Notes on Sci-Fi, The Sublime and Conscious Machines

In the 18th and 19th century, as new technologies and social formations changed the world, let me thank Joseph Addison and Edmund Burke who were largely responsible for transforming the sublime concept – the field of sublime comprised the elements of majestic, awe inspiring and literally over powering: it spoke the language of excess to suggest realms beyond human articulations and comprehension. When the telescope was invented – this beautiful machine provides images beyond our own and the field of astronomy provides a new ground for exploring the language of the sublime.

sublime, a fav topic by the Romanticist....Wanderer above the sea of fog, 1818 by Caspar David Friedich

Put yourself in the shoes where you are a 19th century farmer who deals with cows and your wife all the time and take a peek to the telescope you are bound to hear colorful words and gasps… "Holy Cow.....is that the sun?" If any religious zealots around, definitely they will deem the telescope as an weapon of the devil............

(After 1610, when Galileo began publicly supporting the heliocentric view, which placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, he met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615. In February 1616, although he had been cleared of any offence, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as "false and contrary to Scripture" and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it—which he promised to do )

Joseph Addison wrote this after he saw what the telescope can do in 1972 “ we are lost in such labyrinth of suns and worlds, and confounded with the immensity and manificence of nature” – until today scientists struggling to see how and find out how the universe works, the universe is a never ending paradox – each discovery either prove or make us more plain speaking.......... "stupid"

Hawking once said “The Universe was spontaneously out of absolutely nothing”  before giving up and submits to his feeble human desire by marrying his nurse but Einstein said “God doesn’t play the dice with the universe". ( you choose here folks )

The sublime concept was translated first into poetry ( read any James Joyce with a lot of patience ) and then transferred to world of paintings, with Burke’s categorization of sublime is obscurity, privation, magnificence, loudness and so on The Romantic artists easily depict this elements to their landscape paintings.

The sublime activity is rooted in an activity of contemplation, in the attempt to grasp what fundamentally cannot be grasp. ( try visualize how God looks like and then open up the Quran or the Bible, there is a sentence said “No vision can grasp him…he is above comprehension ( 6:103 )” ) Our popular culture now has trademark visuals of him having a long hair and a beard, no thanks to Michaelangelo.

my favourite.....

 
Keyword: the sublime loves to play the unrepresentable form of infinity. This sort of flexible values feeds our imagination.The precise function of science fiction movies, in many ways is to create the boundless and infinite stuffs of sublime experience. Poor audience pre- Star Wars are so used to cardboard spaceships
( thanks to Battlestar Galactica and other chop-socky sci-fi movies ), they were astounded to witness huge realistic the Imperial Star Destroyer trying to capture the puny Rebel Blockade.

So I don’t blame for people shunning Sci-Fi movies as they can be pretty weird, astounding, loud and misunderstood all time (just like how my mum will continue to ask me why Klingon looks that way) its so ironic that we humans need rationale/logic on everything and yet at the same time have a strange fetish for the unknown, unexplainable and the sublime.

To be continued...............when i have the time.