolutionens ångkraftsbaserade teknologi, kan räknas som retro-futurism.

Steampunk (Svenska)

Steampunk, ångpunk, (ordet utvecklat ur cyberpunk) en typ av science fiction och estetik som grundar sig på ångmaskiner, luftballonger, mekaniska matematikmaskiner och annan teknik från industriella revolutionen, men före andra industriella revolutionen. Karaktäristiskt för steampunk är teman och material som synlig mekanik, kugghjul och mässing. Mikroelektronik och förbränningsmotorer är ovanliga. Steampunk utspelar sig vanligtvis i en viktoriansk miljö men genren har förgrenat sig och inkluderar nu alla tänkbara tidåldrar och historiska miljöer till exempel medeltiden, bronsåldern och antiken.

En besläktad genre är dieselpunk som har stilistik förebild i den andra industriella revolutionen och digitala revolutionen.

Steampunkgenren är inspirerad av tidiga scientific romance-författare som Jules Verne, H G Wells och Mark Twain.

Steampunkgenren som vi känner den idag skapades under 1980-talet som en alternativhistorisk genre av författare såsom Tim Powers, K.W. Jeter, William Gibson och Ronald Clark. Termen myntades av K.W. Jeter då han sökte ett samlingsnamn för den typ av romaner som han och hans kollegor skrev. Dessa författare skrev i samma anda som Jules Verne och H G Wells och skapade ett fiktivt förflutet. En av de mest hyllade steampunkromanerna, K.W. Jeters Morlock Night, är till exempel en uppföljare till H G Wells Tidsmaskinen.

Steampunk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" for such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage's Analytical engine).

Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fan base and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less dystopian than cyberpunk.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk