Author: postcolonialboy

That sounds about right

With all the track problems this year I understand why it’s called a rat-race. Every day we scurry to the station and onto ever-more decrepit trains. We struggle to contain our growing frustration as the delays spiral. Month after month, with no end in sight. I remember when the line first opened, the fastest in the network. Now it’s just one more sorry ship we cannot flee.

If I understand Darwin right, a species survives when its members find enough food to persist and reproduce, and then mutate over generations to better fit with their environment.

The universe is a Darwinian symphony. It began with a full spectrum blast, before resolving into a standing chord perfectly fitted to its cradle. As the universe cools, new notes emerge and maybe even persist for a time. All notes are contrapuntal, but only a few form the chords and discords needed to transform the ever-evolving concert.

Ideas too are polyphonous. We focus on the melody but accompanying it is a chorus we mostly feel. Some ideas persist and maybe even reverberate through our minds. The most beautiful harmonise with our soulsongs. And very occasionally, something will emerge with the depth and dissonance to corale entire communities and transform the song of all humanity. For a time.

The last European adherents of the former world religion Manichaeism believed that, with persistent cultivation, anyone could achieve three levels of initiation: perfect, believer, and listener.

Last week on the train, stalled yet again, I heard someone on their phone.

“That sounds about right.”

What did they hear? Was it just their own song played back? Was it another 7th in an ever diminishing chord to help us rats quietly into that good night? Or maybe, just maybe, it was an exclusive preview of the odd tone we’re all desperately waiting to move us all anew.

Audio: Led Zeppelin (1971), ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in Led Zeppelin IV. Sourced from the Internet Archive.

Image: 12th Century fresco of Serbian Bogomil priests. Sourced from Mart Atanassov.

Audio: Claude Debussy (1894), Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. Sourced from the Internet Archive.

Mortgaging our lives

Getting a home loan feels… strange.

It’s different to other loans we’ve had. Unlike our student loans, we have to pay a miminum amount each month no matter how much we earn. Unlike family debts, there is zero latitude if we run into a bad patch. And our credit card company probably can’t throw us out of our home. But it’s more than that.

Decades of our lives will go by before we are free of it. Each month we will make our repayment, and our total debt outstanding will drop a little — before rising again when the interest kicks in. 300 steps forward, 299 steps back. Then each quarter we’ll balance our books, and plan where to rein things in, and where we can relax and celebrate a little. And then twice a year our mortgage broker will check if we’re struggle, and entice us if needed with any better deals on the market. But it’s more than all that as well.

This loan is changing who we are.

When I first saw a science video of a couple of rats dumped into a maze, I was surprised at how animatedly and dextrously they swarmed in search of their prize. As if they were almost enjoying it.

We won the auction. We took possession of our land. We’re in the prime of our lives, and finally we’re in the home-owners club. For the next quarter century we’ll be living the dream.  It takes effort to stay in any dream, right? 

Getting this loan makes us ache body and soul. But that’s ok — it’s well-designed and we’ll no doubt get used to it soon.

Image sourced from The Humanity Development Library 2.0 (For sustainable development and basic human needs)

American Crypto

In 1982 three computer scientists funded by the US Army Office published a highly influential article on the ‘Byzantine Generals Problem’. 

Imagine a wealthy 14th Century city under siege from a coalition of a dozen generals and their armies. After blockading the city over a bitter winter, the armies are nearly out of food and must either attack or retreat. However, the armies must all move simultaneously, otherwise the city’s still-functioning cavalry will ride out and eliminate them each in turn from the rear.  The generals are coordinating their plans using mounted couriers.

But the city has hidden supporters.  Each of the generals suspect the city may be intercepting their couriers , and replacing some of their messages to each other. Worst of all, each general wonders if one or more of the others has secretly sold out, so even if their messages aren’t intercepted, they fear they may still be betrayed by some of their allies.

Now imagine you are one of the generals.  A courier enters your tent one night with a message saying one of the general saying they will move at dawn. Then another courier arrives with a message from a different general, with the same message – they will move at dawn.  Then another courier arrives, with the same message again. Do you believe them and move at dawn yourself?  If the messages are genuine, and everyone moves at once, you will all be safe.  But if they are faked in some way, and you move too late, your army may be slaughtered or the prize lost.  What do you do? When will you know what you should do?

According to the computer scientists, it depends on the messages.  Apparently, if you can tell whether a message has been intercepted and substituted, you only need half of your fellow generals to be honest for the coalition to prevail. But if you can’t tell if the messages have been intercepted, more than two thirds of the generals must be honest if they are to survive. 

This computing research is a foundation for modern cryptography and many kinds of software, including the emergency decentralised economy powered by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

I’d always assumed that any social or economic system based solely on mistrust only leads to ruin.  But it seems it depends on the numbers.  If a two thirds supermajority hold fast, believers in rainbows and unicorns thrive. If over half stay true, honest soliders can still survive.  But if a majority are compromised, all are as good as lost.

What proportion of my fellow citizens do I trust?

Image on homepage: Siege of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmett II (1432-81) in 1453 (fresco), by Romanian School, (16th century); Church of St George, Voronet Monastery, Bukovina, Romania. Copyright Archives Charmet / Bridgman Images.

Pata pata

Every Friday and Saturday night, it’s Pata Pata time. The dance keeps going all night long, til the morning sun begins to shine.

‘Pata Pata’ was written and performed by the South African singer, activist and exile, Miriam Makeba.  This version from 1967.