While perusing a story by my favourite author (Poe), I was struck by the distinctions the author made about mental capacities; he describes the difference between the mere capacity to calculate and the use of true imagination; It is a beautiful allegory, I beleive, embodied in the distinction between The Oracle and The Architect, and to man and machine (i.e. here I draw a comparison between The Oracle's "intuition" being an example of human thought, par excellence ).
I'm therefore posting the beggining of the story, in which Poe, very eloquently states his case; the paragraphs are long, so I have broken them up (apologies to Poe!). The post is a little long, I understand, but I think it is well worth reading. I have bolded, and commented on, some words which evoke thoughts of The Oracle and Architect in my mind.
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
by Edgar Allan Poe
(1841)
What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, although puzzling questions are not beyond all conjecture.
--SIR THOMAS BROWNE, Urn-Burial.
THE mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his physical ability [read: the 'brute force' approach of strength and speed of the agents in the matrix], delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talents into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition [read: The Oracle].
The faculty of re-solution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study , and especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly, and merely on account of its retrograde operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis [read: The Architect]. Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyze. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood.
I am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random; I will, therefore, take occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed, resulting in injury or defeat [read: humans in the matrix]. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers. In draughts, on the contrary, where the moves are unique and have but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished, and the mere attention being left comparatively what advantages are obtained by either party are obtained by superior acumen.
To be less abstract --Let us suppose a game of draughts where the pieces are reduced to four kings, and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that here the victory can be decided (the players being at all equal) only by some recherche movement, the result of some strong exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus, at a glance, the sole methods (sometimes indeed absurdly simple ones) by which he may seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation.
Whist has long been noted for its influence upon what is termed the calculating power; and men of the highest order of intellect have been known to take an apparently unaccountable delight in it, while eschewing chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt there is nothing of a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of analysis. The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind. When I say proficiency, I mean that perfection in the game which includes a comprehension of all the sources whence legitimate advantage may be derived. These are not only manifold but multiform, and lie frequently among recesses of thought altogether inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. To observe attentively is to remember distinctly; and, so far, the concentrative chess-player will do very well at whist; while the rules of Hoyle (themselves based upon the mere mechanism of the game) are sufficiently and generally comprehensible. Thus to have a retentive memory, and to proceed by "the book," are points commonly regarded as the sum total of good playing [read: Architect]. But it is in matters beyond the limits of mere rule that the skill of the analyst is evinced. He makes, in silence, a host of observations and inferences. So, perhaps, do his companions; and the difference in the extent of the information obtained, lies not so much in the validity of the inference as in the quality of the observation . The necessary knowledge is that of what to observe [Oracle].
Our player confines himself not at all; nor, because the game is the object, does he reject deductions from things external to the game. He examines the countenance of his partner, comparing it carefully with that of each of his opponents. He considers the mode of assorting the cards in each hand; often counting trump by trump, and honor by honor, through the glances bestowed by their holders upon each. He notes every variation of face as the play progresses, gathering a fund of thought from the differences in the expression of certainty, of surprise, of triumph, or chagrin. From the manner of gathering up a trick he judges whether the person taking it can make another in the suit. He recognizes what is played through feint, by the air with which it is thrown upon the table. A casual or inadvertent word; the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment; the counting of the tricks, with the order of their arrangement; embarrassment, hesitation, eagerness or trepidation --all afford, to his apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true state of affairs. The first two or three rounds having been played, he is in full possession of the contents of each hand, and thenceforward puts down his cards with as absolute a precision of purpose as if the rest of the party had turned outward the faces of their own.
The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man often remarkably incapable of analysis. The constructive or combining power, by which ingenuity is usually manifested, and which the phrenologists (I believe erroneously) have assigned a separate organ, supposing it a primitive faculty, has been so frequently seen in those whose intellect bordered otherwise upon idiocy, as to have attracted general observation among writers on morals. Between ingenuity and the analytic ability there exists a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous. It will found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.
vlad: that is such a great comparison. it's like the matrix is itself an entity. not just a vacuous environment but a huge A.I. consciousness. with visual representations (almost freudinan) of all the human traits of the matrix consciousness. amazing. definitely one of the most original ideas i've come across in a long time.
i must admitt that I didn't quite take the same message out of it that you did Larke. So I am not sure that I deserve your kind remarks!!! Thus you are praising yourself when you say "definitely one of the most original ideas i've come across in a long time. "
Thanks Vlad and Larke - that was great - i am always having to remind myself that the Matrix is not a place they really go or anyone walks around in in the sense we think of or even in the Star Trek/holodeck sense - it's all in their heads and a computer of some sort - a prison for your mind - when we speak about whether the whole universe or world or all the countries and cities we know are present in the Matrix or not, it really has no meaning, because it wouldn't be taking place in those places anyway - all they need is - the city - and surrounding areas i guess - no one would question this, it would seem completely normal - i do realize Neo's computer said Heathrow Airport and Beyond seems to be in Japan - i just don't think it matters - everything they think they know or remember in the Matrix could have been installed in them including their memories of 100 years of war, like their belief that this is the first edition of this Matrix - as Larke said, the Matrix is an entity, a consciousness - i also found it really interesting the analogy of the rule book - i think a major lesson of the Matrix is you can't generally win by playing by the rules - Neo couldn't - Smith couldn't - some you follow, some you bend, some you break, but the rules are there for the benefit of the controllers - at least thats the message i get -one of them anyway - and its obviously up to debate as to how true it is in our world.
Neo:I just thought, um...you were a guy.
Trinity:Most guys do
The Vlad said this in post #1 : He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural.
His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition [read: The Oracle].
The faculty of re-solution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study , and especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly, and merely on account of its retrograde operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis [read: The Architect].
I learned something new in here, I had never put the oracle's knowledge of the future together with her being an intuitive program.
Never made the connection in my mind.
I put the intuitive part with her understanding of the nature of man, and the way he thinks,
but after reading the Vlads Poe post, I see there may be more to it.
10-31-2003 05:34 PM
it's like the matrix is itself an entity. not just a vacuous environment but a huge A.I. consciousness. with visual representations (almost freudinan) of all the human traits of the matrix consciousness. amazing. definitely one of the most original ideas i've come across in a long time. 
