never reaching the ground.
The irresolvable resolves
into the logician who claims
he always lies.
He needed a machine;
made one in thought
that read, decided, wrote.
An unbounded tape
guiding, recording
steps chosen, steps carried out;
proved it was impossible
to be sure it would halt.
Read: a war and coded traffic
Write: decryption, a Bombe.
Read: body as machine
Write: machine intelligence.
Read: body as demand
Write: an opportunist young man.
Read: legalised bigotry
Write: chemical castration.
Read: an apple from
the tree of the knowledge of evil;
Write: space; and space; and space…
Where logic is not decidable
death is.
Ruth Aylett
Ruth Aylett lives in Edinburgh where she teaches and researches university-level computing, thinks another world is possible and that the one we have is due some changes. She has been published by New Writing Scotland, South Bank Poetry, Envoi, Bloodaxe Books, Poetry Scotland, Red Squirrel Press, Doire Press and others.
For more on her writing see: http://tinyurl.com/soi5e
Parabolic Puzzles
Paul Holmes
Four Coloured Cubes
After the Gravity train delivered us to Gevassal, we made our way to the galaxy-famous Cubic Casino for a flutter.
We took our seats at the Asymmetric Table and the waitress brought us flaming Altarian cocktails. That—we all agreed—was Service! The croupier, Jade, explained the rules.
“It’s an asymmetric dice game,” said Jade. “You choose any dice and then I choose one, and we throw. The winner takes the stakes. If it’s a draw, we roll again. Simple.”
She handed the dice to me and said “But you’d better inspect them first.” “What unusual dice!” I observed. “The yellow sides add up to 22 and the green add up to 24, but I suspect the yellow would beat the green more often than not. Hmm!”
I picked up the blue dice, as this also added to 24 and I reckoned this would give me the best chance of winning.
Which dice did Jade pick up?
A while later I decided to take my chances with a different dice. “May I change colours?” I asked.
“Certainly,” replied Jade, “Which one would you like?”
“I think I’ll try the Green this time.”
“Here you are,” she said with a twinkling smile.
Which dice did Jade pick up this time?
Send your answer to us via our website Contact Form. If you are correct, your name will be dropped into a hat. A copy of Duncan Lunan’s book The Elements of Time will be sent to the lucky name pulled out of said hat.
Puzzles by Paul Holmes is published by The New Curiosity Shop and is available from bookshops or online. Paul’s next collection, The Galactic Festival will be published by Shoreline of Infinity Publications in late 2016.
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