CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
-The main issue, my dear Claude, is only one: are we clouds or clocks?
-What do you mean, Professor? I am having trouble following you.
-Sure, I understand. Now I will give you an example that will help you make sense of this. Look at that cloud out there - and he pointed vaguely at the sky beyond the framed bar window. - Can you see it?
-Yup. You mean the big, shaded one above the church tower?
-I do. Observe its outline: it is unstable, it changes every second, following the wind. The cloud changes its shape all the time, it is so bizarre, whimsical, flakey… we can never predict its movement.
-So?
-Now look at this.
The professor took his heavy watch off his wrist, placed it delicately on the table, turning it over with a light and expert touch: under the transparent dial, the internal mechanisms and gears were visible.
-Look: every movement is deliberate, examined, programmed. This is the balance wheel, which makes the wheels move: observe the perfection of the teeth. Nothing is left to case here. Do you understand what I mean?
-To tell the truth, not really.
-But it's so simple! Think about it for a moment - he said moving forward, while his eyes lit up enthusiastically.
Claude looked at him with a mixture of admiration and uncertainty. Professor De Grecis, a mythical figure of his high school years, maintained all his strength and intellectual energy intact, in the magnetism of his gaze, in his intense and deep voice, and in his wide and fine-tuned gestures. As he got older, his mustache had turned white, the skin of his face had withered a little and the wrinkles had deepened, but the power of his charm was still the same that once bound the boys to their desks, entranced by his speech, by the power of his words and the staginess of his explanations. Claude continued to look for him at regular intervals, to ask for his opinion when he had doubts about the choices he had to make, and the professor made himself available. He enjoyed going to the meetings he himself arranged in that old fashioned café, with wooden tables from the Thirties, providing advice and help. Now, however, Claude could not understand what he was saying, and he felt as lost as when in high school the professor caught him unprepared. The professor stared at him with smiling eyes, taking stock of his disturbance and perplexity, caressing his face as a young inexperienced man.
- Claude, do you remember when I was talking to you about a casual event and causality, which is the relation between cause and effect?
- Yes, yes, that I remember. Just move the position of the letter U… and everything changes.
- Exactly. The cloud is a casual event, or, if you prefer, chaos (in Italian language caos is the anagram of “caso”, the letter is reversed as in the previous example), the clock is the cause, the tick-tock that keeps repeating in a foreseeable and orderly way: cause, effect, cause, effect ...
- The law of causality, yes ... Hume, Kant.
- Very well. You were a very brilliant student, I remember it vividly. You could have studied philosophy, instead of choosing computer science as a field of studies.
- Professor, I also liked computer science a lot. I wanted to get into the mechanics of the computer just like you taught us to get into the intricacies of philosophy.
- I know. And you got it right, apparently ... a programming genius.
- A genius, well ... Let's just say I'm good enough. But back to the advice I asked you for earlier, what can you tell me? What should I do? You know, I don't know whom to talk to about this.
- The fact is, dear Claude, that if you think you are a cloud, you have to let yourself be carried away by the wind, by what happens.
- What if I were a clock? Again, Professor, I feel like a minuscule part of a gear: I have no choice.
- Yes you do. It is free will, which goes beyond determinism, because you see dear boy, not everything is mechanical, so ...
- Professor, please. Leave this explanation for another time.
- Yes you are right. You have come here because you need help, and I am wasting your time with my absurd philosophical talk. But I feel you have already chosen, you just want some encouragement from me. This new job attracts you, makes you feel important: that's it, isn't it?
- It's true. But I'm also afraid of it.
- Fear of the unknown! Go ahead, my boy. But tell me - he added suddenly suspicious, after a short pause - you are not by chance becoming a dangerous criminal, one of those, what are they called? hackers?
- The boundary between what you can and what you can't do is very blurred… you taught me, professor.
- So is that true? Are you a hacker?
- I'm paid to get into codes, programming languages. Even the secret ones, but only to unmask the possible dangers. I know, it will seem immoral to you, but it is.
- I never judge. But be careful, son. Where there is too much money, there are too many scams.
- Professor! Don't tell me that, I know what I'm doing. Rather: did you make up the story of clouds and clocks?
Professor De Grecis chuckled: - I'd like to confirm that, dear son. But you know, I'm poor but honest, and I could never take credit for something that isn't mine… well, it's Popper’s.
-Karl Popper? The Karl Popper of the theory of falsification?
- Congratulations, congratulations, my boy. I am very impressed, I knew you were one of my best students. You could have studied philosophy ... too bad.