Anoraknophobia - This is the Twenty First Century
'(...If you could only see what I've seen with
your eyes)'
This is not noticeably audible on the song, although it appears at the top
of the lyric sheet. My speakers certainly wont go up loud enough to hear if
it's there. Maybe there's an audiophile out there has heard it?
Rich Harding said: "I'm
pretty sure the quote is a misquote of 'If only you could see what I've seen
with your eyes' by the replicant Roy Batty to the Chinese bloke who made the
eyes for the replicants, from the Ridley Scott film Bladerunner."
'A wise man once said... ...And evolution'
Opinion is divided as to exactly which scientists are referred to in the
song. Some best guesses follow. My initial thought was that it might be
Richard Dawkins, a scientist who emphatically states that there is no god
and that we are all just a series of chemical reactions, and mechanical
processes, powered by instinct. He brooks no leverage with the notion that
there might be a soul or God. However, having just read a big book about
evolution and having learnt that Darwin wrote an entire book about flowers
and their sex organs, I'm rather more inclined to think it's him!
From
http://b.cartage.org.lb/web/bio/bio/D/Dawkins/1.html
"Dawkins, Richard (1941-)
"British zoologist whose book The
Selfish Gene 1976 popularized the theories of sociobiology (social
behaviour in humans and animals in the context of evolution).
"In The Blind Watchmaker 1986 he
explained the modern theory of evolution. Dawkins was born in Nairobi,
Kenya, and educated at Oxford, where from 1975 he held academic posts.
"In The Selfish Gene he argued
that genes - not individuals, populations, or species - are the driving
force of evolution. He suggested an analogous system of cultural
transmission in human societies, and proposed the term 'mimeme',
abbreviated to 'meme', as the unit of such a scheme. He considered the
idea of God to be a meme with a high survival value. His contentions were
further developed in The Extended Phenotype 1982, primarily an
academic work. "
Rich Harding suggests: Kevin Warwick -
Reading University professor, author of March of the Machines, and
many other articles, examining artificial intelligence, how and whether it
can be measured, what constitutes machine intelligence etc.
From
http://www.kevinwarwick.com/
"Kevin Warwick
"Dr. Kevin Warwick is Professor of
Cybernetics at the University of Reading, UK where he carries out research
in artificial intelligence, control and robotics. His favourite topic is
pushing back the frontiers of machine intelligence. Kevin has published
over 300 research papers and his latest paperback In the Mind of the
Machine gives a warning of a future in which machines are more
intelligent than humans. He has been awarded higher doctorates both by
Imperial College and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague and has been
described (by Gillian Anderson of the X-Files) (Oh well, if she
said it..! Jeez. - Incredulous Ed) as Britain’s leading prophet of the
robot age. He appears in the 1999 Guinness Book of Records for an Internet
robot learning experiment. In 1998 he shocked the international scientific
community by having a silicon chip transponder surgically implanted in his
left arm. A series of further implant experiments is now planned in which
Kevin’s nervous system will be linked to a computer.
"
Rich also suggests Stephen Hawking.
Professor Stephen Hawking, author of 'A brief history of Time', who
certainly gets to the point of almost equating numbers and God. From
http://b.cartage.org.lb/web/bio/bio/H/Hawking/1.html
"Hawking, Stephen William (1942-)
"English physicist whose work in
general relativity - particularly gravitational field theory - led to a
search for a quantum theory of gravity to explain black holes and the Big
Bang, singularities that classical relativity theory does not adequately
explain.
"Hawking's objective of producing an
overall synthesis of quantum mechanics and relativity theory began around
the time of the publication of his seminal book The Large Scale
Structure of Space-Time, written with G. F. R. Ellis, 1973. His most
remarkable result, published in 1974, was that black holes could in fact
emit particles in the form of thermal radiation - the so-called Hawking
radiation.
"Hawking was born in Oxford, studied at
Oxford and Cambridge, and became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at
Cambridge 1979.
"Hawking's most fruitful work was with
black holes, stars that have undergone total gravitational collapse and
whose gravity is so great that nothing, not even light, can escape from
them. Since 1974, he has studied the behaviour of matter in the immediate
vicinity of a black hole, concluding that black holes do, contrary to
expectation, emit radiation. He has proposed a physical explanation for
this 'Hawking radiation' which relies on the quantum-mechanical concept of
'virtual particles' - these exist as particle-antiparticle pairs and are
supposed to fill 'empty' space. Hawking suggested that, when such a
particle is created near a black hole, one half of the pair might
disappear into the black hole, leaving the other half, which could escape
to infinity. This would be seen by a distant observer as thermal
radiation.
"Confined to a wheelchair because of a
rare and progressive neuromotor disease, Hawking remains mentally active.
His book A Brief History of Time 1988 gives a popular account of
cosmology and became an international bestseller."
'A wise man once wrote... Natural selection'
Shaye Lewis said: "I
think they're all different guys... I think the natural selection guy may be
Darwin."
From
http://b.cartage.org.lb/web/bio/bio/D/Darwin/1.html
"Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882)
"English scientist who developed the
modern theory of evolution and proposed, with Alfred Russel Wallace, the
principle of natural selection. After research in South America and the
Galápagos Islands as naturalist on HMS Beagle 1831-36, Darwin published
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation
of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life 1859. This explained the
evolutionary process through the principles of natural and sexual
selection. It aroused bitter controversy because it disagreed with the
literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
"The theory of natural selection
concerned the variation existing between members of a sexually reproducing
population. According to Darwin, those members with variations better
fitted to the environment would be more likely to survive and breed,
subsequently passing on these favourable characteristics to their
offspring.
"On the Origin of Species also refuted
earlier evolutionary theories, such as those of French naturalist J B de
Lamarck. Darwin himself played little part in the debates, but his
Descent of Man 1871 added fuel to the theological discussion, in which
English scientist T H Huxley and German zoologist Ernst Haeckel took
leading parts.
"Darwin also made important discoveries
in many other areas, including the fertilization mechanisms of plants, the
classification of barnacles, and the formation of coral reefs. Darwin was
born in Shrewsbury, the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, and studied medicine
at Edinburgh and theology at Cambridge. His first book was Journal of
Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries
Visited by HMS Beagle 1839. By 1844 he had enlarged his sketch of
ideas to an essay of his conclusions, but then left his theory for eight
years while he studied barnacles. In 1858 he was forced into action by the
receipt of a memoir from A R Wallace, embodying the same theory.
"Darwinism alone is not enough to
explain the evolution of sterile worker bees, or altruism. Neo-Darwinism,
the current theory of evolution, is a synthesis of Darwin and genetics
based on the work of Austrian scientist Gregor Mendel.
"
'The universe demystified, Astronomy instead'
Shaye Lewis said: "I
think this line is a direct reference to Walt Whitman's When I Heard the
Learn'd Astronomer."
When I Heard the
Learn'd Astronomer - Walt Witman
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure
them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured
with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
'There's a man up in a mirrored building And
he just bought the world'
A general feeling is that this might refer to Bill Gates, although it could
just as easily refer to someone like real life James Bond villain Rupert
Murdoch.
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