This is an allegory. It distorts a lot what it intends to allude.<\/p>\n
There was an article the other day about new documents uncovered in King’s College. The papers are by Newton and describe a dream he had. In this dream he discovered the key to the alchemist’s stone and used the stone to gaze back in time, to see who had built the stone hedges near his house.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He saw primitive sapiens, nasty brutish and short. Suddenly a spinning city, covered in lights and spires and towers of every shape and colour came down from the sky. A strange creature came out of the craft and said to a primitive man nearby, (somehow Newton could understand their words), “I want to give you a gift.” And he gave the man a book.<\/em><\/p>\n “You, over there,” the entity pointed to Newton.<\/em><\/p>\n “How can you see me? I am looking through a magic portal!”, Newton did not know that he was also dreaming.<\/em><\/p>\n “No matter. Let me explain what this book is, since you’re so obviously desperate to know.<\/em><\/p>\n “It is a\/like piece of technology. It creates ideas in those that read it. Its vaults and gears and pipes are semiotic.<\/em><\/p>\n “With language one can think of numbers (then sums, then equations, then theorems). With language, one can think of thoughts (then concepts, then relationships, then paradigms). With language, one can think of one’s actions (then intentions, then ethos, then will). This book is a language within a language, and contains the former in the latter.”<\/em><\/p>\n “But these apes are too stupid to understand those things!” explained Newton.<\/em><\/p>\n “You underestimate me, small ape. This technology unfolds itself.”<\/em><\/p>\n The documents end there. Personally, I doubt their legitimacy. After all, if Newton was so smart that he could invent an alchemist’s stone, then why hasn’t it had any effect on the world?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is an allegory. It distorts a lot what it intends to allude. There was an article the other day about new documents uncovered in King’s College. The papers are by Newton and describe a dream he had. In this dream he discovered the key to the alchemist’s stone and used the stone to gaze […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[98,159,90,16,114],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-bashful-hope","category-all-posts","category-blog-posts","category-science","category-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1624,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/12\/13\/for-the-complexed-v2\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":0},"title":"For the complexed (v2)","author":"Pala","date":"December 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This essay appears in two versions, the first documented as a draft in Shai's A BASHFUL HOPE blog (see\u00a0For the Complexed (v1)) and another version found as a Google Document. The two versions have a similar structure but somewhat different content and the version showing here has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kisspng-black-and-white-monochrome-grey-divider-5ab8b367372326.6136383115220539912259-300x15.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":816,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/09\/16\/an-attempt-at-seeing-creation\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":1},"title":"An attempt at seeing creation","author":"Pala","date":"September 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am small and the world is great and beyond my comprehension right now. This at least I can say without doubt. But here is a dream. Once there was a fish in a fishbowl. There were pebbles on the ground, water all around, a toy castle, and a filtration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":607,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/12\/12\/for-the-complexed\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":2},"title":"For the complexed (v1)","author":"Pala","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This essay was not made available (published) in the original blog and is visibly incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 12\/12\/2016. This essay appears in two versions, the first documented here, and the second, For the Complexed (v2), recovered from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Bashful Hope"","block_context":{"text":"A Bashful Hope","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/blog-posts\/a-bashful-hope\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1740,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/12\/04\/hide-and-seek-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":3},"title":"Hide and Seek","author":"Pala","date":"December 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Hide and Seek\u00a0is the\u00a0third episode\u00a0of the franchisee show\u00a0Stargate Atlantis[1]. It first aired in July 2004. Spoilers?\u00a0Yes. Synopsis: An energy-feeding\u00a0shadow\u00a0is freed and a shield stone is found. They get rid of the shadow and can\u2019t use the stone any more.\u00a0Fin. DVD Commentary Instructions: (1) Print off this commentary. (2) Hire a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/11\/21\/heart-of-stone\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":4},"title":"Heart of Stone","author":"pastfarpoint","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write this, I am also experimenting with possibilities: what will I write, what will it mean, what is its purpose? If the tone of these questions sounds excessively ponderous, then that is only a side-effect of what I wonder, here and more generally. I am noticing that although\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":192,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/05\/02\/a-rock-and-a-hard-place-tng\/","url_meta":{"origin":410,"position":5},"title":"A Rock and a Hard Place (TNG)","author":"pastfarpoint","date":"May 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the tenth numbered TNG novels, and also Peter David's second. Riker's off to inspect some terraforming project, permitting for the plot to quickly bifurcate: on the colony Paradise we follow Riker as he catches up with some old friends from his Alaska days, while on the Enterprise various\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Detail from \"A Rock and Hard Place\" cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/a_rock_and_a_hard_place_cover_cropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-6C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}