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Compression and “The Duad”Prokofieff raises two more important issues, that, for the sakeof economy, I want to address as two sides of the same coin.On the one hand, he points to the staggering power of compressionthat digitalization has brought about. He gives the exampleof the compilation of Rudolf Steiner’s works: the 350 volumesavailable in printed form, can all be transferred to “two or threeDVDs” (the recent appearance of “double-sided” DVDs makeseven greater compression possible). Prokofieff recollects thestirring image of Michael leading cosmic intelligence through “amassive process of compression or contraction” so that it couldbecome earthly intelligence. The shadow side of this archangelicdeed was that in its “compressed” form, intelligence couldbe seized by Ahriman:Ahriman, making use of the forces of sub-nature, wants to penetratethe Michaelic intelligence with the artificial intelligencecreated by him, which includes the digitalization of thought.For him this is one of the ways in which he can gain power overearthly intelligence. This started with the fixationof human thoughts through the printing techniqueand continues now with its digitalization.Prokofieff later points to the fact thatthe way in which computers processand store information is “built onthe duad [arrangements of 0 and1, using the binary system]which can endlessly andquantitatively be multipliedthrough repetition and differingcompositions. Steinerhas spoken of the “delusion ofthe duad.” As a counterpoise tothe duad, Prokofieff cites Steiner’swords about the veiled “truth ofthe number three.” Ahriman worksthrough the duad, but Michael’s impulsesmanifest as threefolding.Throughout his article, Prokofieffdraws pointed contrasts between the printed word and thedigitalized word, the printing press and the computer. AlthoughSteiner certainly pointed to the ahrimanic qualities of theprinted word—and urged Waldorf educators to give childrenplenty of time before they were taught to read—he accepted themagazine and the printed book as means of making known hiswritten works, and later reluctantly accepted the same mediumfor publication of his lectures. Prokofieff argues, by implication,that such aspects of the digital world as the “compression”and “duad” nature alluded to above would have led Steiner tooppose publishing the contents of his work in digital form. (Itshould be noted here that the Swiss telephone system that linksthe Goetheanum to the outside world is no less digitalized thanthe internet. I presume that, in spite of this, those phone linesare used to transmit conversations about Anthroposophy.)The chronology that Prokofieff appears to portray is one inwhich the printing press was supplanted by the computer, withnothing in between. It would be helpful for us to adumbrateall of the factors that led to the invention of the computer andto examine the many intermediate steps that led to our widespreadutilization of the duad. We do not have the space for astudy of such scope, but I would like to point to one incrementalstep in the unfolding of modern technology: the electricaltelegraph.From the time of its development in the early 1800s to thetransmission of the first messages by Samuel Morse in 1837, theelectrical telegraph brought about a powerful transformationof the economic, financial, and, not least, military life of thenineteenth century. So great was its allure that such influentialfigures as Edison, Tesla, Marconi, and Karl Friedrich Gauss allplayed a role in its development. The cables that transmittedmessages over land were the first man-made, visible “web” tobe woven wherever there were settlements or railroads, whilethe underwater cables that linked Europe and North America,India and Great Britain, and finally even reached Australia, weretechnological marvels. And it was the telegraph that figured inthe achievement of the very first “wireless” transmissions ofmessages.The maintenance and operation of the telegraph terminalswere the province of mechanically-inclined and inventiveboys—the techies of their time—who renouncedfresh air, sunlight, and gross-motormovement so that they could sitfor long days in cramped settingsrepetitively moving only oneindex finger. (Even today’s textmessagezealots get to movetwo thumbs.) To qualify forthis coveted position, a boyhad to master Morse Code,which reduced all letters,all words, all sentences,indeed all human converse,to the an elemental electricalduad: short or long, offor on.At this time a bright and sensitiveyoungster was taken out of schoolso that he could be homeschooled. His fatheroperated the telegraph system at a railway stationnear Vienna, and the boy found himself fatefully drawn to thetelegraph terminal and the mystery of its wires stretching intoinfinity. It was a device that raised many questions in the boy’ssoul, pointing to myriad riddles of time, of space, and of thesecret world of codes. And, as it happened, no one saw the needto warn Rudolf Steiner away from his fascination with that worldwide web of electrically transmitted code that Ahriman wasalready weaving 140 years ago.By moving directly from the printing press to the internet,Prokofieff risks ignoring the incremental ways in which thepresent World Wide Web has developed, and the surprisinglynuanced way in which Steiner himself responded to that development(see “Protective or Proactive?” below). Drawing uponthe momentum of the telegraph, the telephone and the radioserved as means of conveying information from individual toindividual, while the cinema and television utilized electrically“imprisoned” light and sound to powerfully affect groups.It is interesting to consider that all of the aforementioned“media” have unfolded since Rudolf Steiner first began his teachingand developed Anthroposophy. In some ways, their develop-Rural electric grid: pole with transformerreflected in roadside puddle.18 Evolving News for Members & Friends