"This peculiar coincidence would be of little interest if not for abundant parallels between the plot of Asimov's book and the events unfolding now," wrote Dmitri Gusev, the scientist who posted the article. He was referring to apparent similarities between the plot of Foundation and the pursuit of the organisation we have come to know, perhaps erroneously, as al-Qaida.
The Arabic word qaida - ordinarily meaning "base" or "foundation" - is also used for "groundwork" and "basis". It is employed in the sense of a military or naval base, and for chemical formulae and geometry: the base of a pyramid, for example. Lane, the best Arab-English lexicon, gives these senses: foundation, basis of a house; the supporting columns or poles of a structure; the lower parts of clouds extending across a horizon; a universal or general rule or canon. With the coming of the computer age, it has gained the further meaning of "database": qaida ma'lumat (information base)...
The Arabic word qaida - ordinarily meaning "base" or "foundation" - is also used for "groundwork" and "basis". It is employed in the sense of a military or naval base, and for chemical formulae and geometry: the base of a pyramid, for example. Lane, the best Arab-English lexicon, gives these senses: foundation, basis of a house; the supporting columns or poles of a structure; the lower parts of clouds extending across a horizon; a universal or general rule or canon. With the coming of the computer age, it has gained the further meaning of "database": qaida ma'lumat (information base)...
I suppose I better give in and read the first Foundation trilogy, which I've managed to avoid up to now...I have to admit the idea doesn't thrill me. I always tended towards Ballard in my 70s scifi reading, such as it was.
It had struck me, as is pointed out in this article, that the same theory might apply equally to the Grundrisse, and it remains to be established whether OBL or his intellectual mentor, Abdullah Azzam, has read either one. Whatever ideological distaste - to put it very mildly - they may have for the motivations and outlooks of either Asimov or Marx is completely beside the point; I cannot believe that for all their steely-eyed puritanism, they lack a sense of irony. I mean, they're supposed to be "playas", right? How serious can you really be if you don't have a sense of irony? (via Matt Jones)
Post a Comment