Arcadia Planitia

Both the future and the past exist in Paradise, with all three being equally unattainable in this instant, even as our reach renews and exceeds itself moment by moment in this our technocratic domain.

There it is up there, a piece of land on Mars our planetary neighbour: Arcadia Planitia, the plains of Arcadia, named after a patch of ancient Greece by one Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer of the 19th century notable for SF readers, because from the mistranslation of his words by others ("canals" for "canali") sprang the myth of canals on Mars.

His influential observation was caused by the quality of technology at that time-- the optically poor telescope he used, matched up with the ability of the brain to interpret, sometimes misunderstand, what the eye records, to arrive at the illusion that there are channels on the surface of Mars; a figment arising from a conjunction of ineffective technology and the limitless power of the mind.

My bet is that his telescope, with its optical shortcomings, probably looked extremely impressive.  It's just the way we do things.

So, a man four generations ago beheld an area of another planet, one which he couldn't even see clearly in his telescope, and where only now can we conceive hazy plans for actually visiting at some point in an undefinable and distant future, and he named that spot after a geopolitical region on our own planet that hasn't existed for two millenia.  Who knows if we'll ever get there, if we ever were there to begin with.

Simple enough until it's broken down a bit into some component parts, at which point one traces a mess of squiggly lines back and forth between past and future, both perfect states, and within the paradise of one's mind they exist in an admirable and illusory conjunction.

Maybe that's the way it is with everything.  Perfect ideas are that way in concept only, and are often made with flawed understanding based on imperfect observation.  Often these ideas turn out illusory and besides the point, and will lead to sprouts and growths of the strangest kinds into the most inconceivable shapes.

The way these pieces are constructed are good examples of this.

This site which you now travel through is in concept limitless, as limitless as the digital computer universe itself.  We have had perfect ideas for it which exist in the past and the future.  Between all these we can draw a mess of squiggly lines both admirable and unimpeachable, and which perhaps will have the oddest impact on the world around us, that world which is shaped by the power of the mind.

That power and purpose is within everyone; as you travel through this site, you leave your mark upon it.  Shaped by the never perfect quality of the technology of our time, it takes its strength from what you do with it and what you make of it.

Such are the Plains of Arcadia.  That is the way it really is.