On Terseness
Aug. 7th, 2020 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdiUsually, it seems that when a diviner describes a reading, the more detailed it is, the higher our esteem for the diviner. I'd like to argue for the opposite.
In information theory, we speak of entropy as "how much information a message contains." This is actually a fairly complex concept, related to what it even means to communicate. But for the purposes of this exercise, we're just going to be talking about bits, which refers to the amount of information in a binary digit (a zero or one).
Geomantic figures are literally made out of bits: they contain one bit apiece for the head, neck, body, and feet. Since the four Mothers determine a geomantic chart, and each Mother (being a geomantic figure) contains four bits, then each geomantic chart contains sixteen bits of entropy. Great.
When a diviner gives a description of what a geomantic chart means, this conveys information, too! But English is far, far more complicated than geomancy, and so it's harder to determine how much information is contained in a given amount of prose. Experiments have been done and find English to contain 0.6–1.3 bits of entropy per letter, or (since there are, on average, 4.8 characters per English word) 2.6–6.2 bits of entropy per word.
This means that a geomantic chart is equivalent in information content to 3–6 words of English (!), or an extremely short sentence. This is the best we can do if we translate a chart into English. But, as Okakura notes, "translation is always a treason," and it's unlikely we can fully convey the same information so tersely. But should we not try? Limitation is the source of inspiration. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously said, after all, that perfection is attained not when nothing more can be added, but when nothing more can be taken away. And is not the time spent carefully paring down a reading, focusing on the essential and disposing of the superfluous, a form of meditation?
Being able to read greater and greater depth from a chart is the mark of a great geomancer, sure, but I think that it is the mark of a truly masterful geomancer to convey that depth as tersely as possible. How difficult this is, when one's audience is not literate in geomancy!
I make an effort on this little blog to do my best in a paragraph or two. It is my hope that, as I gain in experience, I can do so in a sentence or two.
In information theory, we speak of entropy as "how much information a message contains." This is actually a fairly complex concept, related to what it even means to communicate. But for the purposes of this exercise, we're just going to be talking about bits, which refers to the amount of information in a binary digit (a zero or one).
Geomantic figures are literally made out of bits: they contain one bit apiece for the head, neck, body, and feet. Since the four Mothers determine a geomantic chart, and each Mother (being a geomantic figure) contains four bits, then each geomantic chart contains sixteen bits of entropy. Great.
When a diviner gives a description of what a geomantic chart means, this conveys information, too! But English is far, far more complicated than geomancy, and so it's harder to determine how much information is contained in a given amount of prose. Experiments have been done and find English to contain 0.6–1.3 bits of entropy per letter, or (since there are, on average, 4.8 characters per English word) 2.6–6.2 bits of entropy per word.
This means that a geomantic chart is equivalent in information content to 3–6 words of English (!), or an extremely short sentence. This is the best we can do if we translate a chart into English. But, as Okakura notes, "translation is always a treason," and it's unlikely we can fully convey the same information so tersely. But should we not try? Limitation is the source of inspiration. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously said, after all, that perfection is attained not when nothing more can be added, but when nothing more can be taken away. And is not the time spent carefully paring down a reading, focusing on the essential and disposing of the superfluous, a form of meditation?
Being able to read greater and greater depth from a chart is the mark of a great geomancer, sure, but I think that it is the mark of a truly masterful geomancer to convey that depth as tersely as possible. How difficult this is, when one's audience is not literate in geomancy!
I make an effort on this little blog to do my best in a paragraph or two. It is my hope that, as I gain in experience, I can do so in a sentence or two.