Notes for the Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul - Rudy Rucker

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Notes for The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, by Rudy Rucker Computation and Reality. Brian Silverman was urging this. His point was that a “computer” is a special kind of media machine, while a “computation” is a more philosophical and general kind of notion. The breeze, say, is a kind of computation, but not really a kind of computer in the standard sense of the word. I’m leaning towards this title now. I could try and bring in all three things from my Venn diagram. Thoughts, Computations, Nature. But Reality can encompass both physics and psychology. Or Mathematics, Computers and Reality. No way. Math and computers is too much, you halve the audience with each word. Brockman says Computation and Reality is too prosaic. Understanding Computers. Like McLuhan’s Understanding Media. But it’s limp. And the point isn’t to understand computers, the point is to understand the world. Then I got into a triad of static computer representation, means of animating it, the mind: The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul. Thesis: Soul, Antithesis: Lifebox, Synthesis: Seashell (i.e. von Karman vortex street CA). Then I simplified it to The Seashell and the Soul. The I simplified it to Seashell Soul: Enjoying the Computational Worldview. And then Brockman had me roll it back to The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul with no subtitle. He thought Enjoying the Computational Worldview sounded “too geeky.” The Lifebox and the Soul would be better, I think. Easier to remember. Beyond Computers Like use computers to climb up to enlightenment, and then throw them away. Disingenuous, if you really want to escape don’t even read my book? One idea for the book is (a) how to think about computers and use them to see the world in a new way plus a kicker (b) computers aren’t everything. But really (a) is most of the book. Fresh Eyes: Beyond Computers. Fresh Eyes: Beyond Automatism. Actually automatism already means something in philosophy, the notion that the body is a machine accompanied but not controlled by consciousness. But why not redefine it. Exciting as a title as practically nobody knows what it means. Throw Away The Ladder. Wittgenstein’s phrase from the final page of the Tractatus, “He who understands me finally recognizes [my propositions] as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it) . . . . then he sees the world rightly” Variations: After Computers. Escaping the Machine. Transcending the Machine. Escape from Silicon Valley. Computer Recovery. Forget Computers. Turn Off The Frikkin’ Computer. Life’s Rich Pageant. (But this is a really well-known REM album title.) Wake Up! Is this the name of the Jehovah’s Witness newsletter? Remember Yourself. [Here’s a relevant quote from P. D. Ouspensky In Search of the Miraculous, p. 118.] “When I observe something, my attention is directed towards what I p. 30
Notes for The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, by Rudy Rucker observe--a line with one arrowhead: “I ---> the observed phenomenon. “When at the same time, I try to remember myself, my attention is directed both toward the object observed and towards myself. A second arrowhead appears on the line: “I the observed phenomenon. “Having defined this I saw that the problem consisted in directing attention on oneself without weakening or obliterating the attention directed at something else. Moreover this ‘something else’ could as well be within me as outside me.” Wild Hairs Mostly these are about enlightenment. Sylvia likes The Lifebox, but this ties the book so closely to the lifebox which is, really, just one of the cool things I want to talk about. The Lifebox and the Quantum Mind. The Lifebox, the Eddies, and the Quantum Mind. The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul. The Big Rainy Day Book Of Computer Fun. Weird Screens. Reboot Your Head. The Missing Mind. Unknowing Yourself. Unlearning. High on Life. Duh! Formless Form. To express the underlying central notion that mathematics studies the varieties of possible forms. The perfect Esalen title, and it would sell about two hundred copies. Youware. Oh, right. “You’re younique!” Computer Wisdom. Quantum Satori: Thinking Past Computation. [Quote from my journals, December 9, 2002.] “Walking in the Latin Quarter, looking at some smoke from a chimney against the sky, not naming it, just seeing it, letting its motions move within my mind, I realize I’m no different than a screen of a cellular automaton with the cursor dragging across it. I am entangled with the smoke. I am coherent, but my coherence includes the smoke, I have joined the system, merged it into me. Like the old koan, Q: I see a flag is blowing in wind: is the flag moving or is the wind moving? A: My mind is moving. Finally I get it, a nice moment of aha, a satori in Paris.” Short List of Chapters, January, 2004 This was before I let Chapter 1 split into five separate chapters. Chapter 1: The New Worldview Chapter 2: The Computational Zoo Chapter 3: Beautiful Gnarl Chapter 4: Being Human p. 31
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Notes for the Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul - Rudy Rucker

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