Creative Reading: The Mathematics of Self, Other and Extension
- I, Reader: A Nod to Asimov’s I, Robot
- Robots and Readers: A Tight Coupling of Container and Content
- Does Technology only Extend Thought? Does It also Supplant It?
- Machine Life: The Final Prejudice
- RB-34 Prefers Slushy Novels
- Creative Reading: A Golden String
- Creative Reading by anemone achtnich
- Creative Reading: The Art of Self
- Creative Reading: Thinking with Other Minds
- Creative Reading: The Art of Self, Take 2
- Creative Reading: The Discovery of Other (Thinking with the Minds of Others, Take 2)
- Creative Reading: The Mathematics of Self, Other and Extension
- What Books Changed You?
- I’ve always admired people who, in a pinch, are better than their principles
- Every Extension Breaks a Rule
- The Trajectory of Reading: Creative Contribution
- I Read, Therefore I Write
- What Readers Write May Not Be Literature, But It Might Become So
- “Narrow it down to … the upper left-hand brick”: Phaedrus
- “No one that he knew had ever written a whole metaphysics before”: Phaedrus
- Using a Blog to Draft a Book Idea: 9 Observations
- From Reading to Writing to Publishing with Digital Media
- Birth of the Reader-Writer
- To Read a Book is to Ignore 4000 Others
- Quantity has a Quality all its Own
- The Web is Re-Wiring My Brain
- How the Web Works for Readers: Thin Connections Lead to Rich Connections
- The Accidental Programmer
- Definitions of Hacking
- Ways of the Reader-Hacker
- Ways of the Reader-Hacker II: Breaking the Rules
- Ways of the Reader Hacker III: Two Bright Ideas
- A Hacker’s Reading List
- Ones and Zeros, On and Off Switches, All Sane Systems Require Downtime
- The Information Race and Pushing the Button
- How to Make an Elephant Statue
- Every Story Deserves a Good Ending
- Expressions of Offworld
- “Would I start to resemble a book myself?”
- Myth of the Reader-Hero
- Print is Digital
- Am I Still Chasing that First Reading High?
- Do Robots Read? Yes I Do (Conclusion to “I, Reader”)
- I, Reader: A Book Outline
- Reading List for Next Draft of I, Reader
Reading as a Creative Act, Pt. 6
This series is an inquiry into the connections between reading and technology. The current theme is creative reading, examining how reading relates to the deepening of self and the discovery of other. The point is to uproot fundamental constructs of mind, constructs relevant to reading and to technology.
A similar pattern can be seen in mathematics, thus making another connection with technology. Philosophers of mathematics analyze numbers in great depth. I will briefly offer just a few, then make my own associations.
Zero is distinctive in mathematics. It is in between the set of negative numbers and the set of positive numbers. It is neutral, existing prior to the any concept of extension in a particular direction. Zero has a metaphorical correspondence with the pre-ego sense of self. Zero has no size, no weight. It does not exist in the outer world, but still has an inner, embryonic, ‘blissful’ (or hellish) state.
One represents a single unit. It is a quantity. It corresponds metaphorically to self. Number one exists between zero and the number two. It takes its definition in contrast to all other numbers. This is like the discovery of other.
Once other is discovered, extension can take place. Two, three, four …. This is like the extension of self through technology. Numbers also exist in the opposite direction, the negatives, metaphorically tying into the discussion of the outlaw or rule-breaking that inevitably occurs when boundaries are defined.
The concepts in this theme have been somewhat abstract, but this theme is coming to a close, and things will lighten up (till the end). The point of this theme has been to make a core connection between reading and technology.
One final point needs to be made. Reading is a path both to greater interiority and to the discovery of other. In the discovery of other, the limits of self are revealed, our robot nature. In discovering our technological self, we identify with technology, overcoming our fear and prejudice against technology, and gain the ability to use it creatively. As technology, we can use technology, bootstrap style, to further extend our reading ability.
Note: I see a piece was cut off the end of the previous post. It has been corrected.
Further reading:
Wikipedia (2009). Zero.
Wikipedia (2009). One.
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