Reflexive Reflections

There is no better place to begin than with this self-referential sentence. Yes, like so. After all, all things in this universe (and all universes!) are connected, so any place is as good as another. To be is to relate. Every single thing is linked to other things which in turn connect to yet others, forming networks that also connect to other networks, coalescing into a single network of everything, such that one quickly snowballs into infinity. What happens to one thing sends waves that ripple through infinity. One cannot contemplate something without taking into account its place in the network of things; to fully contemplate something is to contemplate infinity. And to contemplate infinity is to contemplate unity.

Thinking About Not Thinking About Things

The living will always be dogged by the questions of life; that is an ineluctable fact of life itself. After all these questions concern the living, and questions can only be answered by the living. Yet is it in their interests to answer these questions? How should they answer?

One way of answering these questions is to think through them. Thought may be based on many things: experience, knowledge, beliefs, feelings, intuitions. If you are lucky, they are a swarm of fireflies leading you out of the night. If not, they each separate and wander in different directions, until the light is so diminished you are left stranded.

Adiós to el Capitán

The departure of Arsenal's captain and playmaker Fabregas has been a fait accompli since the start of the transfer window; the price has not. Indeed, one of the world's best midfielders has been sold for not even €40 million, a marked reduction on the asking price of £40 million, which is already a huge drop from his market value of £60 million. For comparison, even Andy Caroll cost £35 million, and Kaka was £56 million. That said, even if the club had gotten the full £40 million, an adequate replacement might not be available on the market.

What has Arsenal lost? Arguably the third best central midfielder in the world, behind Xavi and Iniesta (one wonders how Barcelona is going to line up this season), and the most effective midfielder in terms of assisting and scoring goals in the whole of Europe last season. Fabregas plays just behind the striker, allowing him to play the final ball, but also drops deep to dictate the tempo and loft long killer balls (notably for Adebayor and van Persie), or go into the box to finish off moves. Arsenal more than most clubs relies on that position to create chances, as play usually goes through the middle, and to score goals as well, since van Persie plays as a false nine. (Perhaps to bypass his absence against Newcastle, they tried to play down the wings, which failed as the quality of crosses was inconsistent, and too few players attacked the ball when it was sent in. Fluency and ball retention was also poor.) Not only has Fabregas consistently shown the vision and positioning needed to shine in that role, he has developed a good understanding with many of his teammates as well. Without him, the entertainment value of Arsenal (not spectacularly high in recent seasons, to be sure) will go down. To replace all of that will be hard. What are the options?

Concrete Thoughts

Architects must be really free, considering how much time they seem to devote to reading widely. Consider this debate (after the lecture). Perhaps it is the relic of a liberal arts education, or else built on that foundation. Possibly a soi-disant autodidactic Renaissance man could accumulate a comparable amount of knowledge, though shaped by individual preference which may prove inadequate in some areas during public discourse. Or do such intellectuals only seem unfathomably erudite because of our paucity of knowledge in those areas? After all, a study showed that participants who asked questions of their own specialty to outsiders were later appraised as being more knowledgeable by those outsiders.

On a side note, this reminds me how much I want to visit MAXXI. I'm still sceptical about parametricism as the future of architecture though; as interpreted thus far, its aesthetics are not natural nor immediate enough, at least to the untrained eye of the present public.

Leftover Fried Rice in the Devil's Larder

Memories sit like grains of fried rice on a plate, tossed and mixed into a whole from which constituents may still be distinguished. The rice is first left overnight in working memory. Each grain is seasoned with the condiments of feeling, and each chef imparts the flavour of his individuality through his unique recipe. Frying imbues it with colour. Some grains may become charred, while others shine golden, or attain a nostalgic sepia. At last it is served, its wafting aroma drawing you in. Some grains are buried deep, where they simmer, while others lie at the surface, which you can see vividly. But all are part of the dish.

Castling Kingside

It takes hours to build a sandcastle and seconds to destroy it. At this very moment, Tommy is involved in the former. There is no school this morning, so he came over to the playground after breakfast. Tommy loves building sandcastles; he visits the sandpit almost everyday. His mother is unhappy about having to vacuum the house everyday, but is reluctant to buy him Lego building blocks so that he won't go to the sandpit. And so he builds.

The Half-Blind Prince

An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, but two eyes for an eye leaves you with one, and in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king (inter caecos regnat luscus). This seems a sound strategy according to game theory, at least on the surface. But Hobbes tells us that even such a cyclopean king is susceptible to assassination by his blind subjects, so there will still be some degree of egalitarianism in this dystopia. However, blind subjects are perforce of lower economic value, both due to reduced capacity for labour, and reduced empathy as they cannot "see things" the same way as their liege. Also, what value does a one-eyed king have to a blind people? He might be able to do things better than them, but he would have less understanding of their issues, and there would be less social acceptance, even if he was clearly the best choice to lead.