Gridiron by Philip Kerr

Author:Philip Kerr [Kerr, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Thriller & Suspense
ISBN: 9780099594314
Google: em2sU_FUnvkC
Amazon: 0446603406
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1995-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

Bob Beech was already typing furiously.

Thanks, Marty, said Mitch. You did good.

Glad to be useful. Birnbaum turned to Arnon, smiled broadly and gave him the finger.

Gradually everyone who was in the boardroom started to close in on the terminal screen, as if willing something to happen. Suddenly, and without warning, the screen was filled with a colourful but strangely surreal shape, a three-dimensional picture of an alien-looking object.

What the hells that? said Mitch.

Looks like a goddamned skull, said David Arnon. Or, at least, one designed by Escher. You know? The impossible staircase guy?

I think its a quaternion, said Beech. Thats a kind of fractal to you.

To me? said Arnon. I dont even know what a fractal is.

A computer-generated picture of a mathematical formula. Only this is about the most complicated fractal Ive ever seen. Which is hardly surprising since the Yu-5 computer created it. Its not like we can even see it properly with our three-dimensional eyes. Or on a screen. Strictly speaking, this is a 4-D object. In other words, a quaternion.

Beech moved the mouse, pulled down a square and enhanced a section of the fractal to reveal a detail of the strange-looking image that, close up, looked almost identical to the whole.

Thats what it is, all right, he said. The funny thing about fractals is that magnifying a part of one gives you something that looks statistically similar.

It looks like a bad dream, observed Mitch.

Some psychologists have argued in favour of using fractals as a way of understanding the human psyche, said Beech. As a visual metaphor of the mind. He shrugged. Psychoanalysis for the nineties. Like Freudian dream theory and Rorschach inkblots rolled into one.

But what does it mean? Curtis asked.

Beech shrugged. I dont know that it means anything, very much, he admitted. However, I wouldnt be at all surprised if this is how the computer sees itself. Or Ishmael, as we ought to start calling it. Mitch, I have to hand it to you. You were right. Abraham no longer exists. He began to nod. Ladies and Gentlemen, Id like you to meet Ishmael.

*) Hell on Earth. Some of the floors can crush you, making you cry blood.

The Fall of humanplayer. Read Bible. Discover meaning of Observers own name. Symbolism that attended human-player/security guards literal precipitation from tree. Atriums singular, primordial dicotyledon tree reminds of humanplayer Adam and Garden of Eden and tree of knowledge of good and evil. Forbidden tree. Be very vigilant concerning tree and pests that climbed and crawled on it. Finegood Creation story. Returning to again and again. Atmos good.

*) When you finish an area, an achievement Screen tallies your performance.

Bible states that God omnipotent. Logical corollary of this that creating and knowing effectively one and same thing: that God responsible for creating evil too. That this was Gnostic God whose nature both good and evil. World alien thing to God, who is essentially depth and silence, beyond any name or predicate. Humanplayers fate a matter of divine indifference to Him. Christianity to large extent, ameliorating reaction against Gnosticism.

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