The Lady who Ascends into the Heavens

My Lady, the Amazement of the Land, the Lone Star, The Brave One who appears first in the heavens– All the lands fear her. In the pure places of the steppe, On the high roofs of the dwellings, On the platforms of the city, They make offerings to her: Piles of incense like sweet-smelling cedar, […]

The Eagle’s Gift

The power that governs the destiny of all living beings is called the Eagle, not because it is an eagle or has anything to do with an eagle, but because it appears to the eye of the seer as an immeasurable jet-black eagle, standing erect as an eagle stands, its height reaching to infinity. The […]

Playing with Blocks

There are few subjects that are more misunderstood in the Western Ceremonial systems of magick than that of the vibratory formula. What is this Vibratory Formula, and how does it work? When do you use this formula in ritual work? How do you know if you are doing it correctly? What is this thing called the […]

Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits. John C. Lilly, Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer, The Julian Press, Inc., […]

Artificial Intelligence Programming

LISP has jokingly been called “the most intelligent way to misuse a computer.” I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts. — Edsger Dijkstra. LISP was the world’s first elegant language, […]

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Introduction: A Musico-Logical Offering. The book opens with the story of Bach’s Musical Offering. Bach made an impromptu visit to King Frederick the Great of Prussia, and was requested to improvise upon a theme presented by the King. His improvisations formed the basis of that great work. The Musical Offering and its story form a […]

Engine Summer

The beginning. . . . If I am only a story now, I must have a beginning. Shall I begin by being born? Is that a beginning? I could begin with that silver glove you wear; that silver glove, and the ball . . . Yes, I will start with Little Belaire, and how I […]

The Bell System Technical Journal, V. 57, N. 6, July/August, 1978

The UNIX story begins with Ken Thompson’s work on a cast-off PDP-7 minicomputer in 1969. He and the others who soon joined him had one overriding objective: to create a computing environment where they themselves could comfortably and effectively pursue their own work-programming research. The result is an operating system of unusual simplicity, generality, and, […]

PURR-PUSS: Computer Simulation of a Teachable Machine

Abstract: Simulated on a computer, PURR-PUSS is a machine that can be taught. When connected to a robot body in the real world, ‘she’ can learn on her own or with the help of a human teacher. Her experience is stored in small ‘pieces’ which are used for prediction, decision and novelty-seeking. Unlike other products […]

The other Turing machine

Abstract – In a little known report written in 1945, A.M. Turing made a detailed proposal for the construction of a stored program computer. Although sharing some ideas with von Neumann’s draft report of the same year, Turing’s proposal contained a wide range of novel and formative concepts. These include subroutines, the stack and a […]