Rainbow god circle confusion

[Andrew Dinn]

I chide, I chide. I shall be chid.

I muddied the waters (skies) with:

> Actually, rainbows are exactly what they appear to be to the casual
> observer and no more. The real problem is disabusing people of the
> conspiratorial constructs their particular paranoia jerry-builds
> behind the rainbow.

to which John Mascaro chimed:

> The real question, since this isn't an elementary science list, last
> time I checked, isn't what's a rainbow but what's the title
> GRAVITY'S RAINBOW about?  Perhaps A. Dinn would say that the title
> is exactly what it appears to be to the casual observer and no more,
> thereby satisfying himself that the question is put to rest.  but
> most of us expect a little more from his often breathtaking posts.

Well, hold your breath foax because that's not what I meant at all. I
was talking about rainbows, not titles (and incidentally about vision,
not explanation).

> Before things get out of hand (I see--on my mind's retina that
> is--A. Dinn turning angrily to his six-gun keyboard. Why, I'll get
> that hombre, he mutters, as he prepares to zing me through the
> ether), I'm not trying to start another DFW war or anything, nor am
> I challenging Andrew to a bout of sarcastic ripostes, though I must
> say that I was put off by the dismissive tone of his reply to
> McCary, esp. when that reply leads to the incoherent paragraph
> quoted above.  So, respectfully, I ask, are you saying that any
> attempt to play with or tease out some of the spheres of meaning
> around the title GR is a--conspiratorial construct--caused by
> paranoia?  Is that your position on this thread?  This is a real
> question.  And if it is your position, does your harsh judgment
> extend to the author as well?  Wouldn't it be TRP you are indicting
> w/ your cavalier conclusion that if it's not immediately clear to
> the casual observer (by whom I guess you mean yourself), then we are
> dealing w/ a conspiratorial paranoid who jerry builds constructs (or
> tommy builds them, I suppose).  Well, who was Tom conspiring with
> then?

Well, I'll resist the temptation to comment on the potentially, if not
go so far as actually, that is I won't label as jerry-built your
interesting hypothetically constructions on my post ... damn! that
temptation, it's just the one thing...

The previous posts included comments about reality and unreality,
about `where' rainbows reside - in the sky or on the retina, my
comments on which I can only elucidate by reference to the concept -
hell no, the thing itself - by reference to virtual memory. Does
virtual memory exist? Is it located in real memory, on disk? or where?
Sure the contents of virtual memory are stored as bit patterns in real
memory chips or on swap disk but where is the virtual memory itself?
What is it indeed?

Rainbows are real. They are coloured arcs in the sky. That is what
people see. That is what they describe when they say `oh, look at the
rainbow'. That is all they are. You wouldn't go looking at someones
retina in order to see a rainbow when someone makes such a comment,
now, would you?

All this talk of refracted light and hovering water drops is
explanation, causality, a different and somewhat more paranoid game
than that f rainbow spotting. One of the reasons it is so difficult
to explain to kids what rainbows `are' when they don't know any
physics is that the `explanation' tries to involve them in a different
type of activity to that of observing and commenting on rainbows the
way kids and people (scientists included) usually do, something other
than the usual wows and oohs. And since this activity involves
learning some hard maths and physics well what do you know - kids get
confused. But it is their understanding of the explanations which are
confused, not their understanding of what a rainbow is. No kid on
earth has any problem locating a rainbow in the sky and identifying
bands of colour etc.

And just to bring this back on topic I'll claim that this is right on
topic. Ah but you'll want cause and effect, explanation. Well, the
best I can manage is Pointsman on the beach and Slothrop at his
Xroads. You'll have to learn to do the arithmetic yourself.


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.