14-07-2022, 09:26 PM
All incidents create noise (or fog by a different metaphor.) The problem is always to distinguish the noise from what is important, to see the true shape of things amidst the mist. In this sense, all incidents are like a verbose cipher: the important information is hidden amongst a profusion of intriguing irrelevancies, by nature.
A classic example of the problem is the assassination of President Kennedy. The incident took place within a very small window, barely sixty seconds. The amount of information in that window is quite extraordinary - but what is relevant and what is noise? Is the man holding an umbrella important to the event, or noise? Is the looming figure on the grassy knoll important to the event, or noise? In the official version of the event, both of those things are noise.
Importantly, we may not be able to explain either of them. In any given incident there will be things that cannot be explained. That is just the nature of things. This is why noise can be intriguing.
In the case of the VMs, there is a huge amount of noise. That is what we mean when we say it is all weird. Somehow we have to distinguish what is important from the noise. We have to make distinctions.
But even if we find the author and decode the text, there will be lots of weird things that cannot be explained. The “chicken scratches” for instance. Intruiging, but probably noise, and most likely will never be explained. Ditto some of the marginalia.
That’s why I ask questions like: what is the core conundrum here? Where to focus amidst the noise? Our problem is asking the right questions.
(My own preparation for this was spending 10+ years in the academic study of the medieval Gospel of Barnabas - a not dissimilar problem, a weird document and a huge amount of noise.)
A classic example of the problem is the assassination of President Kennedy. The incident took place within a very small window, barely sixty seconds. The amount of information in that window is quite extraordinary - but what is relevant and what is noise? Is the man holding an umbrella important to the event, or noise? Is the looming figure on the grassy knoll important to the event, or noise? In the official version of the event, both of those things are noise.
Importantly, we may not be able to explain either of them. In any given incident there will be things that cannot be explained. That is just the nature of things. This is why noise can be intriguing.
In the case of the VMs, there is a huge amount of noise. That is what we mean when we say it is all weird. Somehow we have to distinguish what is important from the noise. We have to make distinctions.
But even if we find the author and decode the text, there will be lots of weird things that cannot be explained. The “chicken scratches” for instance. Intruiging, but probably noise, and most likely will never be explained. Ditto some of the marginalia.
That’s why I ask questions like: what is the core conundrum here? Where to focus amidst the noise? Our problem is asking the right questions.
(My own preparation for this was spending 10+ years in the academic study of the medieval Gospel of Barnabas - a not dissimilar problem, a weird document and a huge amount of noise.)