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GlasperlenSpiel
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesA novel by HermannHesse, written in 1943. It contains a visionary description of a global community of knowledge players.
The book GlasperlenSpiel is more commonly known as "The Glass Bead Game" in English, and has also been released under the title "Magister Ludi". See Wiki:GlassBeadGame and the [Everything2 node] for the book.
I'm intrigued by the "global community of knowledge players." Are there any lessons to be drawn from the story? -- EricScheid
The strange thing about the book is that it offers an alternative to the current state of affairs, where knowledge is the key to power and wealth -- in academia and in business. There, knowledge is the key to winning a game. The game doesn't affect the real world. In the end, the main character just drowns in a lake. To me, there was no lesson. It was a cute fantasy revolving around the idea of knowledge for knowledge's sake. But it didn't show new and plausible ways of dealing with knowledge accumulation, no new ways of how of thinking about knowledge. -- AlexSchroeder
If I recall correctly, this is not quite correct. The game is described to work with analogies (e.g. between music and mathematics) and by discovering hidden symmetries. The transfer of the pattern concept from architecture (Wiki:ChristopherAlexander) to software might be seen as a good example for the game. Nevertheless HH was just speculating and surely had no deeper insights. --HelmutLeitner
The mark of any great book is that you can read into it more than was intended by the author. No doubt HermannHesse had no knowledge of the WorldWideWeb but this is what the book closely resembles. The novel survives re-interpretation [1]. -- PaulMillar