Problem of the observer

Problem promatrača (Problem of the observer, 2007/2008)

This page contains illustrations, pieces of text and reviews of the book "Problem promatrača" (Problem of the observer) by Antonio Šiber. The book was published by "Jesenski i Turk" in the beginning of year 2009. At present, there is no translation of the whole book to English, but scroll down this page to find three chapters that I have translated to English.

At that moment, the cameraman lifted his camera toward the sky, and looking all the way up, he slowly approached the end of the street. There was something spooky in his decision to move his point of interest away from the church, the tall houses that bordered the street and a crowd of people. In a scene of sky knitted with the traces of swifts, people were quite incidental actors.

>> Dubrovnik.

On a small bench chiseled in a rock, from his pocket he drew a shiny specimen of the shell of Nautilus macromphalus from New Caledonia, having diameter of only twelve centimeters. He could almost feel the warmth from the most beautiful piece of organic material. On a winter light of hungry and grey city on the Northern sea, its layered structure created a subtle rainbow spectrum as Thompson rolled it in his hands. A beautiful piece of evolution. Living fossile. But how was that created ... And so regularly. Where does that all mathematics comes from, the logarithmic spiral?

On a big screen in a passenger space, Crick 14 was becomming bigger. This part of the journey was completely given over to the ferociously comunicating computers in the craft and on the station. Only a few more minutes were needed to join the craft with Crick 14.

The weirdest of all was that the scene looked as if it was being watched by the diver just below the water surface. The trees were slowly sinking toward the bottom of the screen as the unknown diver was emerging from water. At the moment his eyes passed through the water surface, the image slightly blurred, and the laboratory got filled with spooky sounds similar to those made by walruses. The echoing sound was frigthening not only for its loudness, but also because professor found it so familiar. It seemed to him as if he could almost discern words of some ancient sea creature.

He slowly gathered his courage, got up from the chair, and standing on the tips of his toes leaned over the table. There were no equations on the paper that he was writing on but his own face modeled with mathematical precision. He stared at himself and was returning himself a questioning gaze.

We can, depending on the interpretation that we put in this geometric figure, see two different bodies. One, and then the other. Then the first one, and then the other again. According to our own wish. Therefore, our cognition of the nature of information and the object depends on the viewpoint taken. But, which of the two points of view is the correct one? Both. And none. No point of view has absolute, permanent value. Its value is only as big as it contributes to the rational explanation of the senses. Thank you for your attention.

>> Ernst Mach.

"I see the stars." A full hour after those words, four silhouettes were still standing in front of the screen. And they waited. But nothing more could be heard. The dot became a part of the background. One of the stars. It could not be separated anymore. Who was the one who left?

>> Buy "Problem promatrača" (in Croatian).
>> A review on Limun.hr (in Croatian).

A science-fiction novel by young Croatian physicst, in which he deals with the world on the border of science (physics, biophysics, cybernetics) and fiction.

Taken from Knjižnice Grada Zagreba.

Here are:

<< Boy's dream

My cowboy uncle >>

Last updated on 10th of December 2012