Thank you David. Thank you most kindly. Can I get you to say something to that effect here on substack Notes? I guarantee it would help the cause, and I would appreciate it very much.
Thank you for that, and now you know some of the story behind it. I hope you enjoyed the post. Thanks in advance for all help spreading the word. In particular if you were to share something on Notes I would be very much obliged.
Wonderful. You might want to do Biodigital last, I'm making a few tiny tweaks to it in anticipation of publishing its prequel Mountain of Devils come October.
Oh, and I think that, in an important way, colors do "speak" to us because we don't "see" colors, we infer them from sense data and recognize them *in context*; that's why a white dog looks white even under sodium light ... and why, sometimes, we make mistakes about colors and can, in fact, do so about any sense data. We live in an abstraction of reality which is to say we don't experience the world "as is" but rather as we get data via neural impulses, we focus our attention (to hopefully detect threats), build predictive models ("is that a tiger?"), and thereby recognize sounds, colors, dogs, tigers, tactile sensations, movement, and so on (or mis-recognize which is why some people might perceive colors as speaking to them; this is what happens with synesthesia ... or they're woo woo, crystal-toting hippies). In other words, none of our lived experience is about reality so the world in some sense "speaks" to us and we do our best to "hear" it. Your mileage may vary and objects in the mirror may be.
That is all very well and good, Mark, and I agree with you. But your comment does not address the Curious Incident of the Colors on the Bridge. You know that old saw, "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action"? Well, I don't suspect enemy action, but I'm just say'n.
That's such a great book! The prolog just absolutely hooks you.
After I posted my remembrance I got nice notes from Tom's wife & one of his daughters & they invited me and my wife to a memorial gathering at Tom's house a few weeks later. We took the ferry to New Bedford and a family friend met us there & drove us to the house in Westport. (An intense thunderstorm came on as we were sailing into the majestic harbor. I felt like I was in Moby Dick or something.)
Anyway it was a small gathering, and Tracy Kidder was there. I didn't talk with him very much, but my wife had been to Haiti and she had read Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains and they talked for an hour. Edson deCastro, founder of Data General was also there. I got a tour of the basement depicted in Soul of a New Machine. It was a really moving experience.
I forget exactly what I wrote! But it was something along the lines of "Wow, I just read that book and now I know you were there." :-)
At any rate, great follow up story. There's something mystical about the places where a huge amount of creative energy was released. More woo-woo stuff...
Re: "Destiny and omens, dreams and premonitions, every kind of woo-woo has relevance in the context of some narrative," and borrowing a line from Professor Henry Higgins (spoken of Eliza Doolittle), By George you've got it! As always, all help spreading the word about my little substack is very much appreciated, particularly here on Notes.
The woo-woo is in us. We're meaning-make machines. We can't ever help it. You happen to be real good at it, John, which is great for the rest of us.
Thank you David. Thank you most kindly. Can I get you to say something to that effect here on substack Notes? I guarantee it would help the cause, and I would appreciate it very much.
+1, gotta say. Peak Sundman right here.
I will take that as a compliment, Keith. Thank you.
You made me look. In 2004, the Sun logo color was PANTONE PMS 7455
https://brandingstyleguides.com/guide/sun-microsystems-2004/
Thank you for that, and now you know some of the story behind it. I hope you enjoyed the post. Thanks in advance for all help spreading the word. In particular if you were to share something on Notes I would be very much obliged.
You must be channeling Vonnegut. Maybe Vonnegut Lite as your sark is, at worst (best?), less acidic (but just as filling). Nice post.
I just realized that I'm going to have to re-read your books.
Wonderful. You might want to do Biodigital last, I'm making a few tiny tweaks to it in anticipation of publishing its prequel Mountain of Devils come October.
Oh, and I think that, in an important way, colors do "speak" to us because we don't "see" colors, we infer them from sense data and recognize them *in context*; that's why a white dog looks white even under sodium light ... and why, sometimes, we make mistakes about colors and can, in fact, do so about any sense data. We live in an abstraction of reality which is to say we don't experience the world "as is" but rather as we get data via neural impulses, we focus our attention (to hopefully detect threats), build predictive models ("is that a tiger?"), and thereby recognize sounds, colors, dogs, tigers, tactile sensations, movement, and so on (or mis-recognize which is why some people might perceive colors as speaking to them; this is what happens with synesthesia ... or they're woo woo, crystal-toting hippies). In other words, none of our lived experience is about reality so the world in some sense "speaks" to us and we do our best to "hear" it. Your mileage may vary and objects in the mirror may be.
That is all very well and good, Mark, and I agree with you. But your comment does not address the Curious Incident of the Colors on the Bridge. You know that old saw, "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action"? Well, I don't suspect enemy action, but I'm just say'n.
That's such a great book! The prolog just absolutely hooks you.
After I posted my remembrance I got nice notes from Tom's wife & one of his daughters & they invited me and my wife to a memorial gathering at Tom's house a few weeks later. We took the ferry to New Bedford and a family friend met us there & drove us to the house in Westport. (An intense thunderstorm came on as we were sailing into the majestic harbor. I felt like I was in Moby Dick or something.)
Anyway it was a small gathering, and Tracy Kidder was there. I didn't talk with him very much, but my wife had been to Haiti and she had read Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains and they talked for an hour. Edson deCastro, founder of Data General was also there. I got a tour of the basement depicted in Soul of a New Machine. It was a really moving experience.
The above comment is a reply to a comment about the book Soul of a New Machine posted by @matt.stine that I accidentally deleted.
I forget exactly what I wrote! But it was something along the lines of "Wow, I just read that book and now I know you were there." :-)
At any rate, great follow up story. There's something mystical about the places where a huge amount of creative energy was released. More woo-woo stuff...
It's no big deal. I just wanted to make sure you understood that I did not delete your tweet on purpose.
Re: "Destiny and omens, dreams and premonitions, every kind of woo-woo has relevance in the context of some narrative," and borrowing a line from Professor Henry Higgins (spoken of Eliza Doolittle), By George you've got it! As always, all help spreading the word about my little substack is very much appreciated, particularly here on Notes.