So long, and thanks for all...
1952-2001
"I feel that the agenda of life's important issues has moved "Moving something from one
medium to another is very interesting -- it's a lot
like carrying a picture or a piece of clothing from
one bit of lighting to another. Suddenly it looks
very different. What interests me a bit further
down the line is the way in which the different
media interrelate -- you can hand things off from
one to another, you can exploit each other's
strengths and weaknesses."
[Note: If you've connected to this page from outside of this site, then you might want to at least take congnizance of the information on this page when reading the stuff here.]
[In England and Australia] during parliamentary sessions, if there is a disagreement about a matter then a vote must be taken. At this point, The Division Bell is rung for some time, and during that time every parliamentarian who is eligable to vote must proceed to the house. When the Division Bell stops sounding, the doors are shut and so if you're late you miss out on casting your vote. The use of this for the title was suggested by Douglas Adams (author of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" radio show, book series, TV show, and computer game, among other things), which is why he is listed in the album's credits. Adams made the suggestion in exchange for Gilmour donating a certain sum of money (#5,000) to a charity of Adams', the Environmental Investigation Agency. Adams has also said that Gilmour asked him to fool around with the lyrics a bit, but that none of his suggestions were actually used on the album. Douglas Adams also appeared at the October 28th Earl's Court show, playing
acoustic guitar on "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse." This was Gilmour's
birthday present to Adams (Adams' 42nd birthday was in March, 1994).
"In fact, there's a story there. I had given a talk at the Royal Geographical Society in aid of the Environmental Investigation Agency's work on rhino conservation. Both Dave and Nick came along and we all went out to dinner afterwards. Dave was a bit preoccupied about the title problem- they had to have the title by the following morning, and no-one could decide what it should be. I said, 'OK, I'll give you a title, but it'll cost you a £5,000 contribution to the EIA.' Dave said, 'well, tell me your title and we'll see'. So I suggested The Division Bell. And Dave said, 'hmmm, well, seems to work. Sort of fits the cover art as well. Yeah, OK'. So, it's called the Division Bell." -from The alt.fan.douglas-adams FAQ
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to
learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for
their apparent disinclination to do so."
NEWSFLASH!
["Yeah. I think Douglas Adams...I think it really came and out of though- it came out of some guy of Washington DC, that
used to be with the CIA or FBI or something that was in the encryption game."
Moderator: DouglasAdams: What was it like? Well, I can see why they do it. I don'
DouglasAdams: don't know anything
about the Publius thing. Whatever the truth it wasn't very interesting.
The music was better.
If you've forgotten, or if you haven't noticed, that feedback (implying interaction, participation, reciprocal communication, etc.) is what this enigma theory is all about go here. Listen to the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of The Internet: the last battleground of the twentieth century, presented by Douglas Adams, (listed in TDB credits) and hear Douglas express towards the end of Programme I his "own little speculative vision", which is "best described by analogy". The analogy, of course, is totally cybernetic, involving piloting a plane, thermostats, and revolves around the concept of "feedback loops". (the essence of cybernetics) Adams concludes that "My belief, perhaps I should say my hope, is that the speed of response will reintroduce us to that from which our political systems have separated us for so long, i.e. the consequences (outputs) of our own actions (inputs). Feedback loops will be the foundation of an entirely new form of electronic democracy." But wait! There's more--much more!... How do you see the Internet changing your world?
... "'One of the most powerful forces in nature is about to come into view in the online medium: the feedback loop - where the input stage of one iteration is the output stage of another iteration,' Adams says. 'Feedback loops are what drive evolution...'"
... "He establishes points that are so fundamental, most people will probably have not even stopped to consider them.
Growing through evolution
"The Net is like the British constitution, not set in stone but constantly evolving. And while feedback through the polling booth is a slow, grinding process, the Internet allows for immediate reaction with what Adams calls feedback loops."
... Also check out www.douglasadams.com and locate the Articles by DNA section... "This subjective view plays odd tricks on us, of course. For instance, ‘interactivity’ is one of those neologisms that Mr Humphrys likes to dangle between a pair of verbal tweezers, but the reason we suddenly need such a word is that during this century we have for the first time been dominated by non-interactive forms of entertainment: cinema, radio, recorded music and television. Before they came along all entertainment was interactive: theatre, music, sport – the performers and audience were there together, and even a respectfully silent audience exerted a powerful shaping presence on the unfolding of whatever drama they were there for. We didn’t need a special word for interactivity in the same way that we don’t (yet) need a special word for people with only one head." "Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do. For some batty reason we turn off this natural scepticism when we see things in any medium which require a lot of work or resources to work in, or in which we can’t easily answer back – like newspapers, television or granite. Hence ‘carved in stone.’" [Trust, skepticism, resources, work, answer back]
"Interactivity. Many-to-many communications. Pervasive networking. These are cumbersome
new terms for elements in our lives so fundamental that, before we lost them, we didn’t even
know to have names for them."
... [Wiener and Bigelow looked more closely at other servomechanisms, including self-steering mechanisms as simple as thermostats, and concluded that feedback is the concept that connects the way brains, automatic artillery, steam engines, autopilots, and thermostats perform their functions. ...
"It is the thesis of this book that society can only be understood
through a study of the messages and the communication facilities which
belong to it; and that in the future development of these messages and communication facilities, messages between man and machines, between machines and man, and
between machine and machine, are destined to play an ever increasing part."
And things just continue falling into place... "I have always understood that the Internet was founded on the precepts of respecting other community members..." -Publius ...
"At the same time as McCarthy was proposing a new form of
computing, -- i.e. time-sharing and interactive computing --
another computer pioneer, J.C.R. Licklider, who would play an
important role in the developing computer revolution, was working
on a paper exploring the concept of human-computer interaction that
Norbert Wiener had stressed was so crucial."
...
"In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through
a machine than face to face.
That is a rather startling thing to say, but it is our conclusion... And
we believe that we are entering a technological age in which we will be able
to interact with the richness of living information--not merely in the passive
way that we have become accustomed to using books and libraries, but as
active participants in an ongoing process, bringing something to it through
our interaction with it, and not simply receiving something from it by our
connection to it."
It says: The image is from The Computer as a Communication Device. (pdf) ... "The dominant communications media do not respond directly to feedback from their audiences, do not deliver what the
audience wants or needs at the moment when the audience wants or needs it -- in short, they are not interactive. They are also
basically discrete; if they complement one another, it is accidental, and more often they merely duplicate one another's
information. There is no way for the audience easily to call up and compare media sources; people are bombarded with
messages and find themselves unable to sort, store, and evaluate them effectively. Cybermedia would be a medium that
responded to its audience. It would deliver useful information in reply to the messages it received from that audience."
To see how fun and absurd the enigma looks (not much unlike the Hitchhiker's Guide) in light of the concept of feedback and all that that implies see here.
Now check out:
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The Messages
By Douglas Adams, possibly |
The Division Bell
Spearheaded by David Gilmour
Decide for yourself.
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