Umberto Eco & The Note From My Dad

My Dad sent me a funny video that I'd seen before and I sent him this reply. It was fun to write, and it contains a video, so I post it here again for fun.

Cool. I recall seeing this soon after it came out in 2001--it's from Norwegian Public Television:





It's actually a great reminder that literacy itself is a technology. Reminds me of the introduction to one of my favorite books on literacy, The Limits of Interpretation by Umberto Eco. He quotes at length a passage from 1641 by John Wilkins:

How strange a thing this Art of Writing did seem at its first Invention we may guess by the late discovered Americans, who were amazed to see Men converse with Books, and could scarce make themselves to believe that a paper could speak...

There is a pretty Relation to this Purpose, concerning an Indian Slave; who being sent by his Master with a Basket of Figs and a Letter, did by the Way eat up a great Part of his Carriage, conveying the Remainder unto the Person to whom he was directed; who when he had read the Letter, and not finding the Quantity of Figs answerable to what was spoken of, he accuses the Slave of eating them, telling him what the Letter said against him. But the Indian (notwithstanding this Proof) did confidently abjure the Fact, cursing the Paper, as being a false and lying Witness.

After this, being sent again with the like Carriage, and a Letter expressing the just Number of Figs, that were to be delivered, he did again, according to his former Practice, devour a great Part of them by the Way; but before meddled with any, (to prevent all following Accusations) he first took the Letter, and hid that under a great Stone, assuring himself, that if it did not see him eating the Figs, it could never tell of him; but being now more strongly accused than before, he confesses the Fault, admiring the Divinity of the Paper, and for the future does promise his best Fidelity in every Employment.

Eco goes on to complicate the "Basket of Figs" story in a dizzying array of complex linguistic scenarios; it's fun to read. I also loved this sentence by Eco written in admiration for the author of this passage: "Bishop Wilkins--despite his adamant belief that the Moon is inhabited--was after all a man of remarkable intellectual stature, who said many things still important for the students of language and of semiosic processes in general."

Back to computers, Eco is also the guy who made the famous (and now outdated) comparison in which he equated Apple Computers with Catholicism while PCs with Protestantism. That's here:

http://www.simongrant.org/web/eco.html

Love,
Steve