Hoelder1in's Mindfile
Der Name ist gefälscht, ich habe nie Hölderlin geheissen.
the poet Hölderlin upon seeing an edition
of his own poetry
The namesake of this page is German 18th century poet Friedrich Hölderlin. While it is almost impossible to translate poetry, I wanted to share with you these two translations of his poems. They are among the best I could find and I like them almost as much as the original.
In case anyone got interested, here are links to Hölderlin's complete works and lots of German literature at Projekt Gutenberg-DE.
This is my first attempt at a blog-style web page format - please bare with me...
What do I have in mind with this page? Not sure yet - I guess this may turn out to be a collection of loosely connected thoughts and ideas, prompted by whatever I read or think about, whatever pops up in my head, and which would otherwise have been lost, had I not typed it on this page - ideally, over time this may develop into something in the spirit of Howard Bloom's Omnologist Manifesto.
Ok, so this isn't really a blog: the entries aren't dated and I mostly write them from top to bottom (and occasionally edit old ones). But I seem to be comfortable with this format, so this is how it is going to be. Also, you may have noticed that my HTML style is kind of minimalistic. I guess I don't want to procrastinate even more by thinking about fancy formatting tricks...
DISCLAIMER: I will be writing about various subject areas I am not an expert on and some of it may even be somewhat tongue-in-cheek (whatever pops up in my head). It is for you, dear reader, to make up your mind whether any of this makes sense. Read at your own risk!
This is to inform all Hölderlin lovers of planet Earth
that, as of Friday, January, 14th 2005, a copy of the poem
Hyperions Schicksalslied rests on the surface of
Saturn's moon Titan,
the most distant celestial body on which humankind has yet left it's mark.
Background: Before the launch of the
Cassini-Huygens space probe on October, 15th 1997, the
European Space Agency (ESA) asked the
public to submit short messages which were to be
copied onto a CD, to be carried to the surface of Titan by the Huygens
space probe.
I submitted Hyperions Schicksalslied as one of 80,000
messages (nr. 4532) that were sent in. The last line of the poem,
Jahr lang ins Ungewisse hinab, seems to be particularly fitting, given
Huygens' long and perilous journey.
Your IP address: 38.107.179.241; your browser and OS: CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html).
So little time, so many things to know...
What is dark energy? - What is dark matter? - How fine-tuned is the Universe? - What is the nature of time? - How rare are habitable planets? - Can we understand consciousness better? - Is information at the heart of physics? - Is life ubiquitous? - How should we interpret quantum mechanics? - Whence the constants of nature? - Can quantum mechanics be reconciled with gravity? - Are there other universes? - What happened before the Big Bang?
I copied these questions from the home page of the FQXi Web site and I want to point everyone, who, like me, can't help but think about such things, to the often boldly speculative but very accessible articles and essays on their community Web site.
So where did all the rest of this page go? Click on any of the years on the left to read older entries of this blog.
I had this interesting discussion on physicalism, reductionism, sub/supervenience and weak and strong emergence, the other day, forcing me to think a bit more clearly where I stand on these issues. So I ordered David Chalmer's book, just to be able to explain in clearer terms what I actually mean when I say I don't agree with him... ;)
Added a link to the Mathematical Universe hypothesis Wikipedia page on the right - it discusses several variants of the hypothesis as well as counter arguments, most notably those due to Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Regarding the relevance of Gödel's theorems for physics, I found parts of the paper Gödel and Physics by John D. Barrows quite useful. A very special take on kind of the same subject (though Gödel is actually never mentioned) can be found in Greg Egan's stories Luminous and Dark Integers. Wow, I still need to wrap my mind around this some more...
Shortly after the so far undistinquished student Isaac Newton finished his degree in the year 1665, Cambridge University temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great Plage. Returning from Cambridge to his home in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, his private studies in the subsequent year allowed him to develop his theories on calculus, optics, motion, and gravity.
After the patent office clerk Albert Einstein published his papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, Special Relativity, and the equivalence of matter and energy within months of each other in the year 1905, he was promoted from 3rd class expert to 2nd class expert in his day job at the patent office of Bern. It took him four more years till he was awarded his first academic position.
Makes one wonder about the role of academic institutions in fostering progress in science - will the next game-changing insights in physics also be the work of an outsider? In that case, we may have to be patient. There were 239 years between Newton's and Einstein's discoveries and the next one of a similar magnitude may not happen before the middle of the next century.
Day 5:
But how did you survive?
Just like you. One miserable day at a time.
Day 19:
I see you again in a place where no shadows fall.
President Sheridan to Ambassador Delenn, when Babylon 5 was under attack and he wanted her to go to a lifepod (s5e4). I watched B5 a lot in the last weeks to distract myself and I completely lost my composure when I heard that sentence.
Preparing lots of rose petals:
If only I could, I'd burn up a sun just to say goodbye.
...slightly misquoting the Tenth Doctor in his final farewell scene with Rose Tyler.
Good night my love, the brightest star in my sky.
Another B5 quote (Sheridan to Delenn in the final episode).
In a place where no shadows fall
I will meet you again,
Below the moon and the stars
Where it all began.
Erinnerst Du Dich unserer ungestörten Stunden, wo wir und nur wir um einander waren? Das war Triumpf! Beide so frei und stolz und wach und blühend und glänzend an Seel und Herz und Aug und Angesicht, und beide so in himmlischem Frieden neben einander! Ich hab es damals schon geahndet und gesagt: man könnte wohl die Welt durchwandern und fände es schwerlich wieder so. Und täglich fühl ich das ernster.
Friedrich Hölderlin, Brief an Susette Gontard
Hinter meinen Augen stehen Wasser, die muss ich alle weinen.
My ophtalmologist told me that my eyes are way too dry to determine the strength of my new glasses. She prescribed me eye drops and asked me to come again in one or two weeks. Seems I ran out of tears for now.
Good-by, good-by. Good-by, Grover's Corners ... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking ... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths ... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.
from Our Town by Thornton Wilder as quoted by Kurt Vonnegut in Timequake.
I can do nothing but go on, dive deeper, deeper, till my lungs are filled with the light of the stars.
S. would have liked that sentence very much. It's such a pity that she never got to meet the person who wrote it.
At what was in New York City 2:27 p.m. on February 13th of that year, the Universe suffered a crisis in self-confidence. Should it go on expanding indefinitely? What was the point?
Kurt Vonnegut in Timequake
Just in case you wanted to see another (and a bit older) part of me as in
the photo at the top of this page - well, and my new glasses, which I
finally got. It's actually a part of my new passport photo.
Hope those eyes will manage to look somewhat
optimistically into the future, S. would have wanted that (Kopf hoch,
as she would have said). To make the point, I am already - in early December -
adding the grey bar, below:
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe
ACTA: The new threat to the net
To all Members of the EU Parliament:
As concerned global citizens, we call on you to stand for a free and open
internet and reject the ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA), which would destroy it. The internet is a crucial tool
for people around the world to exchange ideas and promote democracy.
We urge you to show true global leadership and protect our rights.
Read/post comments or send email to hoelder1770 at googlemail dot com