1237c34b7d35
tech



Hello Phil - 

PM>>> So plenty of time on the schedule to rage away. [g] 

>>  I try. ;-) 

PM> [g] I have the same problem, if it is a problem. I try to
PM> keep it under wraps but it keeps surfacing no matter how
PM> much I try to stiffle it. After all these years, I don't
PM> think it'll go away. [g] 

I believe we have an obligation to tell others what we have
witnessed. Everything is not recorded in books. Some of what I
have witnessed in the past half century is lost when I am gone
and no one will ever know. 

>>> (I am her "Ghost in the Machine"). 

PM>>> I've always liked that -- "Ghost in the Machine". From
PM>>> Arthur Koestler? 

>> No, but after checking to see who Koestler was it would make
>> a good story if I claimed that it was. :-) 

>> When my children began buying their own computers and getting
>> connected to the Internet they mentioned that each time they
>> sit at their machine they look into the monitor and believe
>> that I am 'out there' somewhere on the 'net'. I volunteered
>> "The Ghost in the Machine" to describe this and they agreed
>> that long after I am gone they will believe that I am still
>> 'out there', the ghost in the machine. 

PM>  [g] I like that too. 

Dark humor but it's a true story. 

>> I had heard this for the first time from the movie "Brazil". 

PM> On my TO-SEE list -- one of the few newer [for me] movies I
PM> want to see, altho I don't now remember what I read about
PM> it. Hmm. Maybe you did get it from Koestler -- in an
PM> indirect fashion. Wasn't the director of Brazil a Brit?
PM> Terry Something? Something Terry? Koestler [or his writing]
PM> is still something of an institution in England. 

Terry Gilliam was the only American in the Python group but I
do think he probably was influenced by Koestler, yes. 

>> Apparently that movie would agree with Koestler's views in
>> his essay? 

PM> Don't know, not having seen it, but now I'll have to look
PM> for it more energetically. Not counting the bits of the
PM> kids' films I catch accidentally, I guess I watch about one
PM> movie a month, if that. I usually wait for something I'd
PM> want to see to turn up at my local video store; now I think
PM> I'll have to order it. I barely remember the book itself,
PM> aside from it being an attack on a certain type of naive
PM> psychology that led to a kind of all-knowing arrogance in
PM> twirps who shouldn't rate in any way. 

It's a dark comedy but I enjoy watching it when my mood is
right and the dark side of the story won't fire me up. Spoiler:
it does not have a 'happy' ending. 

PM> But the Ghost in the Machine phrase attained a more general
PM> meaning in the 1960s and 1970s when some serious criticism
PM> of society was more prevalent [altho Koestler goes back
PM> much further, he was one of the first anti-Communists,
PM> pointing out the totalitarian direction of the Soviets in
PM> the 30s]. The phrase came to be a warning against over
PM> intellectualisation and over simplification [or the first
PM> leading to the second] without considering the human
PM> consequences. Nowadays it's usually applied to the misuse
PM> of modern technology and ideology, but it's not necessarily
PM> exclusive to our time -- I think it's more an instinctive
PM> thing some people have of simply knowing what's not kosher.
PM> Churchill during WWI -- before any of this was written --
PM> had his own crude phrase for it -- applied to the generals
PM> who nonchalantly sent millions to slaughter -- that I can't
PM> think of at the moment, equivalent to today's bulls***
PM> detector. 

Sounds like a review of the movie. "Brazil" is quite old now.
DeNero has a part in it and he was very young then. If your
hardware and software are up to the task there are some very
good film clips you can view online at: 

http://www.trond.com/brazil/multimedia.html 

The movie 'trailer' online does an adequate job of showing what
the movie looks like and is generally about. 

--8<--cut 

>> There is a Japanese anime now where a female cyborg literally
>> becomes a part of the Internet also titled "The Ghost in the
>> Machine" that is somewhat popular with younger people. 

PM> Hmm. Wasn't aware of any of the above.... Shows how up to
PM> date I am. 

I only found it accidently because I have an interest in
oriental history/philosophy and was renting a series of videos
about their most famous swordman played by Tisiro Mifune (sp?). 

Which reminds me (rambling a bit here) if you want a giggle
and can find "Yojimbo" anywhere (library?) Mifune is in that
one too.  It is the movie Clint Eastwood's "Fistful of Dollars"
is cloned from but it's a Japanese film.  The layout of the town,
and the storyline are so very close it makes me smile when I see
it on PBS or rent it.

"Seven Sammurai" is another Mifune movie that is considered a
classic.  It explains why the Sammurai became criminals after
such a glorious earlier history.

Both Japanese films are B&W with subtitles btw.  Some people
reject B&W and/or subtitles regardless of the stature of the
film itself.

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

___ * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... DOS the Ghost in the Machine! http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/

--- Maximus/2 3.01