Narration of the inception of my fairytale fantasy - Here's the launch of another podcast campaign with another electronic voice, enjoy!
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Monday, March 16, 2020
Monday, January 20, 2020
Sunday, December 1, 2019
The Words of Emily Logan Podcast No 1, In Between School Performances & Excitement!
For the multimedia lovers I created my first podcast introducing an excerpt from The Words Of Emily Logan, my recently self-published book at the global internet! Get a taste by a single voice narration of my romantic drama!
The Words of Emily Logan has gone into distribution and is already up in Amazon as a paperback and ebook as well! Get the book here: https://amzn.to/2kC2oS3
The Words of Emily Logan has gone into distribution and is already up in Amazon as a paperback and ebook as well! Get the book here: https://amzn.to/2kC2oS3
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Discovery Questions, The Words of Emily Logan
These questions and many more to come are inquiries and exploratory topics regarding my romantic drama. Emily and Joel are a unique duet. The main question is, can they do it when they have to?
Pay attention to the fact that Emily and Joel when the plot starts are 16 year old Americans with whom I created a plot and described characters based on the dominant American culture. The screenplay on the other hand will be distributed internationally for the global audience.
Just pay attention at the book summary below and stay tuned for the book!
During their teenage years at high school, Joel and Emily fall in love.
But the two young people’s relationship will be tested, as they’re driven to different paths by following their educational and artistic pursuits.
At the age of thirty two, Joel and his family will be tested at all possible levels. His father is at the hospital, Joel is unemployed and family relationships are at risk.
At Christmas parties with mutual friends, Joel and Emily find each other again. Caught up in a stream of memories and words, Emily is caring, interested, helpful, understanding and loving towards Joel. In the end, it is proved that destiny has a way of catching up with the man and changing his way of thinking.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
The 101 on Content Syndication: Who, What, Where, When & Why
Creating great content is, unfortunately, just half the battle for
small businesses. Because Google has put such a huge weight on quality
content both on your site as well as on other sites across the web (and
rightfully so), there is a lot of competition. You need to make sure
you’re not only writing great content, but people are actually seeing
this content amongst all of the choices a SERP offers. SEO is a huge
part of this step, comprised of many different methods such as social
media promotion, link building, content optimization, and many more.
One interesting tactic that is a little bit less popular: Content syndication. Syndicating your content is a great way to earn visibility on other platforms without having to put in any extra hours to write a great article. It’s too easy.
The What
Syndicating your content means you’re publishing either a piece of content you’ve written or a video you’ve created onto a different website. Your content will be published on this website for others to share and comment; however it is imperative that you earn a link back to where the content was originally posted. You’re not allowing someone else to take credit for your work; you are simply allowing your content to be published with credit given back.
It is always better to offer a unique article to another website, but this is a quick way of getting your name out there in front of relevant audiences. While you do run the risk that someone might not read the part of the page where it says “this article was originally publish by…” it’s usually obvious and so you get that link back to your website as well as that visibility.
There are many different websites that actually focus on primarily syndicated content, so these are usually a good place to start. You can oftentimes just upload your RSS feed so that the website is alerted that you’ve published something on your site. Once the site checks out your content, they can choose to publish it and give back credit or do nothing with it at all. Where you can find these opportunities depends completely on your industry. Social Media Today is one of my favorite websites that works this way, and Reddit is one of the most popular for many different kinds of industries.
Other syndication options include paid as well as non-paid. When it comes to non-paid, it’s all about going out there and talking with blogs in your industry to see if they are interested in syndicating your content or getting an RSS feed (much the same way you talk with editors about a guest article). Paid options include websites that will syndicate your content for you on some very major sites like CNN or Time. Outbrain and Taboola are two of the most popular.
The When
It’s best to syndicate your content once you are very established on your own website. Publish on your website first so that you can iron out any issues you have with your goals or the tone you are striving toward. You need to make sure that you’re able to publish quality content frequently. Once you have this mastered, go try to syndicate your content and get the word out about your great website.
You should put your main content manager in charge of syndicating content. Be sure to just have one person in charge so that you do not have a lot of people trying to syndicate your content in the same place. This looks unprofessional and could confuse the websites considering a syndication partnership.
First, it is possible that another site could outrank you on a Google SERP. This would bring more clicks to the other website as opposed to your website. While you’re still getting that visibility, you might be losing out on your end goal. It’s usually a good idea to syndicate your content and then remove your RSS feed after you get a little bit of visibility before you lose out on any more clicks.
Second, you really need to be careful when it comes to duplicate content. You don’t want to syndicate your content with too many sites because Google doesn’t like to see a huge influx of links. This could get you penalized with Penguin, not to mention the duplicate content penalty. It’s important Google knows you are the source of your content through canonical tags and internal links in the article.
Have you syndicated the content on your website in the past? What did you find to be the most beneficial about this method? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/101-content-syndication/68590/
One interesting tactic that is a little bit less popular: Content syndication. Syndicating your content is a great way to earn visibility on other platforms without having to put in any extra hours to write a great article. It’s too easy.
Content Syndication Basics for Your Small Business
Of course whenever you’re going to try any new content strategy, it’s important to understand all of the basics as well as some of the curveballs you might be thrown. Below explains the who, what, where, when, and why of content syndication (not necessarily in that order!):The What
Syndicating your content means you’re publishing either a piece of content you’ve written or a video you’ve created onto a different website. Your content will be published on this website for others to share and comment; however it is imperative that you earn a link back to where the content was originally posted. You’re not allowing someone else to take credit for your work; you are simply allowing your content to be published with credit given back.
The Why
It is always better to offer a unique article to another website, but this is a quick way of getting your name out there in front of relevant audiences. While you do run the risk that someone might not read the part of the page where it says “this article was originally publish by…” it’s usually obvious and so you get that link back to your website as well as that visibility.
The Where
There are many different websites that actually focus on primarily syndicated content, so these are usually a good place to start. You can oftentimes just upload your RSS feed so that the website is alerted that you’ve published something on your site. Once the site checks out your content, they can choose to publish it and give back credit or do nothing with it at all. Where you can find these opportunities depends completely on your industry. Social Media Today is one of my favorite websites that works this way, and Reddit is one of the most popular for many different kinds of industries.
Other syndication options include paid as well as non-paid. When it comes to non-paid, it’s all about going out there and talking with blogs in your industry to see if they are interested in syndicating your content or getting an RSS feed (much the same way you talk with editors about a guest article). Paid options include websites that will syndicate your content for you on some very major sites like CNN or Time. Outbrain and Taboola are two of the most popular.
The When
It’s best to syndicate your content once you are very established on your own website. Publish on your website first so that you can iron out any issues you have with your goals or the tone you are striving toward. You need to make sure that you’re able to publish quality content frequently. Once you have this mastered, go try to syndicate your content and get the word out about your great website.
The Who
You should put your main content manager in charge of syndicating content. Be sure to just have one person in charge so that you do not have a lot of people trying to syndicate your content in the same place. This looks unprofessional and could confuse the websites considering a syndication partnership.
Content Syndication and SEO Considerations
As discussed above, syndicating your content is great for your SEO because it helps you earn links as well as visibility without having to write an entirely new and unique article. It saves you time and helps you establish ongoing relationships with different sites (which isn’t always easy to do when you’re guest blogging). There are, however a few problems that come along with syndicating content.First, it is possible that another site could outrank you on a Google SERP. This would bring more clicks to the other website as opposed to your website. While you’re still getting that visibility, you might be losing out on your end goal. It’s usually a good idea to syndicate your content and then remove your RSS feed after you get a little bit of visibility before you lose out on any more clicks.
Second, you really need to be careful when it comes to duplicate content. You don’t want to syndicate your content with too many sites because Google doesn’t like to see a huge influx of links. This could get you penalized with Penguin, not to mention the duplicate content penalty. It’s important Google knows you are the source of your content through canonical tags and internal links in the article.
Have you syndicated the content on your website in the past? What did you find to be the most beneficial about this method? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/101-content-syndication/68590/
Friday, April 21, 2017
"We never open a website without a strategy"
Website Strategy & Consulting
We’ll Help You Develop a Clear Website Strategy to Identify Where You Want to Be and How You’re Going to Get There
Website Strategy & Consulting
We’ll work with both your company’s key stakeholders and target
audience to help you develop a clear website strategy that will allow
you to better:
- Identify your Key Goals & Objectives
- Understand your Target Audience’s Needs & Wants
- Identify your Road Blocks
- Assess your Competition
- Assess your Marketing Campaigns
- Identify & Measure the Correct Web Site Success Metrics (i.e. KPIs)
- Track & Improve your Lead and Sales Generation (i.e. Conversion Rate)
- Benchmark & Measure your Progress toward Meeting your Goals
Digital Analytics & Key Performance Indicators
Assumptions are very dangerous and can lead to disastrous results on
the web. Gathering accurate (quantitative and qualitative) data allows
us to validate or dispel assumptions of how people use your site. Using
focus groups, surveys, web and campaign metrics as well as usability
studies, we can develop a holistic understanding of how people use your
web site. Then we combine our experience and current industry research
with this data to determine the proper course of action to intelligently
make incremental changes to your web site. Next we analyze the key
performance indicators (see common KPIs below) to ensure that we have in
fact improved the site and are trending in a positive direction.
Some common Key Performance Indicators based on web site type include:
- Ecommerce Web Sites – Overall Purchase Conversion, Average Order Size, Items Per Order
- Lead Generation Web Sites – Overall Conversion, Registration Process Dropouts, Conversion of leads into actual customers
- Customer Service Web Sites – Percent of support touches served online, average cost per touch, drivers to other support methods
- Advertising Based Content Sites – Visits per week, page views per visit, advertising click ratio, recency and frequency
- Subscription Based Content Sites – Conversion of non-subscribers to subscribers, active subscriber base, average subscription length
- Branding Web Sites – Page views per visit, average time spent on site, visits per visitor over a certain period of time
Usability Reviews
Too often websites are never properly tested before they launch. Are
you too close to your site to notice the problems you have? It often
takes a fresh set of eyes from an unbiased perspective to notice the
small roadblocks that keep your site from reaching its optimal
performance. We regularly perform in-depth usability reviews that cover a
site’s design, messaging, pathways/information architecture, usability
and usefulness in order to provide specific recommendations that can
greatly enhance the usability and effectiveness of a site without a
complete redesign.
Site Improvement Checklists
As part of any strategic or consulting service we provide easy to
follow checklists. The action items can then be performed by your
current internal or external web design team.
Key Tactics
- Website Strategy Development
- Marketing Strategy
- Usability Strategy/Heuristic Evaluation
- Project Definition
- Prototyping/Wireframing
- Business Process Automation Analysis
- Analytics & Reporting
- A/B Testing & Multivariate Testing
- Personas & Audience Segmentation
- Contingency Design
- Short & Long Term Planning
- User Centric Messaging/Copy Writing
- Site Management/Maintenance
Source: http://www.blastam.com/web-site-strategy
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Data Driven - Experience, by Econsultancy
Many of today’s businesses find themselves overwhelmed by data.
They are dealing with multiple data sets which are often collected separately, run in silos, and with huge levels of duplication.
This data is mined on an ad-hoc basis by communications teams operating under antiquated marketing strategies, leading to loss of patience from consumers, as well as a lack of growth and differentiation in the business.
Marketers are struggling to find the signal among the noise.
Resolving this mess requires a significant shift in both data and marketing strategy.
Unlocking the right data and making it available across your organisation gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers in a more meaningful way than ever before.
It allows websites to move away from a one-size fits all, homepage-led website, to an individually tailored experience that responds directly to an individual’s specific circumstances, regardless of their point of entry.
The shift to data driven experiences is easier to make than you might think.
The technological changes required are time consuming, but relatively straight forward. Surprisingly, the greatest challenge is not in new technology, but in the shift of mindset and business processes required to make the most of the data on hand.
It’s not enough to think of customers any more, you must understand your customers as individuals.
But individual identity is a complicated, ever-evolving thing.
Identities are personal, social, public and private all at once. They frequently resist definition, and although they seem knowable at first glance, they break apart with further inspection.
Getting to know someone well takes time and effort. Whenever a first meeting takes place, a lot of questions are asked to understand who this new person is and how best to relate to them.
Social context provides many cues for us, but it is only as a relationship deepens and shared experiences are created that the nuance of individual personalities reveal themselves to us.
In our personal lives, our identities coalesce around our names. We might know something about who John is, but if we work with him, do we really know who he is when he's at home, at a bar with his friends, or what’s really going on in his mind?
The digital world gives us a new way in which we can play with, explore, and share our identities.
The main way we do this is by way of our active digital identities. These are distinguished from passive digital identities in that we control what we put out there.
We actively display our digital identity to the world in a variety of ways:
Examples of passive online identities include:
It is critical that a relationship offers the right level of intimacy for the known identity of the individual. Knowing too little will result in wasted effort and misguided messages, knowing too much risks alienation.
In many respects, the level of individual understanding which is achievable through data is directly analogous to the information perceived when a customer walks into a store.
The shopkeeper profiles the individual. They may know them from previous visits, sees who they spend time with and may even count them as a friend.
Now imagine that the same shopkeeper followed you out of their store and down the street. And that they then stood outside of your house with a pair of binoculars, looking in through your windows, or went door to door asking your friends and neighbours about your interests, likes and dislikes.
You’d find that more than a little creepy. In fact you’d probably call the police.
The difference here is between active interrogation and passive observation. Observing how an individual engages with your product and acting accordingly is very different to actively mining their complete data set.
A permissive, transparent approach is needed, where by you take steps towards a more complete understanding of the individual, only on the back of deeper user engagement.
Once you have established the right approach to data collection and use, you will need to ensure real time availability.
This means real time data processing and an approach to infrastructure that places both content and user data on an equal footing at the heart of your business.
If you can do this, you’ll be in a position to deliver on the promise of data driven experiences.
Πηγή: http://goo.gl/N7tkVp
They are dealing with multiple data sets which are often collected separately, run in silos, and with huge levels of duplication.
This data is mined on an ad-hoc basis by communications teams operating under antiquated marketing strategies, leading to loss of patience from consumers, as well as a lack of growth and differentiation in the business.
Marketers are struggling to find the signal among the noise.
Resolving this mess requires a significant shift in both data and marketing strategy.
Unlocking the right data and making it available across your organisation gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers in a more meaningful way than ever before.
It allows websites to move away from a one-size fits all, homepage-led website, to an individually tailored experience that responds directly to an individual’s specific circumstances, regardless of their point of entry.
The shift to data driven experiences is easier to make than you might think.
The technological changes required are time consuming, but relatively straight forward. Surprisingly, the greatest challenge is not in new technology, but in the shift of mindset and business processes required to make the most of the data on hand.
Think people, not users
It’s not enough to think of customers any more, you must understand your customers as individuals.
But individual identity is a complicated, ever-evolving thing.
Identities are personal, social, public and private all at once. They frequently resist definition, and although they seem knowable at first glance, they break apart with further inspection.
Getting to know someone well takes time and effort. Whenever a first meeting takes place, a lot of questions are asked to understand who this new person is and how best to relate to them.
Social context provides many cues for us, but it is only as a relationship deepens and shared experiences are created that the nuance of individual personalities reveal themselves to us.
In our personal lives, our identities coalesce around our names. We might know something about who John is, but if we work with him, do we really know who he is when he's at home, at a bar with his friends, or what’s really going on in his mind?
The digital world gives us a new way in which we can play with, explore, and share our identities.
The main way we do this is by way of our active digital identities. These are distinguished from passive digital identities in that we control what we put out there.
We actively display our digital identity to the world in a variety of ways:
- Our profile and posts on social networks such as Facebook
- Our tweets
- Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn
- Blogs
- The photos we choose to share on photo-sharing sites such as Instagram
- Selfies
- The fantasy identities we take up in gaming and virtual realities
Examples of passive online identities include:
- The results that arise alongside our names in Google searches
- Photographs and comments that others post about us on social networks
- Information about us (accurate or not) that is collected and compiled by online aggregators
- Information about us that is placed online without our knowledge or consent
- Personal information outside our control that appears online in a variety of ways
Active interrogation and passive observation
It is critical that a relationship offers the right level of intimacy for the known identity of the individual. Knowing too little will result in wasted effort and misguided messages, knowing too much risks alienation.
In many respects, the level of individual understanding which is achievable through data is directly analogous to the information perceived when a customer walks into a store.
The shopkeeper profiles the individual. They may know them from previous visits, sees who they spend time with and may even count them as a friend.
Now imagine that the same shopkeeper followed you out of their store and down the street. And that they then stood outside of your house with a pair of binoculars, looking in through your windows, or went door to door asking your friends and neighbours about your interests, likes and dislikes.
You’d find that more than a little creepy. In fact you’d probably call the police.
The difference here is between active interrogation and passive observation. Observing how an individual engages with your product and acting accordingly is very different to actively mining their complete data set.
A permissive, transparent approach is needed, where by you take steps towards a more complete understanding of the individual, only on the back of deeper user engagement.
Once you have established the right approach to data collection and use, you will need to ensure real time availability.
This means real time data processing and an approach to infrastructure that places both content and user data on an equal footing at the heart of your business.
If you can do this, you’ll be in a position to deliver on the promise of data driven experiences.
Πηγή: http://goo.gl/N7tkVp
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Το φεγγάρι του Αυγούστου, από τη συγγραφέα Όλγα Ρουβήμ
Κείμενο από το βιβλίο Σταγόνες Στιγμής της Όλγας Ρουβήμ
Η ώρα είναι 8 το βράδυ. Δειλά ξεπροβάλλει το φεγγάρι από το μακρινό λόφο. Με κρυφοκοιτάζει. Σαν να θέλει να μου κάνει έκπληξη, αυτό σκέφτηκα. Μα μόλις δω το χρώμα του καλύτερα, καταλαβαίνω ότι απλά ντρέπεται. Πόσο κοκκίνισε! Τι υπέροχο χρώμα!
Κάνω πως δεν το βλέπω κι αυτό ξεθαρρεύει και ανεβαίνει πιο ψηλά. Του κλείνω το μάτι, σταματώ ό,τι κάνω και του αφιερώνομαι. Κάθομαι στο πεζούλι, ανάμεσα στη νερατζιά και τη μανταρινιά. Μερικά κλαδιά φαίνεται αναρωτήθηκαν για το άρωμα των μαλλιών μου και τα πήραν με τα δάκτυλά τους. Τα ξεμπλέκω προσεκτικά και κοιτάζουμε μαζί το φεγγάρι. Φαίνεται πως και τα δέντρα χαίρονται απόψε!
Η πανσέληνος του Αυγούστου! Με λαχτάρα την περίμενα. Είναι η πιο όμορφη της χρονιάς! Κοιτάζω το φεγγάρι και το καμαρώνω. Όμορφο το συναίσθημα της σιγουριάς. Να ξέρεις ότι και φέτος θα είναι όμορφο, όπως ήταν και πέρσι, όπως ήταν και πριν χίλια χρόνια, όπως θα 'ναι και του χρόνου και σ' έναν αιώνα από σήμερα.
Κάθομαι άνετα και το παρατηρώ. Φαίνεται τόσο κοντά μου. Σε μια στιγμή, ξεχνιέμαι κι απλώνω τα χέρια να το φτάσω. Στ' αλήθεια νόμιζα ότι μπορούσα να το αγκαλιάσω. Θα το 'θελα πολύ!
Αν είχε σχήμα και χρώμα η αγάπη, θα ήταν έτσι!
Ένα φεγγάρι, ολοστρόγγυλο, σφαιρικό! Μ' ένα χρώμα που δεν είναι ούτε κόκκινο, ούτε κίτρινο, ούτε πορτοκαλί. Με μία μορφή που μοιάζει σε πρόσωπο με μελαγχολικά μάτια και ευτυχισμένο χαμόγελο. Μ' ένα δέρμα που σου στέλνει τη ζεστασιά του, χωρίς να σε αγγίζει.
Να σου πω ένα μυστικό; Ήθελα να νιώσω μόνο δική μου την αγάπη του φεγγαριού απόψε. Μα δεν την άντεξα! Είναι τόση πολλή, που δεν χωρά σε καμιά μοναξιά, όσο απέραντη κι αν είναι. Έτσι, άρχισα να τη σκορπώ, να τη μοιράζομαι, να την πολλαπλασιάζω. Με λόγια, χάδια, αγκαλιές, μηνύματα σε κινητά κι ευχές. Να σκεφτείς ότι άφησα για λίγο την ομορφιά της αποψινής νύχτας κι έτρεξα στον υπολογιστή μου για να τη μοιραστώ και μαζί σου. Ναι, μην απορείς! Μ' εσένα που θα μπεις στον κόπο να διαβάσεις το κείμενό μου. Είμαι σίγουρη ότι κάποια στιγμή απόψε, αν κοιτάξεις στον ουρανό, θα δεις το φεγγάρι και θα νιώσεις την αγάπη που φέρνει. Ίσως νιώσεις και τη δική μου καρδιά να χτυπά, σαν μια άγνωστη, κρυφή μελωδία που το μυαλό δεν μπορεί να καθορίσει.
Σε αφήνω τώρα, πάω να χαρώ τη φεγγαράδα, πριν περάσει η νύχτα. Θέλω να νιώσω ακόμα λίγο την αγάπη που δίνεται σ' εμάς απλόχερα.
Εύχομαι κάποτε η καρδιά μου να πάρει μόνιμα το χρώμα του φεγγαριού και να μοιάσω με τη φύση.
Η ώρα είναι 8 το βράδυ. Δειλά ξεπροβάλλει το φεγγάρι από το μακρινό λόφο. Με κρυφοκοιτάζει. Σαν να θέλει να μου κάνει έκπληξη, αυτό σκέφτηκα. Μα μόλις δω το χρώμα του καλύτερα, καταλαβαίνω ότι απλά ντρέπεται. Πόσο κοκκίνισε! Τι υπέροχο χρώμα!
Κάνω πως δεν το βλέπω κι αυτό ξεθαρρεύει και ανεβαίνει πιο ψηλά. Του κλείνω το μάτι, σταματώ ό,τι κάνω και του αφιερώνομαι. Κάθομαι στο πεζούλι, ανάμεσα στη νερατζιά και τη μανταρινιά. Μερικά κλαδιά φαίνεται αναρωτήθηκαν για το άρωμα των μαλλιών μου και τα πήραν με τα δάκτυλά τους. Τα ξεμπλέκω προσεκτικά και κοιτάζουμε μαζί το φεγγάρι. Φαίνεται πως και τα δέντρα χαίρονται απόψε!
Η πανσέληνος του Αυγούστου! Με λαχτάρα την περίμενα. Είναι η πιο όμορφη της χρονιάς! Κοιτάζω το φεγγάρι και το καμαρώνω. Όμορφο το συναίσθημα της σιγουριάς. Να ξέρεις ότι και φέτος θα είναι όμορφο, όπως ήταν και πέρσι, όπως ήταν και πριν χίλια χρόνια, όπως θα 'ναι και του χρόνου και σ' έναν αιώνα από σήμερα.
Κάθομαι άνετα και το παρατηρώ. Φαίνεται τόσο κοντά μου. Σε μια στιγμή, ξεχνιέμαι κι απλώνω τα χέρια να το φτάσω. Στ' αλήθεια νόμιζα ότι μπορούσα να το αγκαλιάσω. Θα το 'θελα πολύ!
Αν είχε σχήμα και χρώμα η αγάπη, θα ήταν έτσι!
Ένα φεγγάρι, ολοστρόγγυλο, σφαιρικό! Μ' ένα χρώμα που δεν είναι ούτε κόκκινο, ούτε κίτρινο, ούτε πορτοκαλί. Με μία μορφή που μοιάζει σε πρόσωπο με μελαγχολικά μάτια και ευτυχισμένο χαμόγελο. Μ' ένα δέρμα που σου στέλνει τη ζεστασιά του, χωρίς να σε αγγίζει.
Να σου πω ένα μυστικό; Ήθελα να νιώσω μόνο δική μου την αγάπη του φεγγαριού απόψε. Μα δεν την άντεξα! Είναι τόση πολλή, που δεν χωρά σε καμιά μοναξιά, όσο απέραντη κι αν είναι. Έτσι, άρχισα να τη σκορπώ, να τη μοιράζομαι, να την πολλαπλασιάζω. Με λόγια, χάδια, αγκαλιές, μηνύματα σε κινητά κι ευχές. Να σκεφτείς ότι άφησα για λίγο την ομορφιά της αποψινής νύχτας κι έτρεξα στον υπολογιστή μου για να τη μοιραστώ και μαζί σου. Ναι, μην απορείς! Μ' εσένα που θα μπεις στον κόπο να διαβάσεις το κείμενό μου. Είμαι σίγουρη ότι κάποια στιγμή απόψε, αν κοιτάξεις στον ουρανό, θα δεις το φεγγάρι και θα νιώσεις την αγάπη που φέρνει. Ίσως νιώσεις και τη δική μου καρδιά να χτυπά, σαν μια άγνωστη, κρυφή μελωδία που το μυαλό δεν μπορεί να καθορίσει.
Σε αφήνω τώρα, πάω να χαρώ τη φεγγαράδα, πριν περάσει η νύχτα. Θέλω να νιώσω ακόμα λίγο την αγάπη που δίνεται σ' εμάς απλόχερα.
Εύχομαι κάποτε η καρδιά μου να πάρει μόνιμα το χρώμα του φεγγαριού και να μοιάσω με τη φύση.
Θες λίγο μέλι; από τη συγγραφέα Όλγα Ρουβήμ
Κείμενο από το βιβλίο Σταγόνες Στιγμής της Όλγας Ρουβήμ
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Είναι πολύ γλυκό και νόστιμο.
Σ' εσένα μιλάω. Μη με κοιτάς παραξενεμένα.
Ωραία! Ευτυχώς που σταμάτησες να περπατάς και μου δίνεις λίγη σημασία.
Μη με βλέπεις μικρή, ξυπόλητη και μ' ένα άσπρο φορεματάκι. Δεν είμαι ένα αξιολύπητο πλάσμα. Έχω δυνατά χέρια και μπορώ να σηκώσω το μέλι μου.
Ξέρεις, δεν μπορώ να το αφήσω από τα χέρια μου, αν δεν βρω κάποιον που να θέλει να κρατήσει το μέλι μου. Και μαζί κι εμένα.
Δεν το έφτιαξα μόνη μου, όχι. Ούτε τρύγησα κάποιο μελίσσι.
Το φέρνω από πολύ ψηλά. Ο παππούλης μου το έδωσε. Δε θυμάμαι πότε. Έχει πολλά χρόνια. Ίσως δέκα, ίσως χίλια. Δεν τα ξέρω καλά τα μαθηματικά.
Γιατί με κοιτάζεις πάλι απορημένα;
Θα αναρωτιέσαι φαντάζομαι πως με λένε...
Δεν έχω όνομα ακόμα. Μπορείς να μου χαρίσεις εσύ, όμως, αν θέλεις.
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Διστάζεις να απαντήσεις.
Με το δίκιο σου!
Έλα! Κάθισε εδώ στο βράχο και θα σου πω.
Έρχομαι από πολύ ψηλά. Από τη γη όπου ζούνε οι αγέννητοι άγγελοι. Δεν είναι ακριβώς γη σαν τη δική σας. Είναι μαλακιά και βουλιάζουμε μέσα της. Είναι ατέλειωτη. Έχουμε πάντα μαζί μας ένα βάζο με μέλι. Αυτό το βάζο κάποτε μεγαλώνει και αυτό σημαίνει ότι έχουμε αρκετό για να το χαρίσουμε σε δυο ανθρώπους. Ναι, συνήθως τουλάχιστον δυο. Σε αυτούς που θέλουν λίγο μέλι.
Ερχόμαστε κάτω στη γη σας και αρχίζουμε να ψάχνουμε. Πολλές φορές, είμαστε τυχεροί και βρίσκουμε μια γυναίκα και έναν άντρα που μας θέλει.
Ρωτάμε: Θες λίγο μέλι;
Κι αυτοί απαντάνε: Ναι! Θέλουμε πολύ να έχουμε λίγο μέλι.
Τότε, δίνουμε το βάζο με το μέλι κι αυτοί μας δίνουν για αντίδωρο ένα σώμα.
Και γινόμαστε κι εμείς άνθρωποι! Γινόμαστε παιδιά!
Δεν μου είπες...
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Κάποιοι, βέβαια, δεν καταλαβαίνουν τι γίνεται. Μόλις πάρουν το μέλι, ψάχνουν στις τσέπες να βρουν λεφτά να μας πληρώσουν. Μα που να μας βρουν;
Και μετά, όταν γεννηθούμε και γίνουμε παιδιά, νομίζουν ότι αυτοί μας έφτιαξαν, ότι είμαστε δημιούργημά τους.
Κάποιοι από αυτούς κρατάνε το μέλι και το απολαμβάνουν με αγάπη. Κι έτσι, παρόλο που νιώθουν ότι είμαστε κτήμα τους, μας συμπεριφέρονται αρκετά καλά.
Κάποιοι άλλοι που πήραν το μέλι επειδή μας λυπήθηκαν ή επειδή ήθελαν απλά να το αγοράσουν, το αφήνουν εκεί στο πάνω ράφι της αποθήκης, χωρίς καν να το αγγίξουν. Και ξεχνάνε ότι στα παιδιά πρέπει να συμπεριφέρονται πάντα γλυκά και τρυφερά.
Είναι τόσοι πολλοί εκείνοι που λαχταρούν το μέλι μας. Μόλις το πάρουν στα χέρια τους, αρχίζουν να το δοκιμάζουν και δεν μπορείς να φανταστείς τη χαρά τους. Τα πρόσωπά τους φωτίζονται. Τα μαλλιά τους γίνονται λαμπερά. Τα μάτια τους, τα πιο γλυκά του κόσμου.
Το ξέρεις, όμως, ότι υπάρχουν κι εκείνοι που μπορούν να δουν; Μπορούν να αναγνωρίσουν το αγγελάκι στο πρόσωπο του βρέφους που κρατάνε στα χέρια τους. Και είναι πολύ συγκινημένοι. Ξέρουν ότι το βρέφος είναι δικό τους, χωρίς να είναι κτήμα τους. Είναι μικρό και ανυπεράσπιστο και θα το βοηθήσουν και θα το μεγαλώσουν χωρίς να παραπονεθούν. Γιατί να παραπονεθούν για μια ευλογία που τους χαρίστηκε τόσο απλά, όπως θα τους χάριζε κάποιος ένα βάζο μέλι; Μια ευλογία που θα τους κάνει να δέχονται, να κατανοούν, να σέβονται. Να δουν πέρα από τον εγωισμό και το προσωπικό τους συμφέρον.
Δεν μου απάντησες ακόμα...
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Είναι πολύ γλυκό και νόστιμο.
Σ' εσένα μιλάω. Μη με κοιτάς παραξενεμένα.
Ωραία! Ευτυχώς που σταμάτησες να περπατάς και μου δίνεις λίγη σημασία.
Μη με βλέπεις μικρή, ξυπόλητη και μ' ένα άσπρο φορεματάκι. Δεν είμαι ένα αξιολύπητο πλάσμα. Έχω δυνατά χέρια και μπορώ να σηκώσω το μέλι μου.
Ξέρεις, δεν μπορώ να το αφήσω από τα χέρια μου, αν δεν βρω κάποιον που να θέλει να κρατήσει το μέλι μου. Και μαζί κι εμένα.
Δεν το έφτιαξα μόνη μου, όχι. Ούτε τρύγησα κάποιο μελίσσι.
Το φέρνω από πολύ ψηλά. Ο παππούλης μου το έδωσε. Δε θυμάμαι πότε. Έχει πολλά χρόνια. Ίσως δέκα, ίσως χίλια. Δεν τα ξέρω καλά τα μαθηματικά.
Γιατί με κοιτάζεις πάλι απορημένα;
Θα αναρωτιέσαι φαντάζομαι πως με λένε...
Δεν έχω όνομα ακόμα. Μπορείς να μου χαρίσεις εσύ, όμως, αν θέλεις.
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Διστάζεις να απαντήσεις.
Με το δίκιο σου!
Έλα! Κάθισε εδώ στο βράχο και θα σου πω.
Έρχομαι από πολύ ψηλά. Από τη γη όπου ζούνε οι αγέννητοι άγγελοι. Δεν είναι ακριβώς γη σαν τη δική σας. Είναι μαλακιά και βουλιάζουμε μέσα της. Είναι ατέλειωτη. Έχουμε πάντα μαζί μας ένα βάζο με μέλι. Αυτό το βάζο κάποτε μεγαλώνει και αυτό σημαίνει ότι έχουμε αρκετό για να το χαρίσουμε σε δυο ανθρώπους. Ναι, συνήθως τουλάχιστον δυο. Σε αυτούς που θέλουν λίγο μέλι.
Ερχόμαστε κάτω στη γη σας και αρχίζουμε να ψάχνουμε. Πολλές φορές, είμαστε τυχεροί και βρίσκουμε μια γυναίκα και έναν άντρα που μας θέλει.
Ρωτάμε: Θες λίγο μέλι;
Κι αυτοί απαντάνε: Ναι! Θέλουμε πολύ να έχουμε λίγο μέλι.
Τότε, δίνουμε το βάζο με το μέλι κι αυτοί μας δίνουν για αντίδωρο ένα σώμα.
Και γινόμαστε κι εμείς άνθρωποι! Γινόμαστε παιδιά!
Δεν μου είπες...
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Κάποιοι, βέβαια, δεν καταλαβαίνουν τι γίνεται. Μόλις πάρουν το μέλι, ψάχνουν στις τσέπες να βρουν λεφτά να μας πληρώσουν. Μα που να μας βρουν;
Και μετά, όταν γεννηθούμε και γίνουμε παιδιά, νομίζουν ότι αυτοί μας έφτιαξαν, ότι είμαστε δημιούργημά τους.
Κάποιοι από αυτούς κρατάνε το μέλι και το απολαμβάνουν με αγάπη. Κι έτσι, παρόλο που νιώθουν ότι είμαστε κτήμα τους, μας συμπεριφέρονται αρκετά καλά.
Κάποιοι άλλοι που πήραν το μέλι επειδή μας λυπήθηκαν ή επειδή ήθελαν απλά να το αγοράσουν, το αφήνουν εκεί στο πάνω ράφι της αποθήκης, χωρίς καν να το αγγίξουν. Και ξεχνάνε ότι στα παιδιά πρέπει να συμπεριφέρονται πάντα γλυκά και τρυφερά.
Είναι τόσοι πολλοί εκείνοι που λαχταρούν το μέλι μας. Μόλις το πάρουν στα χέρια τους, αρχίζουν να το δοκιμάζουν και δεν μπορείς να φανταστείς τη χαρά τους. Τα πρόσωπά τους φωτίζονται. Τα μαλλιά τους γίνονται λαμπερά. Τα μάτια τους, τα πιο γλυκά του κόσμου.
Το ξέρεις, όμως, ότι υπάρχουν κι εκείνοι που μπορούν να δουν; Μπορούν να αναγνωρίσουν το αγγελάκι στο πρόσωπο του βρέφους που κρατάνε στα χέρια τους. Και είναι πολύ συγκινημένοι. Ξέρουν ότι το βρέφος είναι δικό τους, χωρίς να είναι κτήμα τους. Είναι μικρό και ανυπεράσπιστο και θα το βοηθήσουν και θα το μεγαλώσουν χωρίς να παραπονεθούν. Γιατί να παραπονεθούν για μια ευλογία που τους χαρίστηκε τόσο απλά, όπως θα τους χάριζε κάποιος ένα βάζο μέλι; Μια ευλογία που θα τους κάνει να δέχονται, να κατανοούν, να σέβονται. Να δουν πέρα από τον εγωισμό και το προσωπικό τους συμφέρον.
Δεν μου απάντησες ακόμα...
Θες λίγο μέλι;
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Γύρω από το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής!
Αγαπητοί μου φίλοι, σήμερα θα ήθελα να γράψω για το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής, μία πραγματικότητα που βρίσκει γόνιμο ενδιαφέρον σε επιστήμονες υπολογιστών, φυσικούς, βιολόγους, βιοχημικούς, οικονομολόγους, μαθηματικούς, φιλόσοφους, επιστήμονες και άλλους οι οποίοι παρατηρούν τον τρόπο με τον οποίο πολύπλοκα συστήματα μπορούν να αναδυθούν μέσα από την εφαρμογή εξαιρετικά απλών κανόνων. Κάποιοι θα πουν ότι έτσι ο Δαρβινισμός περνάει κρίση. Ζωή πολύπλοκη να προέρχεται από απλούστερες μορφές ζωής μέσω της μεθόδου της φυσικής επιλογής.. Αυτή ακριβώς όμως η φυσική επιλογή μπορεί να ολοκληρώσει κάποιες πτυχές που δεν μπορούν να ολοκληρωθούν μόνες τους με βάση το Conway’s Game Of Life! Πρόκειται για την υποκειμενική μου αντίληψη. Σας παραθέτω κάποια αρχικά με βάση τη Wikipedia:
“The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite two-dimensional orthogonal grid of square cells, each of which is in one of two possible states, alive or dead. Every cell interacts with its eight neighbours, which are the cells that are horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent. At each step in time, the following transitions occur:
1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
The initial pattern constitutes the seed of the system. The first generation is created by applying the above rules simultaneously to every cell in the seed—births and deaths occur simultaneously, and the discrete moment at which this happens is sometimes called a tick (in other words, each generation is a pure function of the preceding one). The rules continue to be applied repeatedly to create further generations.”
Με μία προσεκτική ανάγνωση των παραπάνω δίνοντας έμφαση στους απλούς κανόνες, μπορούμε να βγάλουμε συμπεράσματα για το κατά πόσο το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής με τα μέχρι εδώ, μπορεί όπως γράφεται να λειτουργήσει ως συστημική σκέψη αλλά και ως διδακτική αναλογία σε μηχανισμούς μεγαλύτερης κλίμακας. Αν με βάση την κοινή λογική η απάντηση είναι καταφατική, τότε οδηγούμαστε στα παρακάτω συμπεράσματα:
Α. Το παιχνίδι της ζωής εξαρτάται από τον τρόπο με τον οποίο εξελίσσονται οι γειτνιάσεις και αυτό γιατί ο διχοτομικός στην περίπτωση πληθυσμός {0,1} είναι που δίνει ή δεν δίνει μέτρο στην κάθε κυψέλη και κατεπέκταση μεταβάλλει το αρχικό κυψελικό αυτόματο.
Β. Ο δημιουργός ή επιστημονικός συγγραφέας που εμπνέεται από το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής θα πρέπει να βρει μεθόδους και τρόπους εφικτούς αλλά και δόκιμους, αν θέλει να εφαρμόσει το παιχνίδι σε μία μεγαλύτερη σε όγκο και δεδομένα πραγματικότητα. Μέχρι τώρα βλέπουμε πώς η συγκεκριμένη προσομοίωση, μπορεί να επιστρέφει στον αρχικό της κύκλο ή απλά να μεταφέρεται πχ από τα αριστερά στα δεξιά. Όχι όμως πώς εξαπλώνεται. Έτσι λοιπόν ο επιστήμονας ή ο συγγραφέας που λειτουργούν με βάση ένα αρχικό δίκτυο από τελεστές, κυψέλες, κόμβους, θα πρέπει να αποφύγουν την επιστροφή στο αρχικό δίκτυο μιας και αυτό σημαίνει ότι σφυγμομετρούν αντιδράσεις. Η σφυγμομέτρηση αντιδράσεων με δεδομένο ότι το παιχνίδι έχει μία χρονική αρχή, είναι άριστη και απόλυτα θεμιτή σε πρώτο χρόνο, όχι όμως σε εξελιγμένες μορφές του συστήματος.
Γ. Το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής με βάση τις κυψέλες, κόμβους που ενεργοποιούνται, εκδηλώνει μία σχέση έσω-έξω στο δίκτυο. Ο δημιουργός ή ο επιστημονικός συγγραφέας παίζοντας στην ουσία ένα παιχνίδι με μηδενικούς παίκτες καθώς προκαλούν ένα αρχικό configuration και στη συνέχεια παρακολουθούν την εξέλιξη, πρέπει να ξεκαθαρίσουν με βάση τη δομή των αρχικών input κατά πόσο το παιχνίδι, η ζωή, παύουν να επιστρέφουν στον αρχικό κύκλο. Το παιχνίδι για να έχουμε Big Data πρέπει να εκδηλώνει φαινόμενα colonialism (αποικιοκρατίας).
Δ. Αν το παιχνίδι είναι σχεδιασμένο για να εξαπλωθεί, κρύβει το ρίσκο του ότι ο δημιουργός, ο παίκτης, ο συγγραφέας, πάνε να εμπλακούν σε κάτι που δεν θα αντιμετωπίσουν. Το τι συμβαίνει 5 κυψέλες παρακάτω δεν αφορά τις αρχικές σχετικές γειτνιάσεις, θεωρώντας απαράδεκτη ξανά τη σφυγμομέτρηση αντιδράσεων.
Ε. Όλα τα παραπάνω καθιστούν ξεκάθαρη για παραπλήσιους λόγους τη μέθοδο αλληλεπίδρασης ανθρώπου-υπολογιστή. Πρόκειται για μία συνεχή εξωτερίκευση των σημάτων, προτύπων συμπεριφοράς, είτε έχουμε να κάνουμε με εφαρμογές οικονομικών, επιστημών, υπολογιστών, είτε με το systems’ thinking και τη δραστηριότητα, του δημιουργού, του επιστημονικού συγγραφέα.
«Conway chose his rules carefully, after considerable experimentation, to meet these criteria:
1. There should be no explosive growth.
2. There should exist small initial patterns with chaotic, unpredictable outcomes.
3. There should be potential for von Neumann universal constructors.
4. The rules should be as simple as possible, whilst adhering to the above constraints.» (Source Wikipedia)
Ο Συμπαντικός Κατασκευαστής Von Neumann είναι και το μήλο της έριδος στο παιχνίδι του Conway. Πρόκειται για μία μηχανή που αναπαράγεται αυτόνομα χρησιμοποιώντας πρώτες ύλες του περιβάλλοντος! Πρόκειται για μία μέθοδο αυτό-αναπαραγωγής με τρόπο ανάλογο με αυτό που συναντάμε στη φύση! Μία κασέτα από κυψέλες, κύτταρα, κωδικοποιεί την ακολουθία των δράσεων που θα υλοποιήσει η μηχανή. Πρόκειται για γενετικές οδηγίες που μπορούν να υποστούν μετάλλαξη και έτσι το παραγόμενο αντίγραφο μηχανής να είναι πολυπλοκότερο του αρχικού, πχ να πάρετε και μία ζωγραφιά με ένα λουλούδι. Η φυσική επιλογή της μετάλλαξης είναι αυτή που θεμελιώνει και το Δαρβινισμό, τόσο ως προς την εξέλιξη της ζωής όσο και ως προς την ανάπτυξη της πολυπλοκότητας.
«The concept of a universal constructor is non-trivial because of the existence of garden of eden patterns. But a simple definition is that a universal constructor is able to construct any finite pattern of non-excited (quiescent) cells.»
«Conway’s game can also serve as a didactic analogy, used to convey the somewhat counter-intuitive notion that "design" and "organization" can spontaneously emerge in the absence of a designer.» (Source Wikipedia)
Αυτά είναι και τα μήλα της έριδος του Von Neumann Universal Constructor. Δεν μας ενδιαφέρουν απλώς τα αντίγραφα και η μετάλλαξη αλλά η εξάπλωση και η αποικιοκρατία. Δεύτερον, μία εκδοχή εξαιρετικά πολυπλοκότερη της αρχικής, από τη στιγμή που μιλάμε για αυτό-αναπαραγωγή θα δημιουργούσε κάτι απλά ανέφικτο. Αν δεχτούμε όμως ποιοτικές αναλογίες με όρους κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, με όρους καθαρά gaming, συγγραφικούς, επιστημονικούς και άλλα, αυτό σημαίνει ότι υπάρχει εξωτερικό χέρι που κάνει το configuration με τον κατάλληλο τρόπο. Παγκοσμίως, δεν νοούνται υπολογιστές χωρίς άτομα που κάνουν το Data Entry.. Από την πιο απλή μέχρι την πιο προχωρημένη επιχειρηματική τεχνολογία και αν αγοράσετε, κάποιοι πρέπει να κάνουν εισαγωγή στοιχείων. Ή αν θέλουμε να έχουμε συζήτηση με τους όρους του conflict και των interactions ανάμεσα στους replicators, ή ο Von Neumann Universal Constructor είναι εξαιρετικά εύθραυστος όπως γράφεται ή κάποιοι σκόπιμα (configuration τώρα) εισάγουν παραποιημένα στοιχεία.
Αν μπορούσαμε όμως να απεμπλακούμε από τον Von Neumann και τους υπολογιστές και βλέπαμε την αρχή της συζήτησης, μιλώντας για το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής, ένα zero player game με αρχικό configuration, στην πραγματικότητα μπορούμε να δημιουργήσουμε διαφορετικά versions σε ολόκληρο το content management, όπου τώρα σημασία θα είχε το version control!
Έτσι θα πρέπει να δίνεται η δυνατότητα, η δυναμική στο παιχνίδι, κριτήριο 3, όχι απλά να δημιουργήσει κάτι που προηγήθηκε της ανακάλυψης της δομής του μορίου του DNA, δηλαδή έναν Von Neumann Universal Constructor, αλλά μία πύλη στην προσομοίωση του Σύμπαντος και νέων μαθηματικών προτάσεων γύρω από τον Κώδικα της Φύσης, που ούτως ή άλλως θα μπορούν να παρουσιαστούν είτε ως game simulations, είτε ξεκάθαρα ως επιστημονικές ιδέες με βάση την πραγματικότητα του 21ου αιώνα. Με άλλα λόγια πρόκειται για τη δημιουργία μίας νέας πλατφόρμας για την επιστήμη. Καλή εβδομάδα σας εύχομαι!
“The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite two-dimensional orthogonal grid of square cells, each of which is in one of two possible states, alive or dead. Every cell interacts with its eight neighbours, which are the cells that are horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent. At each step in time, the following transitions occur:
1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
The initial pattern constitutes the seed of the system. The first generation is created by applying the above rules simultaneously to every cell in the seed—births and deaths occur simultaneously, and the discrete moment at which this happens is sometimes called a tick (in other words, each generation is a pure function of the preceding one). The rules continue to be applied repeatedly to create further generations.”
Με μία προσεκτική ανάγνωση των παραπάνω δίνοντας έμφαση στους απλούς κανόνες, μπορούμε να βγάλουμε συμπεράσματα για το κατά πόσο το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής με τα μέχρι εδώ, μπορεί όπως γράφεται να λειτουργήσει ως συστημική σκέψη αλλά και ως διδακτική αναλογία σε μηχανισμούς μεγαλύτερης κλίμακας. Αν με βάση την κοινή λογική η απάντηση είναι καταφατική, τότε οδηγούμαστε στα παρακάτω συμπεράσματα:
Α. Το παιχνίδι της ζωής εξαρτάται από τον τρόπο με τον οποίο εξελίσσονται οι γειτνιάσεις και αυτό γιατί ο διχοτομικός στην περίπτωση πληθυσμός {0,1} είναι που δίνει ή δεν δίνει μέτρο στην κάθε κυψέλη και κατεπέκταση μεταβάλλει το αρχικό κυψελικό αυτόματο.
Β. Ο δημιουργός ή επιστημονικός συγγραφέας που εμπνέεται από το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής θα πρέπει να βρει μεθόδους και τρόπους εφικτούς αλλά και δόκιμους, αν θέλει να εφαρμόσει το παιχνίδι σε μία μεγαλύτερη σε όγκο και δεδομένα πραγματικότητα. Μέχρι τώρα βλέπουμε πώς η συγκεκριμένη προσομοίωση, μπορεί να επιστρέφει στον αρχικό της κύκλο ή απλά να μεταφέρεται πχ από τα αριστερά στα δεξιά. Όχι όμως πώς εξαπλώνεται. Έτσι λοιπόν ο επιστήμονας ή ο συγγραφέας που λειτουργούν με βάση ένα αρχικό δίκτυο από τελεστές, κυψέλες, κόμβους, θα πρέπει να αποφύγουν την επιστροφή στο αρχικό δίκτυο μιας και αυτό σημαίνει ότι σφυγμομετρούν αντιδράσεις. Η σφυγμομέτρηση αντιδράσεων με δεδομένο ότι το παιχνίδι έχει μία χρονική αρχή, είναι άριστη και απόλυτα θεμιτή σε πρώτο χρόνο, όχι όμως σε εξελιγμένες μορφές του συστήματος.
Γ. Το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής με βάση τις κυψέλες, κόμβους που ενεργοποιούνται, εκδηλώνει μία σχέση έσω-έξω στο δίκτυο. Ο δημιουργός ή ο επιστημονικός συγγραφέας παίζοντας στην ουσία ένα παιχνίδι με μηδενικούς παίκτες καθώς προκαλούν ένα αρχικό configuration και στη συνέχεια παρακολουθούν την εξέλιξη, πρέπει να ξεκαθαρίσουν με βάση τη δομή των αρχικών input κατά πόσο το παιχνίδι, η ζωή, παύουν να επιστρέφουν στον αρχικό κύκλο. Το παιχνίδι για να έχουμε Big Data πρέπει να εκδηλώνει φαινόμενα colonialism (αποικιοκρατίας).
Δ. Αν το παιχνίδι είναι σχεδιασμένο για να εξαπλωθεί, κρύβει το ρίσκο του ότι ο δημιουργός, ο παίκτης, ο συγγραφέας, πάνε να εμπλακούν σε κάτι που δεν θα αντιμετωπίσουν. Το τι συμβαίνει 5 κυψέλες παρακάτω δεν αφορά τις αρχικές σχετικές γειτνιάσεις, θεωρώντας απαράδεκτη ξανά τη σφυγμομέτρηση αντιδράσεων.
Ε. Όλα τα παραπάνω καθιστούν ξεκάθαρη για παραπλήσιους λόγους τη μέθοδο αλληλεπίδρασης ανθρώπου-υπολογιστή. Πρόκειται για μία συνεχή εξωτερίκευση των σημάτων, προτύπων συμπεριφοράς, είτε έχουμε να κάνουμε με εφαρμογές οικονομικών, επιστημών, υπολογιστών, είτε με το systems’ thinking και τη δραστηριότητα, του δημιουργού, του επιστημονικού συγγραφέα.
«Conway chose his rules carefully, after considerable experimentation, to meet these criteria:
1. There should be no explosive growth.
2. There should exist small initial patterns with chaotic, unpredictable outcomes.
3. There should be potential for von Neumann universal constructors.
4. The rules should be as simple as possible, whilst adhering to the above constraints.» (Source Wikipedia)
Ο Συμπαντικός Κατασκευαστής Von Neumann είναι και το μήλο της έριδος στο παιχνίδι του Conway. Πρόκειται για μία μηχανή που αναπαράγεται αυτόνομα χρησιμοποιώντας πρώτες ύλες του περιβάλλοντος! Πρόκειται για μία μέθοδο αυτό-αναπαραγωγής με τρόπο ανάλογο με αυτό που συναντάμε στη φύση! Μία κασέτα από κυψέλες, κύτταρα, κωδικοποιεί την ακολουθία των δράσεων που θα υλοποιήσει η μηχανή. Πρόκειται για γενετικές οδηγίες που μπορούν να υποστούν μετάλλαξη και έτσι το παραγόμενο αντίγραφο μηχανής να είναι πολυπλοκότερο του αρχικού, πχ να πάρετε και μία ζωγραφιά με ένα λουλούδι. Η φυσική επιλογή της μετάλλαξης είναι αυτή που θεμελιώνει και το Δαρβινισμό, τόσο ως προς την εξέλιξη της ζωής όσο και ως προς την ανάπτυξη της πολυπλοκότητας.
«The concept of a universal constructor is non-trivial because of the existence of garden of eden patterns. But a simple definition is that a universal constructor is able to construct any finite pattern of non-excited (quiescent) cells.»
«Conway’s game can also serve as a didactic analogy, used to convey the somewhat counter-intuitive notion that "design" and "organization" can spontaneously emerge in the absence of a designer.» (Source Wikipedia)
Αυτά είναι και τα μήλα της έριδος του Von Neumann Universal Constructor. Δεν μας ενδιαφέρουν απλώς τα αντίγραφα και η μετάλλαξη αλλά η εξάπλωση και η αποικιοκρατία. Δεύτερον, μία εκδοχή εξαιρετικά πολυπλοκότερη της αρχικής, από τη στιγμή που μιλάμε για αυτό-αναπαραγωγή θα δημιουργούσε κάτι απλά ανέφικτο. Αν δεχτούμε όμως ποιοτικές αναλογίες με όρους κοινωνικής δικτύωσης, με όρους καθαρά gaming, συγγραφικούς, επιστημονικούς και άλλα, αυτό σημαίνει ότι υπάρχει εξωτερικό χέρι που κάνει το configuration με τον κατάλληλο τρόπο. Παγκοσμίως, δεν νοούνται υπολογιστές χωρίς άτομα που κάνουν το Data Entry.. Από την πιο απλή μέχρι την πιο προχωρημένη επιχειρηματική τεχνολογία και αν αγοράσετε, κάποιοι πρέπει να κάνουν εισαγωγή στοιχείων. Ή αν θέλουμε να έχουμε συζήτηση με τους όρους του conflict και των interactions ανάμεσα στους replicators, ή ο Von Neumann Universal Constructor είναι εξαιρετικά εύθραυστος όπως γράφεται ή κάποιοι σκόπιμα (configuration τώρα) εισάγουν παραποιημένα στοιχεία.
Αν μπορούσαμε όμως να απεμπλακούμε από τον Von Neumann και τους υπολογιστές και βλέπαμε την αρχή της συζήτησης, μιλώντας για το Παιχνίδι της Ζωής, ένα zero player game με αρχικό configuration, στην πραγματικότητα μπορούμε να δημιουργήσουμε διαφορετικά versions σε ολόκληρο το content management, όπου τώρα σημασία θα είχε το version control!
Έτσι θα πρέπει να δίνεται η δυνατότητα, η δυναμική στο παιχνίδι, κριτήριο 3, όχι απλά να δημιουργήσει κάτι που προηγήθηκε της ανακάλυψης της δομής του μορίου του DNA, δηλαδή έναν Von Neumann Universal Constructor, αλλά μία πύλη στην προσομοίωση του Σύμπαντος και νέων μαθηματικών προτάσεων γύρω από τον Κώδικα της Φύσης, που ούτως ή άλλως θα μπορούν να παρουσιαστούν είτε ως game simulations, είτε ξεκάθαρα ως επιστημονικές ιδέες με βάση την πραγματικότητα του 21ου αιώνα. Με άλλα λόγια πρόκειται για τη δημιουργία μίας νέας πλατφόρμας για την επιστήμη. Καλή εβδομάδα σας εύχομαι!
Friday, December 26, 2014
The Building Partnerships Canvas, An Interactive Game by XPLANE!
Object of play: The partnership canvas is a tool that
enables visualization of current and/or future partnerships. It can also
be used for early testing of the value creating potential of a
partnership between two partnership candidates. The tool’s purpose is to
define your business priority for partnering, and empathize with your
partner to explore whether there is potentially a match. The partnership
canvas can be used as a stand-alone tool, but comes to full
strategizing value when it is jointly used with the business model canvas.
Number of players: This can be done by yourself, but
preferably with 2 teams of max 5 people representing each side of the
partnership. Alternatively, make multiple pairs if there are more
people.
Duration of play: (60-90 min):
- Step 1- Define intent (15 min)
–Step 2- Design partnership (15 min/sketch)
–Step 3- Bring teams to the negotiating table (15 min)
–Step 4- Evaluate the negotiation results and define next steps (20 min)
How to play
1. Define intent
a) Describe the aim or goal of the partnership for your business
b) List what would be ideal partners to work with and why. Organize a post up. Select a top partnership candidate, or multiple candidates.
c) Create (multiples of) 2 teams; 1 representing your business, 1 for a potential partner’s business.
2. Design partnership
a) Each team identifies their desired assets in their respective partner’s business model
b) Teams sketches out a partnership canvas from their own team’s perspective using stickie notes to define each building block
3. Bring teams to the negotiating table
a) Each team presents their partnership canvas
b) Compare the two partnership canvasses by mirroring the partnership perspectives. Compare between value offers of one team, to desired value of the other team, and whether there is mutual understanding of the transfer activities. Check for a clear fit.
c) Create agreement on the created value for each partner. Adapt partnership canvas and iterate step 3 if required.
4. Evaluate the negotiation results and define next steps
a) Do the elements of created value provide clear added value to each partner’s business?
b) Define next steps to effectuate the partnership
Strategy: The partnership canvas can be used to
explore the idea of engaging in a partnership. A team can use the canvas
to prepare for an upcoming conversation with a potential partner.
Alternatively the session can be conducted jointly with a potential
partner if there is already a mutual interest to explore partnering
possibilities. The tool can firstly be used to determine whether there
is a technical fit between two businesses. By working in teams and
negotiating certain rivalry is always invoked, and teams can also get a
sense of cultural fit between two partnering businesses.
In order to obtain full strategizing value from use of the canvas, it is advised to integrally work with the business model canvas. In the end, the partnership discussion is a key step in business model innovation
 |
| Bart Doorneweert & Ernst Houdkamp www.valuechaingeneration.com |
Duration of play: (60-90 min):
- Step 1- Define intent (15 min)
–Step 2- Design partnership (15 min/sketch)
–Step 3- Bring teams to the negotiating table (15 min)
–Step 4- Evaluate the negotiation results and define next steps (20 min)
How to play
1. Define intent
a) Describe the aim or goal of the partnership for your business
b) List what would be ideal partners to work with and why. Organize a post up. Select a top partnership candidate, or multiple candidates.
c) Create (multiples of) 2 teams; 1 representing your business, 1 for a potential partner’s business.
2. Design partnership
a) Each team identifies their desired assets in their respective partner’s business model
b) Teams sketches out a partnership canvas from their own team’s perspective using stickie notes to define each building block
3. Bring teams to the negotiating table
a) Each team presents their partnership canvas
b) Compare the two partnership canvasses by mirroring the partnership perspectives. Compare between value offers of one team, to desired value of the other team, and whether there is mutual understanding of the transfer activities. Check for a clear fit.
c) Create agreement on the created value for each partner. Adapt partnership canvas and iterate step 3 if required.
4. Evaluate the negotiation results and define next steps
a) Do the elements of created value provide clear added value to each partner’s business?
b) Define next steps to effectuate the partnership
 |
| Mirroring Partnership Perspectives |
In order to obtain full strategizing value from use of the canvas, it is advised to integrally work with the business model canvas. In the end, the partnership discussion is a key step in business model innovation
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Gamestorming by XPLANE!
Creativity and invention has long been seen as a “black box.” As business people, we don’t typically try to understand this process. We fully expect that when designers, inventors, and other creative people go into a room with a goal, they will come out with more or less creative discoveries and results. Although when we watch them at work, we can observe some combination of sketching, animated conversations, messy desks, and drinking. But the fundamental nature of what happens in that room remains mostly a mystery.
It’s easy to leave creativity to the creative types, and say to yourself, “I’m just not a creative person.” The fact is that in a complex, dynamic, competitive knowledge economy, it’s no longer acceptable to take this position. If you are a knowledge worker, you must become, to some degree, creative.
That may sound a bit scary, but the fact is that successful creative people tend to employ simple strategies and practices to get where they want to go. It’s not so much that they employ a consistent, repeatable process that leads to consistent creative results. It’s more like a workshop with a set of tools and strategies for examining things deeply, for exploring new ideas, for performing experiments and testing hypotheses, to generate new and surprising insights and results.
So we set out, much like the brothers Grimm, to collect the best of these practices wherever we could find them, with a special focus on Silicon Valley, innovative companies, and the information revolution.
Many of these practices emerged from a kind of “Silicon soup” – the deeply interconnected network of Silicon valley, where ideas and people cross-pollinate like bees in a single massive hive. The practices live in a mostly oral culture, passed along from person to person by word of mouth. For example, a consultant uses an approach with a client, and the client begins to employ that approach internally. Over time, as more people employ a method, it evolves into something quite different, and over time the source of the original idea or approach may be lost. Sometimes methods are written down and sometimes, like folk tales, they exist in many different versions in many places.
We chose to call this practice “Gamestorming” because it seemed to come closer to describing the phenomenon than anything else we could think of.
Our goal with this collection was to find the best of these tools and practices and bring them together into a single place.
It is our hope that you will contribute games based on your personal knowledge and experience, that you will help us clarify the history of the ideas and practices, and that through your comments you can help us all better understand the complex and fascinating history of games at play in creative work.
Company source: http://www.xplane.com/
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Οι συγγραφείς είναι εραστές..
Σήμερα αγαπητοί μου φίλοι θα μιλήσουμε για την πραγματικότητα του συγγραφέα, όπως όχι μόνο πολλοί από εσάς την βιώνετε αλλά και μέσα από σκέψεις που πλέον είναι γνωστές, ελκυστικές, ενδιαφέρουσες αλλά και οικειοποιούμενες από πολλούς άλλους συγγραφείς. Σας παρουσιάζω ένα βιβλίο το οποίο είναι σίγουρο ότι θα αγοράσω και μάλιστα με ένα θέμα το οποίο είχα την τύχη όχι μόνο να ακούσω αλλά πλέον να μπορώ να το νιώθω. Το βιβλίο είναι της Πασχαλίας Τραυλού στοιχεία του οποίου βλέπετε παρακάτω:
Οι εραστές της γραφής
Πασχαλία Τραυλού
Ημ. Έκδοσης 08/04/2011
Ανατύπωση 2η
Λίγα λόγια για το βιβλίο
Εραστής της γραφής είναι αυτός που περπατάει συνομιλώντας με τον ήρωά του, εκείνος που κρατάει συνεχώς σημειώσεις στο κουτί των τσιγάρων του, εκείνος που, ατενίζοντας τον ορίζοντα, βλέπει όχι ό,τι υπάρχει στην ευθεία των ματιών του, αλλά ό,τι εκτυλίσσεται στα άδυτα της ψυχής του. Τα ψέματα και οι αλήθειες, τα προσωπεία των ηρώων και των δημιουργών, οι συνειρμοί και τα σύμβολα, οι πληγές και τα οράματα, το φως και το σκότος, οι ιδέες που γίνονται λέξεις και οι λέξεις που φιλοτεχνούν «κοστούμια» ιδεών παίρνουν μια θέση στη χορεία αυτών των στοχασμών, προκειμένου να δώσουν κάποια εξήγηση για τον μεγαλειώδη όσο και ψυχοφθόρο έρωτα της γραφής. Μια χαρτογράφηση των σκοπέλων της δημιουργικής διαδικασίας. Ένα οδοιπορικό στην ψυχή του εραστή της γραφής.
Συνεχίζοντας τις σκέψεις μίας υπέροχης συγγραφέος γύρω από τα άδυτα της ψυχής του ανθρώπου σε αντίθεση με τον ορίζοντα των ματιών του, σε ένα θέμα που υπερβαίνει κατά πολύ ακόμα και τον ιδανικό έρωτα, έτυχε να νιώσω λόγια και συζητήσεις ανθρώπων, επικαλούμενοι το φως και το σκοτάδι, μία επικείμενη συντριβή αλλά και μία σωτηρία, μέσα από τον αγώνα του ανθρώπου που πρέπει "να σκάψει και λίγο την ψυχή του"..;) Το να βγει νικητής από αυτή τη μάχη, άλλωστε, θα μπορούσε η γνήσια προέλευση μίας θρησκείας (όπως πολλοί επιστήμονες εστιάζουν στα φιλοσοφικά προβλήματα) να μελετηθεί χωρίς διαφωνία? Αν μπορείτε να προβάλλετε αυτό το φιλοσοφικό θρησκευτικό αγώνα στην έννοια ψυχή, στις εσωτερικές συγκρούσεις και προσδοκίες, σίγουρα αυτά που θα μάθετε θα είναι πολλά. Καλό σας βραδάκι...!
Οι εραστές της γραφής
Πασχαλία Τραυλού
Ημ. Έκδοσης 08/04/2011
Ανατύπωση 2η
Λίγα λόγια για το βιβλίο
Εραστής της γραφής είναι αυτός που περπατάει συνομιλώντας με τον ήρωά του, εκείνος που κρατάει συνεχώς σημειώσεις στο κουτί των τσιγάρων του, εκείνος που, ατενίζοντας τον ορίζοντα, βλέπει όχι ό,τι υπάρχει στην ευθεία των ματιών του, αλλά ό,τι εκτυλίσσεται στα άδυτα της ψυχής του. Τα ψέματα και οι αλήθειες, τα προσωπεία των ηρώων και των δημιουργών, οι συνειρμοί και τα σύμβολα, οι πληγές και τα οράματα, το φως και το σκότος, οι ιδέες που γίνονται λέξεις και οι λέξεις που φιλοτεχνούν «κοστούμια» ιδεών παίρνουν μια θέση στη χορεία αυτών των στοχασμών, προκειμένου να δώσουν κάποια εξήγηση για τον μεγαλειώδη όσο και ψυχοφθόρο έρωτα της γραφής. Μια χαρτογράφηση των σκοπέλων της δημιουργικής διαδικασίας. Ένα οδοιπορικό στην ψυχή του εραστή της γραφής.
Συνεχίζοντας τις σκέψεις μίας υπέροχης συγγραφέος γύρω από τα άδυτα της ψυχής του ανθρώπου σε αντίθεση με τον ορίζοντα των ματιών του, σε ένα θέμα που υπερβαίνει κατά πολύ ακόμα και τον ιδανικό έρωτα, έτυχε να νιώσω λόγια και συζητήσεις ανθρώπων, επικαλούμενοι το φως και το σκοτάδι, μία επικείμενη συντριβή αλλά και μία σωτηρία, μέσα από τον αγώνα του ανθρώπου που πρέπει "να σκάψει και λίγο την ψυχή του"..;) Το να βγει νικητής από αυτή τη μάχη, άλλωστε, θα μπορούσε η γνήσια προέλευση μίας θρησκείας (όπως πολλοί επιστήμονες εστιάζουν στα φιλοσοφικά προβλήματα) να μελετηθεί χωρίς διαφωνία? Αν μπορείτε να προβάλλετε αυτό το φιλοσοφικό θρησκευτικό αγώνα στην έννοια ψυχή, στις εσωτερικές συγκρούσεις και προσδοκίες, σίγουρα αυτά που θα μάθετε θα είναι πολλά. Καλό σας βραδάκι...!
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Venus
Venus, ancient Italian goddess associated with cultivated fields and gardens and later identified by the Romans with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.
Venus had no worship in Rome in early times, as the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 bce) shows, attesting that he could find no mention of her name in old records. This is corroborated by the absence of any festival for her in the oldest Roman calendar and by her lack of a flamen (special priest). Her cult among the Latins, however, seems to be immemorial, for she had apparently at least two ancient temples, one at Lavinium, the other at Ardea, at which festivals of the Latin cities were held. Hence, it was no long step to bring her to Rome, apparently from Ardea itself. But how she came to be identified with so important a deity as Aphrodite remains a puzzle.
That Venus’s identification with Aphrodite took place fairly early is certain. A contributory reason for it is perhaps the date (August 19) of the foundation of one of her Roman temples. August 19 is the Vinalia Rustica, a festival of Jupiter. Hence, he and Venus came to be associated, and this facilitated their equation, as father and daughter, with the Greek deities Zeus and Aphrodite. She was, therefore, also a daughter of Dione, was the wife of Vulcan, and was the mother of Cupid. In myth and legend she was famous for her romantic intrigues and affairs with both gods and mortals, and she became associated with many aspects, both positive and negative, of femininity. As Venus Verticordia, she was charged with the protection of chastity in women and girls. But the most important cause of the identification was the reception into Rome of the famous cult of Venus Erycina—i.e., of Aphrodite of Eryx (Erice) in Sicily—this cult itself resulting from the identification of an Oriental mother-goddess with the Greek deity. This reception took place during and shortly after the Second Punic War. A temple was dedicated to Venus Erycina on the Capitol in 215 bce and a second outside the Colline gate in 181 bce. The latter developed in a way reminiscent of the temple at Eryx with its harlots, becoming the place of worship of Roman courtesans, hence the title of dies meretricum (“prostitutes’ day”) attached to April 23, the day of its foundation.
The importance of the worship of Venus-Aphrodite was increased by the political ambitions of the gens Iulia, the clan of Julius Caesar and, by adoption, of Augustus. They claimed descent from Iulus, the son of Aeneas; Aeneas was the alleged founder of the temple of Eryx and, in some legends, of the city of Rome also. From the time of Homer onward, he was made the son of Aphrodite, so that his descent gave the Iulii divine origin. Others than the Iulii sought to connect themselves with a deity grown so popular and important, notably Gnaeus Pompeius, the triumvir. He dedicated a temple to Venus as Victrix (“Bringer of Victory”) in 55 bce. Julius Caesar’s own temple (46 bce), however, was dedicated to Venus Genetrix, and as Genetrix (“Begetting Mother”) she was best known until the death of Nero in 68 ce. Despite the extinction of the Julio-Claudian line, she remained popular, even with the emperors; Hadrian completed a temple of Venus at Rome in 135 ce.
As a native Italian deity, Venus had no myths of her own. She therefore took over those of Aphrodite and, through her, became identified with various foreign goddesses. The most noteworthy result of this development is perhaps the acquisition by the planet Venus of that name. The planet was at first the star of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and thence of Aphrodite. Because of her association with love and with feminine beauty, the goddess Venus has been a favourite subject in art since ancient times; notable representations include the statue known as the Venus de Milo (c. 150 bce) and Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus (c. 1485).
(Source Encyclopedia Britannica)
Venus had no worship in Rome in early times, as the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 bce) shows, attesting that he could find no mention of her name in old records. This is corroborated by the absence of any festival for her in the oldest Roman calendar and by her lack of a flamen (special priest). Her cult among the Latins, however, seems to be immemorial, for she had apparently at least two ancient temples, one at Lavinium, the other at Ardea, at which festivals of the Latin cities were held. Hence, it was no long step to bring her to Rome, apparently from Ardea itself. But how she came to be identified with so important a deity as Aphrodite remains a puzzle.
That Venus’s identification with Aphrodite took place fairly early is certain. A contributory reason for it is perhaps the date (August 19) of the foundation of one of her Roman temples. August 19 is the Vinalia Rustica, a festival of Jupiter. Hence, he and Venus came to be associated, and this facilitated their equation, as father and daughter, with the Greek deities Zeus and Aphrodite. She was, therefore, also a daughter of Dione, was the wife of Vulcan, and was the mother of Cupid. In myth and legend she was famous for her romantic intrigues and affairs with both gods and mortals, and she became associated with many aspects, both positive and negative, of femininity. As Venus Verticordia, she was charged with the protection of chastity in women and girls. But the most important cause of the identification was the reception into Rome of the famous cult of Venus Erycina—i.e., of Aphrodite of Eryx (Erice) in Sicily—this cult itself resulting from the identification of an Oriental mother-goddess with the Greek deity. This reception took place during and shortly after the Second Punic War. A temple was dedicated to Venus Erycina on the Capitol in 215 bce and a second outside the Colline gate in 181 bce. The latter developed in a way reminiscent of the temple at Eryx with its harlots, becoming the place of worship of Roman courtesans, hence the title of dies meretricum (“prostitutes’ day”) attached to April 23, the day of its foundation.
The importance of the worship of Venus-Aphrodite was increased by the political ambitions of the gens Iulia, the clan of Julius Caesar and, by adoption, of Augustus. They claimed descent from Iulus, the son of Aeneas; Aeneas was the alleged founder of the temple of Eryx and, in some legends, of the city of Rome also. From the time of Homer onward, he was made the son of Aphrodite, so that his descent gave the Iulii divine origin. Others than the Iulii sought to connect themselves with a deity grown so popular and important, notably Gnaeus Pompeius, the triumvir. He dedicated a temple to Venus as Victrix (“Bringer of Victory”) in 55 bce. Julius Caesar’s own temple (46 bce), however, was dedicated to Venus Genetrix, and as Genetrix (“Begetting Mother”) she was best known until the death of Nero in 68 ce. Despite the extinction of the Julio-Claudian line, she remained popular, even with the emperors; Hadrian completed a temple of Venus at Rome in 135 ce.
As a native Italian deity, Venus had no myths of her own. She therefore took over those of Aphrodite and, through her, became identified with various foreign goddesses. The most noteworthy result of this development is perhaps the acquisition by the planet Venus of that name. The planet was at first the star of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and thence of Aphrodite. Because of her association with love and with feminine beauty, the goddess Venus has been a favourite subject in art since ancient times; notable representations include the statue known as the Venus de Milo (c. 150 bce) and Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus (c. 1485).
(Source Encyclopedia Britannica)
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Ηλύσια Πεδία (Μυθολογία)
Κατά την Ελληνική Μυθολογία τα Ηλύσια Πεδία αποτελούσαν τμήμα του Άδη. Ήταν ο τελικός προορισμός της ψυχής των ηρώων και των ενάρετων.
Μυθολογία
Ενώ τα Τάρταρα ήταν τόπος τιμωρίας, τα Ηλύσια Πεδία ήταν παραδείσιος τόπος με ολάνθιστα λιβάδια, όπου επικρατούσε αιώνια άνοιξη και οι πηγές της Λήθης ανάβλυζαν νέκταρ που έκανε τους νεκρούς να λησμονούν όλα τα γήινα δάκρυα και τις κακουχίες.
Εκεί βρίσκονταν κατά τον θρύλο ο Μενέλαος και η ωραία Ελένη, καθώς και ο Κάδμος και άλλοι θηβαίοι ήρωες. Κάτω από τη σκιά Μυρτιών εξασκούνταν στην ιππασία και τον στίβο ή έπαιζαν ζάρια και μουσική.
Ο Μίνως, αδερφός του Ραδάμανθυ βασίλευε στην πεδιάδα της άφιξης, εκεί που είχαν φέρει τον κοιμώμενο Κρόνο, που όντας μεθυσμένος από την πόση μελιού, είχε αιχμαλωτιστεί και δεθεί από τον Δία.
Σύμφωνα με τους Ορφικούς, ο Κρόνος βασίλευε εκεί έχοντας βασίλισσα την Ρέα.
Οι αναφορές για τα Ηλύσια Πεδία στην αρχαία γραμματεία μέχρι τον 4ο αιώνα π.Χ είναι σπανιότατες. Στο Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) εμφανίζονται μόνο δύο: Υπάρχει μία στην Οδύσσεια (Οδ 4.556) και μία αναφορά του Αριστοτέλη στο ίδιο χωρίο του Ομήρου.
Πηγή Βικιπαίδεια
Μυθολογία
Ενώ τα Τάρταρα ήταν τόπος τιμωρίας, τα Ηλύσια Πεδία ήταν παραδείσιος τόπος με ολάνθιστα λιβάδια, όπου επικρατούσε αιώνια άνοιξη και οι πηγές της Λήθης ανάβλυζαν νέκταρ που έκανε τους νεκρούς να λησμονούν όλα τα γήινα δάκρυα και τις κακουχίες.
Εκεί βρίσκονταν κατά τον θρύλο ο Μενέλαος και η ωραία Ελένη, καθώς και ο Κάδμος και άλλοι θηβαίοι ήρωες. Κάτω από τη σκιά Μυρτιών εξασκούνταν στην ιππασία και τον στίβο ή έπαιζαν ζάρια και μουσική.
Ο Μίνως, αδερφός του Ραδάμανθυ βασίλευε στην πεδιάδα της άφιξης, εκεί που είχαν φέρει τον κοιμώμενο Κρόνο, που όντας μεθυσμένος από την πόση μελιού, είχε αιχμαλωτιστεί και δεθεί από τον Δία.
Σύμφωνα με τους Ορφικούς, ο Κρόνος βασίλευε εκεί έχοντας βασίλισσα την Ρέα.
Οι αναφορές για τα Ηλύσια Πεδία στην αρχαία γραμματεία μέχρι τον 4ο αιώνα π.Χ είναι σπανιότατες. Στο Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) εμφανίζονται μόνο δύο: Υπάρχει μία στην Οδύσσεια (Οδ 4.556) και μία αναφορά του Αριστοτέλη στο ίδιο χωρίο του Ομήρου.
Πηγή Βικιπαίδεια
Αρμονία (Μυθολογία)
Στην ελληνική μυθολογία η Αρμονία ήταν κόρη δύο θεών, κατά τη Θεογονία του Ησιόδου: του Άρεως και της Αφροδίτης και αδελφή του Φόβου και του Δείμου. Παντρεύτηκε τον βασιλιά των Θηβών Κάδμο (Αισχύλου Επτά επί Θήβας, στ. 105, 140, και Βιβλιοθήκη Απολλοδώρου Γ 4, 2). Οι περισσότερες από τις θηβαϊκές γενεαλογίες σχετίζονται με αυτό το βασιλικό ζεύγος, και όλες οι μεγάλες οικογένειες των Θηβών ισχυρίζονταν ότι κατάγονταν από αυτούς. Ακόμα και οι Αμαζόνες σύμφωνα με μία παράδοση ήταν κόρες της Αρμονίας. Ωστόσο, κατά μία άλλη εκδοχή, η Αρμονία ήταν κόρη του Δία και της Ηλέκτρας, και καταγόταν από τη Σαμοθράκη, από όπου είχε απαχθεί από τον Κάδμο. Αυτή την εκδοχή ασπάζεται ο Απολλώνιος ο Ρόδιος (Α 916).
Στους γάμους της Αρμονίας ήταν παρόντες όλοι οι θεοί και οι θεές, που κατέβηκαν από την κορυφή του Ολύμπου, με πλούσια και θαυμαστά δώρα, ενώ οι Μούσες τραγούδησαν τον ύμνο του υμεναίου. Παιδιά του Κάδμου και της Αρμονίας ήταν η Σεμέλη (μητέρα του θεού Διονύσου), η Ινώ (μητέρα του Μελικέρτη), η Αυτονόη (μητέρα του Ακταίωνα), η Αγαύη (μητέρα του Πενθέα και ο Πολύδωρος, πατέρας του Λαβδάκου, που έγινε πρόγονος του Οιδίποδα.
Κάποτε, ο Κάδμος και η Αρμονία εγκατέλειψαν τη Βοιωτία, αφήνοντας στον θρόνο τον εγγονό τους Πενθέα, και πήγαν να περάσουν τα ύστερά τους κοντά στους Ιλλυριούς. Στο τέλος της ζωής τους και οι δυο τους μεταμορφώθηκαν σε δράκοντες και μεταφέρθηκαν από τον Δία στα Ηλύσια Πεδία (Πίνδαρος, Ολυμπιόνικοι Β 78). Κοινό γνώρισμα της θηβαϊκής και της σαμοθρακικής παραλλαγής του μύθου της Αρμονίας είναι το ότι η Αρμονία φέρεται ως σύζυγος του Κάδμου.
Ιδιαίτερη σημασία έχουν τα γαμήλια δώρα των θεών προς την Αρμονία: τα σπουδαιότερα δύο ήταν η εσθήτα και το περιδέραιο. Η εσθήτα πιστευόταν ότι ήταν δώρο της Αφροδίτης ή της Αθηνάς, υφασμένο από τις Χάριτες. Το περιδέραιο ήταν δώρο του θεού Ηφαίστου. Αλλά και τα δύο δώρα στάθηκαν μοιραία αργότερα, για κάποιους από τους απογόνους της Αρμονίας (βλ. Αλκμαίων, Αμφιάραος).
Σύμφωνα με άλλη παράδοση, αμφότερα ήταν δώρα του ίδιου του Κάδμου προς τη σύζυγό του, θεϊκής προελεύσεως βέβαια: ο Κάδμος τα διατηρούσε από την Ευρώπη, στην οποία τα είχε χαρίσει ο Δίας. Σε μια τρίτη παράδοση, η εσθήτα της Αρμονίας ήταν δημιούργημα της Αθηνάς και του Ηφαίστου ποτισμένο με δηλητήριο. Ο λόγος ήταν ότι οι δύο θεοί μισούσαν την Αρμονία ως καρπό της μοιχείας της Αφροδίτης με τον Άρη (η Αφροδίτη ήταν σύζυγος του Ηφαίστου).
Πηγή Βικιπαίδεια
Στους γάμους της Αρμονίας ήταν παρόντες όλοι οι θεοί και οι θεές, που κατέβηκαν από την κορυφή του Ολύμπου, με πλούσια και θαυμαστά δώρα, ενώ οι Μούσες τραγούδησαν τον ύμνο του υμεναίου. Παιδιά του Κάδμου και της Αρμονίας ήταν η Σεμέλη (μητέρα του θεού Διονύσου), η Ινώ (μητέρα του Μελικέρτη), η Αυτονόη (μητέρα του Ακταίωνα), η Αγαύη (μητέρα του Πενθέα και ο Πολύδωρος, πατέρας του Λαβδάκου, που έγινε πρόγονος του Οιδίποδα.
Κάποτε, ο Κάδμος και η Αρμονία εγκατέλειψαν τη Βοιωτία, αφήνοντας στον θρόνο τον εγγονό τους Πενθέα, και πήγαν να περάσουν τα ύστερά τους κοντά στους Ιλλυριούς. Στο τέλος της ζωής τους και οι δυο τους μεταμορφώθηκαν σε δράκοντες και μεταφέρθηκαν από τον Δία στα Ηλύσια Πεδία (Πίνδαρος, Ολυμπιόνικοι Β 78). Κοινό γνώρισμα της θηβαϊκής και της σαμοθρακικής παραλλαγής του μύθου της Αρμονίας είναι το ότι η Αρμονία φέρεται ως σύζυγος του Κάδμου.
Ιδιαίτερη σημασία έχουν τα γαμήλια δώρα των θεών προς την Αρμονία: τα σπουδαιότερα δύο ήταν η εσθήτα και το περιδέραιο. Η εσθήτα πιστευόταν ότι ήταν δώρο της Αφροδίτης ή της Αθηνάς, υφασμένο από τις Χάριτες. Το περιδέραιο ήταν δώρο του θεού Ηφαίστου. Αλλά και τα δύο δώρα στάθηκαν μοιραία αργότερα, για κάποιους από τους απογόνους της Αρμονίας (βλ. Αλκμαίων, Αμφιάραος).
Σύμφωνα με άλλη παράδοση, αμφότερα ήταν δώρα του ίδιου του Κάδμου προς τη σύζυγό του, θεϊκής προελεύσεως βέβαια: ο Κάδμος τα διατηρούσε από την Ευρώπη, στην οποία τα είχε χαρίσει ο Δίας. Σε μια τρίτη παράδοση, η εσθήτα της Αρμονίας ήταν δημιούργημα της Αθηνάς και του Ηφαίστου ποτισμένο με δηλητήριο. Ο λόγος ήταν ότι οι δύο θεοί μισούσαν την Αρμονία ως καρπό της μοιχείας της Αφροδίτης με τον Άρη (η Αφροδίτη ήταν σύζυγος του Ηφαίστου).
Πηγή Βικιπαίδεια
Monday, August 25, 2014
The story of John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash, Jr. (born June 13, 1928) is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the factors that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life. His theories are used in market economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.
Nash is the subject of the 2001 Hollywood movie A Beautiful Mind. The film, loosely based on the biography of the same name, focuses on Nash's mathematical genius and also his schizophrenia.
Youth
Nash was born on June 13, 1928, in Bluefield, West Virginia. His father, after whom he is named, was an electrical engineer for the Appalachian Electric Power Company. His mother, born Margaret Virginia Martin and known as Virginia, had been a schoolteacher before she married. He had a younger sister, Martha, born November 16, 1930.
Education
Nash attended kindergarten and public school. His parents and grandparents provided books and encyclopedias that he learned from. Nash's grandmother played piano at home, and Nash had positive memories of listening to her when he visited. Nash's parents pursued opportunities to supplement their son's education, and arranged for him to take advanced mathematics courses at a local community college during his final year of high school. Nash attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a full scholarship, the George Westinghouse Scholarship, and initially majored in Chemical Engineering. He switched to Chemistry, and eventually to Mathematics. After graduating in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Science in Mathematics, he accepted a scholarship to Princeton University, where he pursued further graduate studies in Mathematics.
Nash's advisor and former Carnegie Tech professor R. J. Duffin wrote a letter of recommendation consisting of a single sentence: "This man is a genius." Nash was accepted by Harvard University, but the chairman of the mathematics department of Princeton, Solomon Lefschetz, offered him the John S. Kennedy fellowship, which was enough to convince Nash that Harvard valued him less. Nash also considered Princeton more favorably because of its location closer to his family in Bluefield. He went to Princeton where he worked on his equilibrium theory.
Personal life
In 1951, Nash went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a C. L. E. Moore Instructor in the mathematics faculty. There, he met Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Lardé (born January 1, 1933), a naturalized U.S. citizen from El Salvador. De Lardé graduated from M.I.T., having majored in physics. They married in February 1957 at a Catholic ceremony, although Nash was an atheist. Nash experienced the first symptoms of mental illness in early 1959, when his wife was pregnant with their child. He resigned his position as member of the M.I.T. mathematics faculty in the spring of 1959. Nash's wife admitted Nash to the McLean Hospital for schizophrenia in 1959; their son, John Charles Martin Nash, was born soon afterward, but remained nameless for a year because his mother felt that her husband should have a say in the name.
Nash and de Lardé divorced in 1963, though after his final hospital discharge in 1970, Nash lived in de Lardé's house. They remarried in 2001.
Before his marriage, Nash also had a son named John David Stier from a relationship with Eleanor Stier, a nurse he met while she was caring for him as a patient. The film based on Nash's life, A Beautiful Mind, was criticized during the run-up to the 2002 Oscars for omitting this supposedly unsavory aspect of his life, given that he was alleged to have declined to marry Eleanor based on her social status, which he thought to have been beneath his.
In 1954, Nash was arrested for indecent exposure in a police trap in Santa Monica, California. Although the charges were dropped, he was stripped of his top-secret security clearance and fired from RAND Corporation where he had spent a few summers as a consultant.
Nash has been a longtime resident of West Windsor Township, New Jersey.
Mental illness
Nash began to show signs of extreme paranoia, and his wife later described his behavior as erratic, as he began speaking of characters like Charles Herman and William Parcher who were putting him in danger. Nash seemed to believe that all men who wore red ties were part of a communist conspiracy against him. Nash mailed letters to embassies in Washington, D.C., declaring that they were establishing a government.
He was admitted to the McLean Hospital, April–May 1959, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The clinical picture is dominated by relatively stable, often paranoid, fixed beliefs that are either false, over-imaginative or unrealistic, usually accompanied by experiences of seemingly real perception of something not actually present — particularly auditory and perceptional disturbances, a lack of motivation for life, and mild clinical depression.
In 1961, Nash was admitted to the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton. Over the next nine years, he spent periods in psychiatric hospitals, where, aside from receiving antipsychotic medications, he was administered insulin shock therapy.
Although he sometimes took prescribed medication, Nash later wrote that he only ever did so under pressure. After 1970, he was never committed to a hospital again, and he refused any further medication. According to Nash, the film A Beautiful Mind inaccurately implied that he was taking the new atypical antipsychotics during this period. He attributed the depiction to the screenwriter (whose mother, he notes, was a psychiatrist), who was worried about the film encouraging people with the disorder to stop taking their medication. Others, however, have questioned whether the fabrication obscured a key question as to whether recovery from problems like Nash's can actually be hindered by such drugs. Nash has said they are overrated and that the adverse effects are not given enough consideration once someone is deemed mentally ill. According to Sylvia Nasar, author of the book A Beautiful Mind, on which the movie was based, Nash recovered gradually with the passage of time. Encouraged by his then former wife, de Lardé, Nash worked in a communitarian setting where his eccentricities were accepted. De Lardé said of Nash, "it's just a question of living a quiet life".
Nash dates the start of what he terms "mental disturbances" to the early months of 1959 when his wife was pregnant. He has described a process of change "from scientific rationality of thinking into the delusional thinking characteristic of persons who are psychiatrically diagnosed as 'schizophrenic' or 'paranoid schizophrenic'" including seeing himself as a messenger or having a special function in some way, and with supporters and opponents and hidden schemers, and a feeling of being persecuted, and looking for signs representing divine revelation. Nash has suggested his delusional thinking was related to his unhappiness and his striving to feel important and be recognized, and to his characteristic way of thinking, saying, "I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally." He has also said, "If I felt completely pressureless I don't think I would have gone in this pattern". He does not see a categorical distinction between terms such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Nash reports that he did not hear voices until around 1964, later engaging in a process of rejecting them. He reports that he was always taken to hospitals against his will, and only temporarily renounced his "dream-like delusional hypotheses" after being in a hospital long enough to decide to superficially conform – to behave normally or to experience "enforced rationality". Only gradually on his own did he "intellectually reject" some of the "delusionally influenced" and "politically oriented" thinking as a waste of effort. However, by 1995, although he was "thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists," he says he also felt more limited.
Writing in 1994, Nash stated:
"I spent times of the order of five to eight months in hospitals in New Jersey, always on an involuntary basis and always attempting a legal argument for release. And it did happen that when I had been long enough hospitalized that I would finally renounce my delusional hypotheses and revert to thinking of myself as a human of more conventional circumstances and return to mathematical research. In these interludes of, as it were, enforced rationality, I did succeed in doing some respectable mathematical research. Thus there came about the research for "Le problème de Cauchy pour les équations différentielles d'un fluide général"; the idea that Prof. Hironaka called 'the Nash blowing-up transformation'; and those of 'Arc Structure of Singularities' and 'Analyticity of Solutions of Implicit Function Problems with Analytic Data'.
"But after my return to the dream-like delusional hypotheses in the later 60's I became a person of delusionally influenced thinking but of relatively moderate behavior and thus tended to avoid hospitalization and the direct attention of psychiatrists.
"Thus further time passed. Then gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation. This began, most recognizably, with the rejection of politically oriented thinking as essentially a hopeless waste of intellectual effort. So at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists."
Recognition and later career
At Princeton, campus legend Nash became "The Phantom of Fine Hall" (Princeton's mathematics center), a shadowy figure who would scribble arcane equations on blackboards in the middle of the night. The legend appears in a work of fiction based on Princeton life, The Mind-Body Problem, by Rebecca Goldstein.
In 1978, Nash was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize for his discovery of non-cooperative equilibria, now called Nash equilibria. He won the Leroy P. Steele Prize in 1999.
In 1994, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (along with John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten) as a result of his game theory work as a Princeton graduate student. In the late 1980s, Nash had begun to use email to gradually link with working mathematicians who realized that he was the John Nash and that his new work had value. They formed part of the nucleus of a group that contacted the Bank of Sweden's Nobel award committee and were able to vouch for Nash's mental health ability to receive the award in recognition of his early work.
As of 2011 Nash's recent work involves ventures in advanced game theory, including partial agency, which show that, as in his early career, he prefers to select his own path and problems. Between 1945 and 1996, he published 23 scientific studies.
Nash has suggested hypotheses on mental illness. He has compared not thinking in an acceptable manner, or being "insane" and not fitting into a usual social function, to being "on strike" from an economic point of view. He has advanced evolutionary psychology views about the value of human diversity and the potential benefits of apparently nonstandard behaviors or roles.
Nash has developed work on the role of money in society. Within the framing theorem that people can be so controlled and motivated by money that they may not be able to reason rationally about it, he has criticized interest groups that promote quasi-doctrines based on Keynesian economics that permit manipulative short-term inflation and debt tactics that ultimately undermine currencies. He has suggested a global "industrial consumption price index" system that would support the development of more "ideal money" that people could trust rather than more unstable "bad money". He notes that some of his thinking parallels economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek's thinking regarding money and a nontypical viewpoint of the function of the authorities.
Nash received an honorary degree, Doctor of Science and Technology, from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999, an honorary degree in economics from the University of Naples Federico II on March 19, 2003, an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of Antwerp in April 2007, and was keynote speaker at a conference on Game Theory. He has also been a prolific guest speaker at a number of world-class events, such as the Warwick Economics Summit in 2005 held at the University of Warwick. In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
(Source Wikipedia)
Nash is the subject of the 2001 Hollywood movie A Beautiful Mind. The film, loosely based on the biography of the same name, focuses on Nash's mathematical genius and also his schizophrenia.
Youth
Nash was born on June 13, 1928, in Bluefield, West Virginia. His father, after whom he is named, was an electrical engineer for the Appalachian Electric Power Company. His mother, born Margaret Virginia Martin and known as Virginia, had been a schoolteacher before she married. He had a younger sister, Martha, born November 16, 1930.
Education
Nash attended kindergarten and public school. His parents and grandparents provided books and encyclopedias that he learned from. Nash's grandmother played piano at home, and Nash had positive memories of listening to her when he visited. Nash's parents pursued opportunities to supplement their son's education, and arranged for him to take advanced mathematics courses at a local community college during his final year of high school. Nash attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a full scholarship, the George Westinghouse Scholarship, and initially majored in Chemical Engineering. He switched to Chemistry, and eventually to Mathematics. After graduating in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Science in Mathematics, he accepted a scholarship to Princeton University, where he pursued further graduate studies in Mathematics.
Nash's advisor and former Carnegie Tech professor R. J. Duffin wrote a letter of recommendation consisting of a single sentence: "This man is a genius." Nash was accepted by Harvard University, but the chairman of the mathematics department of Princeton, Solomon Lefschetz, offered him the John S. Kennedy fellowship, which was enough to convince Nash that Harvard valued him less. Nash also considered Princeton more favorably because of its location closer to his family in Bluefield. He went to Princeton where he worked on his equilibrium theory.
Personal life
In 1951, Nash went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a C. L. E. Moore Instructor in the mathematics faculty. There, he met Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Lardé (born January 1, 1933), a naturalized U.S. citizen from El Salvador. De Lardé graduated from M.I.T., having majored in physics. They married in February 1957 at a Catholic ceremony, although Nash was an atheist. Nash experienced the first symptoms of mental illness in early 1959, when his wife was pregnant with their child. He resigned his position as member of the M.I.T. mathematics faculty in the spring of 1959. Nash's wife admitted Nash to the McLean Hospital for schizophrenia in 1959; their son, John Charles Martin Nash, was born soon afterward, but remained nameless for a year because his mother felt that her husband should have a say in the name.
Nash and de Lardé divorced in 1963, though after his final hospital discharge in 1970, Nash lived in de Lardé's house. They remarried in 2001.
Before his marriage, Nash also had a son named John David Stier from a relationship with Eleanor Stier, a nurse he met while she was caring for him as a patient. The film based on Nash's life, A Beautiful Mind, was criticized during the run-up to the 2002 Oscars for omitting this supposedly unsavory aspect of his life, given that he was alleged to have declined to marry Eleanor based on her social status, which he thought to have been beneath his.
In 1954, Nash was arrested for indecent exposure in a police trap in Santa Monica, California. Although the charges were dropped, he was stripped of his top-secret security clearance and fired from RAND Corporation where he had spent a few summers as a consultant.
Nash has been a longtime resident of West Windsor Township, New Jersey.
Mental illness
Nash began to show signs of extreme paranoia, and his wife later described his behavior as erratic, as he began speaking of characters like Charles Herman and William Parcher who were putting him in danger. Nash seemed to believe that all men who wore red ties were part of a communist conspiracy against him. Nash mailed letters to embassies in Washington, D.C., declaring that they were establishing a government.
He was admitted to the McLean Hospital, April–May 1959, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The clinical picture is dominated by relatively stable, often paranoid, fixed beliefs that are either false, over-imaginative or unrealistic, usually accompanied by experiences of seemingly real perception of something not actually present — particularly auditory and perceptional disturbances, a lack of motivation for life, and mild clinical depression.
In 1961, Nash was admitted to the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton. Over the next nine years, he spent periods in psychiatric hospitals, where, aside from receiving antipsychotic medications, he was administered insulin shock therapy.
Although he sometimes took prescribed medication, Nash later wrote that he only ever did so under pressure. After 1970, he was never committed to a hospital again, and he refused any further medication. According to Nash, the film A Beautiful Mind inaccurately implied that he was taking the new atypical antipsychotics during this period. He attributed the depiction to the screenwriter (whose mother, he notes, was a psychiatrist), who was worried about the film encouraging people with the disorder to stop taking their medication. Others, however, have questioned whether the fabrication obscured a key question as to whether recovery from problems like Nash's can actually be hindered by such drugs. Nash has said they are overrated and that the adverse effects are not given enough consideration once someone is deemed mentally ill. According to Sylvia Nasar, author of the book A Beautiful Mind, on which the movie was based, Nash recovered gradually with the passage of time. Encouraged by his then former wife, de Lardé, Nash worked in a communitarian setting where his eccentricities were accepted. De Lardé said of Nash, "it's just a question of living a quiet life".
Nash dates the start of what he terms "mental disturbances" to the early months of 1959 when his wife was pregnant. He has described a process of change "from scientific rationality of thinking into the delusional thinking characteristic of persons who are psychiatrically diagnosed as 'schizophrenic' or 'paranoid schizophrenic'" including seeing himself as a messenger or having a special function in some way, and with supporters and opponents and hidden schemers, and a feeling of being persecuted, and looking for signs representing divine revelation. Nash has suggested his delusional thinking was related to his unhappiness and his striving to feel important and be recognized, and to his characteristic way of thinking, saying, "I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally." He has also said, "If I felt completely pressureless I don't think I would have gone in this pattern". He does not see a categorical distinction between terms such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Nash reports that he did not hear voices until around 1964, later engaging in a process of rejecting them. He reports that he was always taken to hospitals against his will, and only temporarily renounced his "dream-like delusional hypotheses" after being in a hospital long enough to decide to superficially conform – to behave normally or to experience "enforced rationality". Only gradually on his own did he "intellectually reject" some of the "delusionally influenced" and "politically oriented" thinking as a waste of effort. However, by 1995, although he was "thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists," he says he also felt more limited.
Writing in 1994, Nash stated:
"I spent times of the order of five to eight months in hospitals in New Jersey, always on an involuntary basis and always attempting a legal argument for release. And it did happen that when I had been long enough hospitalized that I would finally renounce my delusional hypotheses and revert to thinking of myself as a human of more conventional circumstances and return to mathematical research. In these interludes of, as it were, enforced rationality, I did succeed in doing some respectable mathematical research. Thus there came about the research for "Le problème de Cauchy pour les équations différentielles d'un fluide général"; the idea that Prof. Hironaka called 'the Nash blowing-up transformation'; and those of 'Arc Structure of Singularities' and 'Analyticity of Solutions of Implicit Function Problems with Analytic Data'.
"But after my return to the dream-like delusional hypotheses in the later 60's I became a person of delusionally influenced thinking but of relatively moderate behavior and thus tended to avoid hospitalization and the direct attention of psychiatrists.
"Thus further time passed. Then gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation. This began, most recognizably, with the rejection of politically oriented thinking as essentially a hopeless waste of intellectual effort. So at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists."
Recognition and later career
At Princeton, campus legend Nash became "The Phantom of Fine Hall" (Princeton's mathematics center), a shadowy figure who would scribble arcane equations on blackboards in the middle of the night. The legend appears in a work of fiction based on Princeton life, The Mind-Body Problem, by Rebecca Goldstein.
In 1978, Nash was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize for his discovery of non-cooperative equilibria, now called Nash equilibria. He won the Leroy P. Steele Prize in 1999.
In 1994, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (along with John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten) as a result of his game theory work as a Princeton graduate student. In the late 1980s, Nash had begun to use email to gradually link with working mathematicians who realized that he was the John Nash and that his new work had value. They formed part of the nucleus of a group that contacted the Bank of Sweden's Nobel award committee and were able to vouch for Nash's mental health ability to receive the award in recognition of his early work.
As of 2011 Nash's recent work involves ventures in advanced game theory, including partial agency, which show that, as in his early career, he prefers to select his own path and problems. Between 1945 and 1996, he published 23 scientific studies.
Nash has suggested hypotheses on mental illness. He has compared not thinking in an acceptable manner, or being "insane" and not fitting into a usual social function, to being "on strike" from an economic point of view. He has advanced evolutionary psychology views about the value of human diversity and the potential benefits of apparently nonstandard behaviors or roles.
Nash has developed work on the role of money in society. Within the framing theorem that people can be so controlled and motivated by money that they may not be able to reason rationally about it, he has criticized interest groups that promote quasi-doctrines based on Keynesian economics that permit manipulative short-term inflation and debt tactics that ultimately undermine currencies. He has suggested a global "industrial consumption price index" system that would support the development of more "ideal money" that people could trust rather than more unstable "bad money". He notes that some of his thinking parallels economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek's thinking regarding money and a nontypical viewpoint of the function of the authorities.
Nash received an honorary degree, Doctor of Science and Technology, from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999, an honorary degree in economics from the University of Naples Federico II on March 19, 2003, an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of Antwerp in April 2007, and was keynote speaker at a conference on Game Theory. He has also been a prolific guest speaker at a number of world-class events, such as the Warwick Economics Summit in 2005 held at the University of Warwick. In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
(Source Wikipedia)
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
The Baroque Period of Arts
By The Encyclopedia Britannica
Baroque period, era in the history of the Western arts roughly coinciding with the 17th century. Its earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain of its culminating achievements did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts.
The origin of the term
The term Baroque probably ultimately derived from the Italian word barocco, which was a term used by philosophers during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Subsequently the word came to denote any contorted idea or involuted process of thought. Another possible source is the Portuguese word barroco (Spanish barrueco), used to describe an irregular or imperfectly shaped pearl, and this usage still survives in the jeweler’s term baroque pearl.
In art criticism the word Baroque came to be used to describe anything irregular, bizarre, or otherwise departing from established rules and proportions. This biased view of 17th-century art styles was held with few modifications by critics from Johann Winckelmann to John Ruskin and Jacob Burckhardt, and until the late 19th century the term always carried the implication of odd, grotesque, exaggerated, and overdecorated. It was only with Heinrich Wölfflin’s pioneer study Renaissance und Barock (1888) that Baroque was used as a stylistic designation rather than as a term of thinly veiled abuse, and a systematic formulation of the characteristics of Baroque style was achieved.
Three main tendencies of the era
Because the arts present such diversity within the Baroque period, their unifying characteristics must be sought in relation to the era’s broader cultural and intellectual tendencies, of which three are most important for their effect on the arts. The first of these was the emergence of the Counter-Reformation and the expansion of its domain, both territorially and intellectually. By the last decades of the 16th century the refined, courtly style known as Mannerism had ceased to be an effective means of expression, and its inadequacy for religious art was being increasingly felt in artistic circles. To counter the inroads made by the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church after the Council of Trent (1545–63) adopted a propagandistic stance in which art was to serve as a means of extending and stimulating the public’s faith in the church. To this end the church adopted a conscious artistic program whose art products would make an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful. The Baroque style that evolved from this program was paradoxically both sensuous and spiritual; while a naturalistic treatment rendered the religious image more accessible to the average churchgoer, dramatic and illusory effects were used to stimulate piety and devotion and convey an impression of the splendour of the divine. Baroque church ceilings thus dissolved in painted scenes that presented vivid views of the infinite to the observer and directed the senses toward heavenly concerns.
The second tendency was the consolidation of absolute monarchies, accompanied by a simultaneous crystallization of a prominent and powerful middle class, which now came to play a role in art patronage. Baroque palaces were built on an expanded and monumental scale in order to display the power and grandeur of the centralized state, a phenomenon best displayed in the royal palace and gardens at Versailles. Yet at the same time the development of a picture market for the middle class and its taste for realism may be seen in the works of the brothers Le Nain and Georges de La Tour in France and in the varied schools of 17th-century Dutch painting.
The third tendency was a new interest in nature and a general broadening of human intellectual horizons, spurred by developments in science and by explorations of the globe. These simultaneously produced a new sense both of human insignificance (particularly abetted by the Copernican displacement of the Earth from the centre of the universe) and of the unsuspected complexity and infinitude of the natural world. The development of 17th-century landscape painting, in which humans are frequently portrayed as minute figures in a vast natural setting, is indicative of this changing awareness of the human condition.
The visual arts
The arts present an unusual diversity in the Baroque period, chiefly because currents of naturalism and classicism coexisted and intermingled with the typical Baroque style. Indeed, Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio, the two Italian painters who decisively broke with Mannerism in the 1590s and thus helped usher in the Baroque style, painted, respectively, in classicistic and realist modes. A specifically Baroque style of painting arose in Rome in the 1620s and culminated in the monumental painted ceilings and other church decorations of Pietro da Cortona, Guido Reni, Il Guercino, Domenichino, and countless lesser artists. The greatest of the Baroque sculptor-architects was Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who designed both the baldachin with spiral columns above the altar of St. Peter’s in Rome and the vast colonnade fronting that church. Baroque architecture as developed by Bernini, Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini, and Guarino Guarini emphasized massiveness and monumentality, movement, dramatic spatial and lighting sequences, and a rich interior decoration using contrasting surface textures, vivid colours, and luxurious materials to heighten the structure’s physical immediacy and evoke sensual delight.
Pronounced classicizing tendencies subdued the Baroque impulse in France, as is evident in the serious, logical, orderly paintings of Nicolas Poussin and the somewhat more sumptuous works of Charles Le Brun and the portraitists Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière. French architecture is even less recognizably Baroque in its pronounced qualities of subtlety, elegance, and restraint. Baroque tenets were enthusiastically adopted in staunchly Roman Catholic Spain, however, particularly in architecture. The greatest of the Spanish builders, José Benito Churriguera, shows most fully the Spanish interest in surface textures and lush detail. He attracted many followers, and their adaptations of his style, labeled Churrigueresque, spread throughout Spain’s colonies in the Americas and elsewhere. Diego Velázquez and other 17th-century Spanish painters used a sombre but powerful naturalistic approach that bore little direct relation to the mainstream of Baroque painting.
The Baroque made only limited inroads into northern Europe, notably in what is now Belgium. That Spanish-ruled, largely Roman Catholic region’s greatest master was the painter Peter Paul Rubens, whose tempestuous diagonal compositions and ample, full-blooded figures are the epitome of Baroque painting. The elegant portraits of Anthony Van Dyck and the robust figurative works of Jacob Jordaens emulated Rubens’s example. Art in Holland was conditioned by the realist tastes of its dominant middle-class patrons, and thus both the innumerable genre and landscape painters of that country and such towering masters as Rembrandt and Frans Hals remained independent of the Baroque style in important respects. The Baroque did have a notable impact in England, however, particularly in the churches and palaces designed, respectively, by Sir Christopher Wren and Sir John Vanbrugh.
The last flowering of the Baroque was in largely Roman Catholic southern Germany and Austria, where the native architects broke away from Italian building models in the 1720s. In ornate churches, monasteries, and palaces designed by J.B. Fischer von Erlach, J.L. von Hildebrandt, the Asam brothers, Balthasar Neumann, and Dominikus Zimmermann, an extraordinarily rich but delicate style of stucco decoration was used in combination with painted surfaces to evoke subtle illusionistic effects.
Music and literature in the Baroque period
One of the most dramatic turning points in the history of music occurred at the beginning of the 17th century, with Italy again leading the way. While the stile antico, the universal polyphonic style of the 16th century, continued, it was henceforth reserved for sacred music, while the stile moderno, or nuove musiche—with its emphasis on solo voice, polarity of the melody and the bass line, and interest in expressive harmony—developed for secular usage. The expanded vocabulary allowed for a clearer distinction between sacred and secular music as well as between vocal and instrumental idioms, and national differences became more pronounced. The Baroque period in music, as in other arts, therefore, was one of stylistic diversity. The opera, oratorio, and cantata were the most important new vocal forms, while the sonata, concerto, and overture were created for instrumental music. Claudio Monteverdi was the first great composer of the “new music.” He was followed in Italy by Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Pergolesi. The instrumental tradition in Italy found its great Baroque composers in Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giuseppe Tartini. Jean-Baptiste Lully, a major composer of opera, and Jean Philippe Rameau were the masters of Baroque music in France. In England the total theatrical experience of the Stuart masques was followed by the achievements in vocal music of the German-born, Italian-trained George Frideric Handel, while his countryman Johann Sebastian Bach developed Baroque sacred music in Germany. Other notable German Baroque composers include Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Georg Philipp Telemann.
The literature that may specifically be called Baroque may be seen most characteristically in the writings of Giambattista Marino in Italy, Luis de Góngora in Spain, and Martin Opitz in Germany. English Metaphysical poetry, most notably much of John Donne’s, is allied with Baroque literature. The Baroque period ended in the 18th century with a transition of its characteristic style into the lighter, less dramatic, more overtly decorative Rococo style.
(Source Britannica http://www.britannica.com/)
Baroque period, era in the history of the Western arts roughly coinciding with the 17th century. Its earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain of its culminating achievements did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts.
The origin of the term
The term Baroque probably ultimately derived from the Italian word barocco, which was a term used by philosophers during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Subsequently the word came to denote any contorted idea or involuted process of thought. Another possible source is the Portuguese word barroco (Spanish barrueco), used to describe an irregular or imperfectly shaped pearl, and this usage still survives in the jeweler’s term baroque pearl.
In art criticism the word Baroque came to be used to describe anything irregular, bizarre, or otherwise departing from established rules and proportions. This biased view of 17th-century art styles was held with few modifications by critics from Johann Winckelmann to John Ruskin and Jacob Burckhardt, and until the late 19th century the term always carried the implication of odd, grotesque, exaggerated, and overdecorated. It was only with Heinrich Wölfflin’s pioneer study Renaissance und Barock (1888) that Baroque was used as a stylistic designation rather than as a term of thinly veiled abuse, and a systematic formulation of the characteristics of Baroque style was achieved.
Three main tendencies of the era
Because the arts present such diversity within the Baroque period, their unifying characteristics must be sought in relation to the era’s broader cultural and intellectual tendencies, of which three are most important for their effect on the arts. The first of these was the emergence of the Counter-Reformation and the expansion of its domain, both territorially and intellectually. By the last decades of the 16th century the refined, courtly style known as Mannerism had ceased to be an effective means of expression, and its inadequacy for religious art was being increasingly felt in artistic circles. To counter the inroads made by the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church after the Council of Trent (1545–63) adopted a propagandistic stance in which art was to serve as a means of extending and stimulating the public’s faith in the church. To this end the church adopted a conscious artistic program whose art products would make an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful. The Baroque style that evolved from this program was paradoxically both sensuous and spiritual; while a naturalistic treatment rendered the religious image more accessible to the average churchgoer, dramatic and illusory effects were used to stimulate piety and devotion and convey an impression of the splendour of the divine. Baroque church ceilings thus dissolved in painted scenes that presented vivid views of the infinite to the observer and directed the senses toward heavenly concerns.
The second tendency was the consolidation of absolute monarchies, accompanied by a simultaneous crystallization of a prominent and powerful middle class, which now came to play a role in art patronage. Baroque palaces were built on an expanded and monumental scale in order to display the power and grandeur of the centralized state, a phenomenon best displayed in the royal palace and gardens at Versailles. Yet at the same time the development of a picture market for the middle class and its taste for realism may be seen in the works of the brothers Le Nain and Georges de La Tour in France and in the varied schools of 17th-century Dutch painting.
The third tendency was a new interest in nature and a general broadening of human intellectual horizons, spurred by developments in science and by explorations of the globe. These simultaneously produced a new sense both of human insignificance (particularly abetted by the Copernican displacement of the Earth from the centre of the universe) and of the unsuspected complexity and infinitude of the natural world. The development of 17th-century landscape painting, in which humans are frequently portrayed as minute figures in a vast natural setting, is indicative of this changing awareness of the human condition.
The visual arts
The arts present an unusual diversity in the Baroque period, chiefly because currents of naturalism and classicism coexisted and intermingled with the typical Baroque style. Indeed, Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio, the two Italian painters who decisively broke with Mannerism in the 1590s and thus helped usher in the Baroque style, painted, respectively, in classicistic and realist modes. A specifically Baroque style of painting arose in Rome in the 1620s and culminated in the monumental painted ceilings and other church decorations of Pietro da Cortona, Guido Reni, Il Guercino, Domenichino, and countless lesser artists. The greatest of the Baroque sculptor-architects was Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who designed both the baldachin with spiral columns above the altar of St. Peter’s in Rome and the vast colonnade fronting that church. Baroque architecture as developed by Bernini, Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini, and Guarino Guarini emphasized massiveness and monumentality, movement, dramatic spatial and lighting sequences, and a rich interior decoration using contrasting surface textures, vivid colours, and luxurious materials to heighten the structure’s physical immediacy and evoke sensual delight.
Pronounced classicizing tendencies subdued the Baroque impulse in France, as is evident in the serious, logical, orderly paintings of Nicolas Poussin and the somewhat more sumptuous works of Charles Le Brun and the portraitists Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière. French architecture is even less recognizably Baroque in its pronounced qualities of subtlety, elegance, and restraint. Baroque tenets were enthusiastically adopted in staunchly Roman Catholic Spain, however, particularly in architecture. The greatest of the Spanish builders, José Benito Churriguera, shows most fully the Spanish interest in surface textures and lush detail. He attracted many followers, and their adaptations of his style, labeled Churrigueresque, spread throughout Spain’s colonies in the Americas and elsewhere. Diego Velázquez and other 17th-century Spanish painters used a sombre but powerful naturalistic approach that bore little direct relation to the mainstream of Baroque painting.
The Baroque made only limited inroads into northern Europe, notably in what is now Belgium. That Spanish-ruled, largely Roman Catholic region’s greatest master was the painter Peter Paul Rubens, whose tempestuous diagonal compositions and ample, full-blooded figures are the epitome of Baroque painting. The elegant portraits of Anthony Van Dyck and the robust figurative works of Jacob Jordaens emulated Rubens’s example. Art in Holland was conditioned by the realist tastes of its dominant middle-class patrons, and thus both the innumerable genre and landscape painters of that country and such towering masters as Rembrandt and Frans Hals remained independent of the Baroque style in important respects. The Baroque did have a notable impact in England, however, particularly in the churches and palaces designed, respectively, by Sir Christopher Wren and Sir John Vanbrugh.
The last flowering of the Baroque was in largely Roman Catholic southern Germany and Austria, where the native architects broke away from Italian building models in the 1720s. In ornate churches, monasteries, and palaces designed by J.B. Fischer von Erlach, J.L. von Hildebrandt, the Asam brothers, Balthasar Neumann, and Dominikus Zimmermann, an extraordinarily rich but delicate style of stucco decoration was used in combination with painted surfaces to evoke subtle illusionistic effects.
Music and literature in the Baroque period
One of the most dramatic turning points in the history of music occurred at the beginning of the 17th century, with Italy again leading the way. While the stile antico, the universal polyphonic style of the 16th century, continued, it was henceforth reserved for sacred music, while the stile moderno, or nuove musiche—with its emphasis on solo voice, polarity of the melody and the bass line, and interest in expressive harmony—developed for secular usage. The expanded vocabulary allowed for a clearer distinction between sacred and secular music as well as between vocal and instrumental idioms, and national differences became more pronounced. The Baroque period in music, as in other arts, therefore, was one of stylistic diversity. The opera, oratorio, and cantata were the most important new vocal forms, while the sonata, concerto, and overture were created for instrumental music. Claudio Monteverdi was the first great composer of the “new music.” He was followed in Italy by Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Pergolesi. The instrumental tradition in Italy found its great Baroque composers in Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giuseppe Tartini. Jean-Baptiste Lully, a major composer of opera, and Jean Philippe Rameau were the masters of Baroque music in France. In England the total theatrical experience of the Stuart masques was followed by the achievements in vocal music of the German-born, Italian-trained George Frideric Handel, while his countryman Johann Sebastian Bach developed Baroque sacred music in Germany. Other notable German Baroque composers include Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Georg Philipp Telemann.
The literature that may specifically be called Baroque may be seen most characteristically in the writings of Giambattista Marino in Italy, Luis de Góngora in Spain, and Martin Opitz in Germany. English Metaphysical poetry, most notably much of John Donne’s, is allied with Baroque literature. The Baroque period ended in the 18th century with a transition of its characteristic style into the lighter, less dramatic, more overtly decorative Rococo style.
(Source Britannica http://www.britannica.com/)
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