The column for "The Last Recruit" will publish tomorrow on Chud.com. In the meantime, here's your teaser quotation:
"Nature is like the chain of the Ferris Wheel, endless and infinite, and these little carriages are the bodies or forms in which fresh batches of souls are riding, going up higher and higher until they become perfect and come out of the wheel. But the wheel goes on. And so long as the bodies are in the wheel, it can be absolutely and mathematically foretold where they will go, but not so of the souls. Thus it is possible to read the past and the future of nature with precision. We see, then, that there is recurrence of the same material phenomena at certain periods, and that the same combinations have been taking place through eternity."
See you all mañana...
Thursday, April 22
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I don't think I am spoiling too much to provide a link to the rest of this article: http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0164.html?printable=1
ReplyDeleteSeeing that quotation reminded me of one of my favorite book series, which all of a sudden feels very relevant to this season of Lost:
ReplyDelete"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."
"The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time."
Erik,
ReplyDeleteNope. Not spoiling a thing. I think it's instructive and neat that the full text of Vivekananda's "Immortality" is available on Raymond Kurzweil's site. What a convenient illustration of the fusion between science and faith!
Hi Ho,
I haven't read the Wheel of Time series, but it sounds as though Jordan derived some of his thoughts from the same Eastern sources that Lost has drawn from.
The cyclical nature of time/nature/life/humanity was also admirably explored in King's Dark Tower books, where God has been replaced by the concept of "Ka" (essentially Karma). "Ka is a wheel, it's purpose, to turn."
Morse,
ReplyDeleteIf you're a fan of fantasy fiction at all, The Wheel of Time is well worth reading. It's one of the most engaging epic fantasies I've ever read.