Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Invisible Iceberg
Something funny going on here. I posted some time ago on the matter of invisibility and quoted one Dr Ulf Leonhardt, whom God preserve. 'Invisibility,' he said, 'is just the tip of the iceberg.' Now we have further thoughts on invisibility from Professor Vladimir Shalaev. 'Cloaking,' he says, 'is just the tip of the iceberg.' This is bizarre. Does the thought of invisibility immediately evoke iceberg tips? And, if it does, of what does the rest of the iceberg consist? One of the applications suggested by the good professor is making things appear where they are not. Imagine if London appeared to be six inches to the left of where it actually is. I'm not sure we could cope with the whole of this iceberg.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
We must also ask ourselves, is this just the tip of iceberg lettuce? That would be a very different matter, surely.
ReplyDeleteIcebergs are a foe to man; iceberg lettuce is man's friend, perhaps even a mentor of sorts, a god even.
Volvic.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's thrilling to be on the tip of an iceberg, but with stuff this dark I fear Professor Shalaev and his colleagues won't be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteBy voraciously sucking up all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a dizzying sensation of nothingness..."It's very deep, like in a forest on the darkest night,"
ReplyDeleteActually, that sound like a perfect colour for painting elberry's Lumber Room.
It doesn't mention my considerable store of pornographic images, though.
ReplyDelete"Scientists Create A Black That Erases Virtually All Light."
ReplyDeleteAt last! The Theory Of Everything!(TOE). All is explained away and we are reduced to nothingness.
"The Black! The Black! We are all - it's all we see: The Black, The Black. Ah! to fall into that luscious nothingness!"
Reminds me of that short sci-fi story by Bob Shaw: "Light Of Other Days" and the phenomena of Slow Glass.
Scientists dip their TOE in the water. It's the tip of the iceberg. The Achilles Heel. Renders one invincible - and invisible (or is that another myth, the cap?).
As you know from my previous comment, black/Space doesn't exist. It's just a blind spot. So give us our light back, scientists, and stop messing with it!
"If in doubt use black" - Picasso.
yes it does, though, of course, everything but the tip.
ReplyDelete"Reminds me of that short sci-fi story by Bob Shaw: Light Of Other Days and the phenomena of Slow Glass."
ReplyDeleteI've learnt to link!