Saturday, February 13, 2010

[Yasmin_discussions] Around Simulation

Hi all, in order to add to the simulations of matter, space and
behaviour (and other forms of simulation), that are emerging in the
discussion, I'd like to refer to the text /The Garden of Forking Paths/
written by Jorge Luis Borges, that relates, among other issues, to the
simulation of time:

"/A labyrinth of symbols," he corrected. "An invisible labyrinth of time
[...] The Garden of Forking Paths is an incomplete, but not false, image
of the universe as Ts'ui Pên conceived it. In contrast to Newton and
Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time.
He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net
of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which
approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one
another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not
exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in
others I, and not you; in others, both of us. In the present one, which
a favorable fate has granted me, you have arrived at my house; in
another, while crossing the garden, you found me dead; in still another,
I utter these same words, but I am a mistake, a ghost"./

And hyperlinking my thoughts to another realm, I remember that also
animals display processes of simulation of behavior and response to
simulation. Some dogs imitate the behavior of their owners and, as
monkeys, are aware of their own images on mirrors, not to talk about
parrots that reproduce the sounds the hear in a non-mechanical,
meaningful way.

Cristina Miranda de Almeida
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