The followers of Icarus. Sorcerer's Apprentices in every aspect of life, past and present. E-Book

Luigi Balestriere

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

In the news on various media it often happens to hear of characters assimilated to "sorcerer's apprentices", as they are responsible for consequences that are almost always detrimental and of which they unintentionally lose control. Characters like these have always existed: the essay tries to identify some in the most varied areas, to tell the circumstances in which these apprentices handle their "magic formula", whether it really is a chemical formula, or a theory, of a book, a weapon, a drug, a material, the crowd or even sexuality, sometimes making unexpected discoveries. In the end, the author tries to outline the recurrent features of sorcerer's apprentices, perhaps to be able to recognize them, if they wander among us, learn to stay away from them or try to prevent them from harming themselves and especially others.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

PREFACE

VERSES

INTRODUCTION

AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

AGRICULTURE

ENVIRONMENT

ARMS

ASTRONOMY

BIOLOGY

BUREAUCRACY

CHEMISTRY

CYBERNETICS

CRIME

CULTURE - SOCIETY

ECONOMY - FINANCE

EROTICISM

EXPLORATION

PHYSICS

COMPUTER SCIENCE

ENGINEERING

EDUCATION

MEDICINE

POLITICS

RELIGION

MATERIALS SCIENCE

WRITING

ENTERTAINMENT

SPORT

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

TRANSPORT

Zootechnics

CONCLUSIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND MULTIMEDIA REFERENCES

Aeronautics and Astronautics

Agriculture

Environment

Arms

Astronomy

Biology

Bureaucracy

Chemistry

Cybernetics

Crime

Culture

Economy

Eroticism

Exploration

Physics

Computer science

Engineering

Education

Medicine

Politics

Religion

Materials science

Writing

Entertainment

Sport

Telecommunications

Transport

Zootechnics

THE FOLLOWERS OF ICARUS

 

Sorcerer's apprentices in every aspect of life, past and present

TITLE | The followers of Icarus. Sorcerer's Apprentices in every aspect of life, past and present. AUTHOR | Luigi Balestriere COVER IMAGE | Daedalus and Icarus (C. P. Landon 1799) ISBN | 978-88-31649-32-2 First digital edition: 2020 © All rights reserved to the author. This work is published directly by the author through the Youcanprint self-publishing platform and the author holds every right of the same exclusively. No part of this book can therefore be reproduced without the prior consent of the author. Youcanprint Self-Publishing Via Marco Biagi 6, 73100 Lecce www.youcanprint.it [email protected] Any unauthorized distribution or use constitutes a violation of the author's rights and will be civilly and criminally sanctioned according to the provisions of law 633/1941.

PREFACE

I must admit that until recently I almost always flipped past the preface in books, considering them, quite wrongly, to be tedious or a waste of time. But then I learned to value the preface if the author addressed the reader directly, in a more confidential, intimate style than the rest of the book.

Since then, if there’s a preface I always start with that; it can present a positive first impression. I shall therefore follow the well-trodden path of many of my eminent predecessors by including this brief prelude, and hope you won’t flip past it.

My intention with this essay is to explore a typical character from 19th century literature in more depth than is usually reserved for it; a character, however, that has always existed and is still alive and kicking.

More than simply a character, the sorcerer’s apprentice is practically a universal prototype, very much overlooked yet crucial to our destiny, and I find it strange no one has ever studied it in more depth. It was therefore all the more appropriate, and intriguing, to seek out both well-known and less well-known individuals who have put flesh on the bones of the character and followed in his footsteps, though almost always unconsciously.

In truth, the idea has been developing for quite some time. For several years I’ve noticed disastrous events of varying magnitude that occur in the most diverse of sectors attributed to self-proclaimed experts in their respective disciplines or fields of interest, who would eventually lose control of the circumstances, suffering or causing others to suffer the often fatal consequences of their tinkering with machines, be they physical inventions or theories.

I've often read an article or watched a TV programme or heard a discussion of some kind in which the object in question is referred to as a sorcerer's apprentice. This mysterious character came up time and time again in the most varied settings, increasing my curiosity in the character and the fascination it inspires, and leaving me with a feeling of suspense so that I had to get to the bottom of it sooner or later.

The thing that finally compelled me to do it was perhaps the worldwide economic crisis of 2007, much of the responsibility for which was attributed to the reckless behaviour of sorcerer’s apprentices at a number of unscrupulous and undeniably irresponsible financial institutions of dubious professional ethics - a crisis that has spread further and lasted longer than the Great Depression of 1929, has brought entire nations to ruin and has even driven people to suicide.

Since then, wherever I turn my attention I see sorcerers' apprentices popping up all over the place, exposed by sources of varying authority.

Of course, the risk with this sort of investigation is that you end up seeing sorcerer’s apprentices everywhere, even where there are none or where it’s some other character who is anything but inept, fully aware that they are stepping over the threshold of legality into the realm of crime.

I know I’m taking a risk but it’s a small risk, and since these sorcerers have proved they're capable of doing enormous damage, not only in the spaces they occupy but also across time for generations to come, I thought it was essential to bring them into the spotlight, learn how to recognise them, carefully avoid them and ensure as many people as possible recognise them too.

This may be considered delusional or ambitious, but it's done with good intentions.

Paradoxically, even this essay could end up becoming a machine I could lose control of: the eventuality is remote but cannot be excluded.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

J. W. Goethe

That old sorcerer has vanished

And for once has gone away!

Spirits called by him, now banished,

My commands shall soon obey.

Every step and saying

That he used, I know,

And with sprites obeying

My arts I will show.

Flow! flow onward

Stretches many

Spare not any

Water rushing,

Ever streaming fully downward

Toward the pool in current gushing.

Come, old broomstick, you are needed,

Take these rags and wrap them round you!

Long my orders you have heeded,

By my wishes now I've bound you.

Have two legs and stand,

And a head for you.

Run, and in your hand

Hold a bucket too.

Flow! flow onward

Stretches many

Spare not any

Water rushing,

Ever streaming fully downward

Toward the pool in current gushing.

See him, toward the shore he's racing

There, he's at the stream already,

Back like lightning he is chasing,

Pouring water fast and steady.

Once again he hastens!

How the water spills,

How the water basins

Brimming full he fills!

Stop now, hear me!

Ample measure

Of your treasure

We have gotten! -

Ah, I see it, dear me, dear me.

Master's word I have forgotten!

Ah, the word with which the master

Makes the broom a broom once more!

Ah, he runs and fetches faster!

Be a broomstick as before!

Ever new the torrents

That by him are fed,

Ah, a hundred currents

Pour upon my head!

No, no longer

Can I please him,

I will seize him

That is spiteful!

My misgivings grow the stronger.

What a mien, his eyes how frightful!

Brood of hell, you're not a mortal!

Shall the entire house go under?

Over threshold over portal

Streams of water rush and thunder.

Broom accurst and mean,

Who will have his will,

Stick that you have been,

Once again stand still!

Can I never, Broom, appease you?

I will seize you,

Hold and whack you,

And your ancient wood

I'll sever,

With a whetted axe I'll crack you.

He returns, more water dragging!

Now I'll throw myself upon you!

Soon, 0 goblin, you'll be sagging.

Crash! The sharp axe has undone you.

What a good blow, truly!

There, he's split, I see.

Hope now rises newly,

And my breathing's free.

Woe betide me!

Both halves scurry

In a hurry,

Rise like towers

There beside me.

Help me, help, eternal powers!

Off they run, till wet and wetter

Hall and steps immersed are lying.

What a flood that naught can fetter!

Lord and master, hear me crying! -

Ah, he comes excited.

Sir, my need is sore.

Spirits that I've cited

My commands ignore.

"To the lonely

corner, broom!

Hear your doom.

As a spirit

When he wills, your master only

Calls you, then 'tis time to hear it."

INTRODUCTION

The sorcerer's apprentice is a figure that became famous in the 19th century following Goethe's ballad of the same title, which tells of a master magician’s young apprentice who is left alone in the workshop. Tempted by this circumstance and convinced that he is now as clever as the magician, he brings a broom to life and orders it to fill a tub using a bucket.

The business soon gets out of hand though. When he sees the broom continuing to pour water in the tub until it overflows he takes an axe to it, but instead of stopping, the broom splits into two brooms which continue to obey his command to pour water in the tub. The spell is only broken when the master returns (1).

This story by Goethe is actually a reworking of an event recounted by Luciano di Samosàta, a Syrian writer from the 2nd century AD in his work Philopseudes,in which Eucrates, an aspiring philosopher, tells of his failed attempt to emulate the magician Pancrates (2).

Literature aside, Greek mythology is also full of sorcerer's apprentices. The most well-known of these is perhaps Icarus who overestimated both the strength of the wings that his father Daedalus made for him and his own ability to control them, and plunged to his death when he tried to fly.

Looking at the incidence of the character throughout western culture, the sorcerer’s apprentice could be described as a presumptuous, arrogant, resentful type with delusions of omnipotence, excessively high self-esteem and a hunger for power, but also possessed of a certain naivety, superficiality and insignificance, who devises an operation, a technique, an invention or a theory of which he can neither predict the outcome nor control the circumstances, and which sooner or later turns against him and not infrequently has repercussions for other people and the environment.

The outcome is not always catastrophic however, and there are also cases where a feeling of resentment has actually led to a positive outcome; the incident involving the astronomer Maestlin, for example, who through his disciple Kepler paved the way for a turning point in our view of the cosmos.

Returning to the vagaries of the sorcerer’s apprentice, the most notable characteristic has to be his fatal tendency to lose control of the magic formula, the miracle device, the thing he’s invented, discovered or simply put forward; a tendency accompanied by the inability to observe the caution and farsightedness that any master of the art or expert would recommend.

So, the master is an important figure in explaining the character; a scholar with a profound understanding of his materials who is therefore cautious of taking even calculated risks; qualities than enable him to maintain control over natural phenomena.

In some fields you come across self-taught apprenticeswho have no master and are proceeding through totally unexplored territory. Although the character of the true expert is absent in the physical sense, his presence can be discerned in the guise of 'Knowledge' - the ideas he has accumulated over time and the legacy of one of the professions to which the apprentice belongs, and 'Prudence' - the shrewd teacher and inspiring virtue of every scholar, researcher, inventor and human being in general.

If the subject of this essay is the type who approaches in a reckless manner the thing he erroneously believes himself to have mastered, who better than those who study the various branches of knowledge - we'll call them scientists - would be eligible for inclusion in this type?

For some sociologists, Science - in its broader meaning of knowledge - is likened to a Golem, ‘a creature from Jewish folklore that is neither good nor evil, extremely powerful but potentially dangerous; a gentle giant that could go insane and spread panic at any moment'.

The risk of losing control is real, not so much for those who study the basics of science, which is delightfully theoretical, as for those who deal in ‘applied’ science - varying degrees of applying the theory, i.e. technicians.

English philosopher and jurist Francis Bacon recognised the ambiguity of technology early on, in his Daedalus, sive Mechanicus: ‘He who conceived the meanderings of the labyrinth has demonstrated the need for the thread. The mechanical arts are of ambiguous use and can both produce evil and at the same time offer a remedy for this evil’(4).

Thus theoretical and applied science both produce figures that are similar but different in substance: the pure scientist concerned with understanding how phenomena occur, and the technologist who wonders how this understanding can be applied to everyday life.

Kary Mullis, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, in an address to a worldwide conference on the freedom of scientific research, asserted that Science is like Art and Mathematics: in itself, it does not cause any damage and the attempt to control it, on the pretext of not sharing the use made of it [...] is a vain effort. I believe that Science and Technology should be thought of as distinct entities. We must pay attention to technology, and give scientists the same freedom as artists. Their activity is truly harmless but very interesting (5).

To return to the subject of the essay, it has to be said that the sorcerer's apprentice is not a very well-known character and is only referred to occasionally in literature, historical accounts and everyday language.

The model of the inept rascal could also be confused with the wrongdoer who, having a propensity for crime, pursues a premeditated strategy that could be damaging for people, objects and the environment. It is therefore essential to distinguish between the involuntary rascal and the intentional criminal, and what separates the former from the latter and exonerates him in some measure is the good faith, or at least the levity, with which he carries out his deeds.

The two figures often come into contact with each other, usually on the initiative of the latter, who exploits the discovery or invention of the former when he sees potential for success or profit in them, often with disastrous consequences.

There are many fields in which apprentices can be identified; in some they’re fairly obvious but in others they are concealed in the folds of history, or else the environment in which they operate has failed to expose them.

The intention here is to track down a few from the past, the present and the immediate future, and learn from them how to identify individuals who could be a danger to themselves and to others, so that we can keep them at a distance and develop ways of limiting the damage they do, wherever they happen to pop up.

AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

The aeroplane has revealed to us the true face of the earth. (Antoine de Saint Exupéry)

The desire to detach ourselves from the ground and fly through the air is perhaps one of man's oldest dreams, having always held birds in awe for their accomplishments: spectacular take-offs and landings, changing direction and performing nosedives, all executed with amazing skill, confidence and ease by common birds and majestic birds of prey alike. The object of man’s desire - not to mention his envy - is that element of their bodies that has taken millions of years to evolve into the perfection of form, proportion and functionality that most species have now achieved: their wings, of course.

Wings have assumed such importance in the eyes of men that they have become symbolic not only of speed and lightness, but also of power and supernaturality. It is no coincidence that many deities and spiritual beings of the most diverse civilisations are often depicted with wings, and for many of them, including the Egyptians, the Chinese and the Greco-Romans, the ability to hover in the air was the exclusive reserve of the gods (1).

Since then, and increasingly over the centuries, those who have dared to try and detach themselves from the earth or boasted of the ability to do so have been considered mad or possessed; no surprise that for his Divine Comedy, in which he includes a certain Griffolino d'Arezzo with the cheats for promising to make a Sienese nobleman fly, Dante was accused of heresy and condemned to be burned at the stake (2).

As confirmation of the eternal desire to fly, we should also mention the famous story of Daedalus from Greek mythology, who was trapped in a maze with his son Icarus by King Minos as revenge for helping Theseus to kill the Minotaur and escape from the maze - the prison that Daedalus himself had designed. To escape from the maze, he builds wings of feathers for himself and his son, which he attaches to their shoulders with wax.

Despite his father's advice not to fly too close to the sun, Icarus is convinced he's in complete control and flies so close to the sun that the wax melts and he falls into the sea and drowns (3).

Moving away from myth and legend, the history of aviation over the centuries is studded with an incredible number of human attempts,both experimental and fantastical and with genuine insight or bizarre experimentation, at an apparently impossible undertaking (1.4).

In the book "Those daring men in their flying machines" the author makes a curious and extremely interesting digression on characters who with similar and sometimes original approaches have challenged the laws of gravity, risking not only their physical integrity but also their reputation. As confirmation that any success in the attempt would be unequivocal proof of strength and superiority, there are testimonies according to which even sovereigns have been so fascinated by the dream of flying as to make courageous attempts themselves. These include the son of the Chinese emperor Shin who in 2200 BC used a primitive parachute made of straw to escape a fire in the tower in which he was imprisoned, Abbas Ibn Firmas - a 9th century Spanish scholar, and later in 1100 King Bladud of the Britons, who all attached wings to themselves to defy the air but failed miserably (1).

The first man to investigate the possibility of flying with an in-depth study of birds, however, was Leonardo da Vinci. In the second half of the 15th century he consolidated his studies with designs and projects for aerial vehicles, precursors of the helicopter and the parachute, but was never able to build them because the materials available to him and his ideas themselves, while advanced for their time, were not sufficiently well developed (5).

The first successes only came in the 18th century with the Montgolfier brothers' invention, and in the 20th century with the airships of German Von Zeppelin (6).

An obscure German by the name of Weisskopf had reportedly succeeded in raising a vehicle powered by a steam engine off the ground, but the first men who definitively managed to get off the ground were the Wright brothers in 1903, when they flew a precursor to the modern aircraft above the ground for a few hundred metres above the beach at Kitty Hawk (Carolina, USA). Those few seconds in the air were the start of modern aeronautics, the definitive step towards a long series of inventions, discoveries and exciting opportunities from which the study of space developed with its even more exciting explorations (1,7).

Since then progress has continued at such a pace that even as far back as 1957 a small satellite - Sputnik - was launched beyond the atmospheric strata. This launch marked the departure of astronautics, a sector in which the two superpowers of the time, the USSR and the USA, were prominent, winning historic conquests from among which the American mission Apollo 11 stands out above the rest for sending three astronauts to the moon (8).

The history of first aviation then astronautics has nonetheless been studded with some serious disasters. The first known tragedy goes back to 1785, when Frenchman Pilatre de Rozier attempted to fly across the English Channel to England but crashed to the ground along with his assistant when their hydrogen balloon burst (1).

The Hindenburg disaster followed much later in 1937, and closer to our own time the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger shortly after take-off in 1986, killing the 7 crew members (9,10,11).

And yet despite all this, the powerful drive to conquer air and space has never receded.

The overwhelming desire to engage in these challenges would suggest that both disciplines have been attended by many self-taught sorcerers; but from the most objective analysis possible, the conclusion has emerged that there is no one who deserves the award of sorcerer's apprentice, other than Icarus.

No one who has risen to the difficult challenge of flight has displayed one particular distinguishing characteristic of the apprentice - underestimation of the risk. The succession of contenders in this long history have all been well aware of the danger to their own lives and those of other people, but their passion and desire to follow their hearts and overcome the obstacle has prevailed, along with the certainty that if they were to succeed in their enterprise, they would go down in history.

Sorcerer's apprentice: Icarus

Wise sorcerer: Daedalus

Machine: Wings