Although a triumph of gear ratios, the machines did commit a grave sin of information design — Pridefully Obvious Presentation — by directing attention more toward miraculous contraptionary display than to planetary motion.
—Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information
—Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information
Out by the Reservoir,
some evenings I look south to see
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, all lined up,
some fixed stars, not quite as bright,
then up to the river of our galaxy above.
Imagine the sky as apparatus,
the planets swinging,
each in its direction, at its speed.
some evenings I look south to see
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, all lined up,
some fixed stars, not quite as bright,
then up to the river of our galaxy above.
Imagine the sky as apparatus,
the planets swinging,
each in its direction, at its speed.
The orrery invites us to see
as God sees, to hold the whole thing
in sight and mind,
own it, set it on a desk.
When they built it,
no one knew about Pluto
or the objects of the Oort Cloud,
out so far the sun is just
another bright star.
The toy Solar System
gets the revolutions right
but a true scale model
would take up half of town.
as God sees, to hold the whole thing
in sight and mind,
own it, set it on a desk.
When they built it,
no one knew about Pluto
or the objects of the Oort Cloud,
out so far the sun is just
another bright star.
The toy Solar System
gets the revolutions right
but a true scale model
would take up half of town.
But when I was twelve,
I imagined infinity as a spaceship
going on forever. It made me dizzy.
When I told my Catholic friend,
she clapped me on my shoulder,
said I was religious
I imagined infinity as a spaceship
going on forever. It made me dizzy.
When I told my Catholic friend,
she clapped me on my shoulder,
said I was religious
after all.
