An answer to some questions

What is the relationship of totalitarianism to simplicity? Perhaps this series from the BBC may offer some answers:

I won't attempt to do the idea justice here, but it has something to do with simplistic models of human behavior based on outmoded behavioralist theories that ignore the workings of the mind and focus on discrete and quantifiable human actions. These models depict humans devoid of altruism, emotion, subtlety, and any true sense of individuality. The fact that humans embody all these things skews the math of these economic models, rendering them useless. Complexity is despised because it makes the ruling class' goal of creating a completely mechanized society unattainable. These videos are visually entertaining, well researched and well worth watching. It is worth going back to start the series from the beginning.

And in other "answers;" just as a present to my most loyal readers who have slogged through yesterday's post on infinitely tall pyramids, I present the words of one of the earliest bloggers, one who seems to be thinking along the same lines:

"Perspective is no more than a scientific demonstration in which experience shows us that every object sends its image to the eye by a pyramid of lines, and which shows that bodies of equal size will create a pyramid of larger or smaller size, according to their distance. A pyramid of lines are those which start from both the surface and the edges of the objects in question and which converge from a distance into a single point. A point is that which has no dimensions and is indivisible. This point is placed in the eye and receives all the points of the pyramid of lines.

The air is filled with an infinite number of images of all the objects in it. All these images are represented everywhere, all these images combine together: if you place two mirrors in such a way that they face each other perfectly, the first mirror will reflect into the second mirror and the second mirror will reflect into the first mirror. So: the first mirror takes the image of the second mirror and the second mirror takes the image of the first mirror, and each mirror takes the image of the other on to infinity, each mirror having within it a smaller mirror. This proves, by experience, that every object sends its image to every spot where that object can be seen. The reverse is also true: that very same object sending its image to every spot can also receive the images of all objects placed in front of it. Therefore, the human eye sends out its image through the air to all objects placed in front of it, including other eyes, and it also receives all the images of all the objects placed in front of it; it receives these images on its surface, communicates them to the common sense, which judges them, and if pleased with them, communicates them to the memory. As a result of this, I believe that the invisible images in the eye are also communicated to the object, as the image of the object is communicated to the eye."

- Leonardo da Vinci