Interlinked (or Of Men and Machines)

The Baseline Test in „Blade Runner 2049” is based off the book „Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov. In Pale Fire, the fictional poet John Shade sees a tall white fountain during a near-death experience – the image’s presence would always console him. Later Shade reads about a woman in a magazine who came close to…

Minor Heaven

Karin: „Dimineaţa devreme m-a trezit cineva care mă chema cu o voce fermă. M-am ridicat şi am venit în această cameră. Într-o zi, cineva m-a strigat din spatele tapetului. Am privit în debara şi nu era nimeni. Dar vocea a continuat să mă cheme, aşa că m-am lipit de perete şi acesta s-a dat la…

What means to be Human?

What makes us human? Is it our capacity to contemplate and question our existence? To ask complex questions like, e.g., „do tears freeze in rain?” – and to seek complex answers? Or our capacity to comprehend our own mortality, to instantly recognize that someday each and everyone will perish? If your answer is all of…

Thy starlight on the Western Seas

From the The Lord of the Rings, The Felloswhip of the Ring: The Complete Recordings, The Passing of the Elves, by Howard Shore. This is one of the translations of this song titled A Elbereth Gilthoniel (O Elbereth Starkindler), sung by elves of Middle-earth from Sindarin (of the long version more exactly): “Snow White! Snow…

It will be morning in America again

Midnight has passed. A new day has come. And everything is about to change. This wasn’t an election. It was a revolution. It’s midnight in America. The day before fifty million Americans got up and stood in front of the great iron wheel that had been grinding them down. They stood there even though the…

Prin tăcerea mea spun foarte multe | My silence speaks volumes

Golden Horn, Bosphorus, Istanbul, november 2014 Aureliano concepu formula prin care aveau să se apere luni de zile împotriva pierderii memoriei. O descoperise din întâmplare. Expert în insomnie, deoarece el fusese printre primii atinşi de ea, deprinse la perfecţie meşteşugul aurăriei. Într-o zi, căutând mica nicovală care-i servea la laminatul metalelor, nu-şi mai aminti cum…

Supersymmetry

  Supersymmetry is a lament. The lyrics are a simple expression of the pain one feels after the loss of a loved one (real or imagined), but what makes the song particularly beautiful is that it relies on a poetic interpretation of the principle of supersymmetry in particle physics to help convey the emotion of grief.…

Amăgire

Vacanţa de Crăciun se anunţa tristă pentru mine, ca pentru străini. Priveam cărţile în care trebuia să uit singurătatea, sau farmecul acestor sărbători de distracţii şi banchete. Va fi aceeaşi odaie ce se încălzeşte cu greu, unde vor trece şi aceste zile, la fel sau mai trist ca celelalte. Ceva, însă, îmi spune că poate…