The Web
Jeris
First of all, I think Rob Walker is a damn certifiable genius. Seems like we both share a profound love of nature and science as well. After finally listening to his stuff for hours I started on several tracks. Oddly enough this one came from an attribution of Rob’s latest upload…”RandomWalk”, which I think is funny because the Random Walk theory sort of predicts the distance a random walker, wandering aimlessly will cover with quite an accurate probability. So the saying holds true…“A drunk man will find his way home, but a drunk bird may get lost forever. (Shizuo Kakutani) THE WEB
Frustrated by the lack of kilobytes per second
I closed the screen and took a walk outside
And pondered on the pace of progress and the contrast
Between the cyberworld and natural life.
Between four painted walls I’d been enclosed for days
The portal to a fast, exciting place
But when it slowed and stalled, I sought a calmer place
The first space fake, more natural the second
No flashing light, nor speed, the minutes passed as days
In there the pace is forced; it seems too still outside
The sun is on my back, and somewhere, subtle life
As giant gum trees, sky and hills contrast.
The cyberworld seems slick and nature dull by contrast
But life reveals reverse in Time and Place.
My physical environment was swollen full of life
A lizard darted out for one brief second
Devouring insects. And now outside
I began a train of thought that lasted days.
For Life is more complex than the tools of recent days
Complex living systems and computer ones contrast
A living system’s self-contained, it needs nought from outside
Computers need external help, so everything’s in place.
The ecosystem wins, computers running second,
Machines must be maintained, but not so Life.
Hydrogen and carbon plus oxygen makes life,
Amino acids, DNA evolve through countless days
To replicate themselves each passing second
The living system grows itself and makes its own contrast
Becoming ever complex more, in Time as well as Place,
Evolving with the changes from outside.
A patch of barren soil takes biota from outside
And soon grows moss or other forms of life
Then fungi, grass or lichens are covering the place
The process, ever-complex, starts in days.
Taller shrubs and trees in later marked contrast
Succeed the first, a complicated second.
I imagined for a second, an end to human life.
Ten thousand years elapsed outside in days.
My lawn a forest, my room a wasted place…
Rob Walker, 17/6/2000
Frustrated by the lack of kilobytes per second
I closed the screen and took a walk outside
And pondered on the pace of progress and the contrast
Between the cyberworld and natural life.
Between four painted walls I’d been enclosed for days
The portal to a fast, exciting place
But when it slowed and stalled, I sought a calmer place
The first space fake, more natural the second
No flashing light, nor speed, the minutes passed as days
In there the pace is forced; it seems too still outside
The sun is on my back, and somewhere, subtle life
As giant gum trees, sky and hills contrast.
The cyberworld seems slick and nature dull by contrast
But life reveals reverse in Time and Place.
My physical environment was swollen full of life
A lizard darted out for one brief second
Devouring insects. And now outside
I began a train of thought that lasted days.
For Life is more complex than the tools of recent days
Complex living systems and computer ones contrast
A living system’s self-contained, it needs nought from outside
Computers need external help, so everything’s in place.
The ecosystem wins, computers running second,
Machines must be maintained, but not so Life.
Hydrogen and carbon plus oxygen makes life,
Amino acids, DNA evolve through countless days
To replicate themselves each passing second
The living system grows itself and makes its own contrast
Becoming ever complex more, in Time as well as Place,
Evolving with the changes from outside.
A patch of barren soil takes biota from outside
And soon grows moss or other forms of life
Then fungi, grass or lichens are covering the place
The process, ever-complex, starts in days.
Taller shrubs and trees in later marked contrast
Succeed the first, a complicated second.
I imagined for a second, an end to human life.
Ten thousand years elapsed outside in days.
My lawn a forest, my room a wasted place…
Rob Walker, 17/6/2000