Luck is anti-science, meaning that science is about calculation and not rhythm and melody. The Fortunate universe has to have a musical tonality or -as was said before - the principle of continuity or primordial rhythm is not upheld (see spinning-top P200).
However, as was said in Arcadia2 (Zodiac), one could imagine a universe of motion-capture and expressive algorithms that was a very convincing replication. An illusion that was real.
This is more or less the theme of EC Tubb's Iduna's Universe (#21) where a child is electronically trapped inside an alien artifact, lying dormant on a cot. Dumarest is pursuaded to pursue her and enters a child's view of the universe.
Dumarest reached for the stars depicted on the window. His fingers seemed to touch them, a common illusion, but the perspective was wrong, the stars seeming more like discs scratched at random on a sheet of heavily smoked glass than true suns burning in the void. And space held more than stars. There should be the blur of distant nebulae, the shimmer of fluorescence from electronically activated curtains of gas, the somber loom of clouds of dust.. (page 121)
Even though an electronic universe has got to be composed of machine calculation, the way it is portrayed inside the artifact is child-like. But, from.the point of view of rhythm and melody, the primitive, animalistic shapes of the Zodiac are original, whereas the calculations of modern science are illusory.
In other words, the primitive is original because it has rhythm and melody. The mechanical 'wheel' of the zodiac is a matter of luck, and Fortune is an original thing.
Fortune cannot exist in a calculated universe, whereas to Byron Fortune is the only thing that does (see quote DNO5). What about inventions like the wheel, Roman engineering (HB2)..and so on?
It's not that I'm against invention, it's that the universe itself is a product of balance - the luck of being in the right place at the right time - and is imbued with psyche. A calculated universe cannot have psyche, only the products of an infatuated ego (for their machines, natch.)
This is so of Musk, who assumes his machine (Tesla) is s green because it is electrical. To be green means a balanced state of physicality and physical pursuits in-the-field. From the evolution of calmness of psyche.
Before entering the alien artifact, Dumarest..
..stared at it, concentrating, adjusting his attitude, blanking out the threats of guards and possible horror. Forgetting those who had gone before aside from one. Iduna who now lay quietly sleeping in a room of sterile whiteness. (page 51)
Calmness is a product of physical toughness and some degree of resilience. Tubb takes this to primeval extremes at times, as Dumarest relives his childhood.
..the loaded sling lifting, to swing in a sharp circle, the thong released at the exact moment to send the missile hurtling through the air. To land in the dirt at the side of the lizard's skull. Dumarest was running even as it left the pouch, lips drawn back , legs pounding, breathing in short, shallow gasps to oxygenate his lungs. To gain energy and speed so that, even as the half-stunned lizard headed toward cover he was on it, snatching the prize, holding it fast as his teeth dug into the scaled throat and released the blood of life..
It was dark by the time he arrived and the fire was a warm beacon in the gloom. The only welcome he would get but, with luck, he would be given a portion of the kill. A hope which died as the man came to the mouth of the cave..
The second stone left his hand, flung with all the force of his back and shoulders, sliding through the air to hit the man's upraised arm, to fall to one side leaving nothing more than a bruise. A mistake, he should have used the sling, and he tore it from his waist as the man lunged after him..
Time won in which to pick up stones and fit one to his sling. To whirl it. To release the thong and watch as the missile smashed teeth. To send another, another, more until the shrieking, blood-stained thing with the ruined eyes and pulverized face and the gray of brain showing among the red of blood and white of bone finally slumped and was silent. (page 57, 61,62)
Personally, I don't see why cavemen couldn't be as honourable as feudalists, but the point of physical toughness is well-made. Round about the 30s there was a fashion for deliberately exposing babies.
They say the 'science' was not sound, but the point is it's not only a physical thing. The physical experience also affects mental conditioning. Kids who play leap-frog and jump into ponds are also psychically conditioned to have self-reliance. The physical situation is gymnastic and rhythmic (musical) and affects the balance of the brain.
Children without that experience grow up differently and therefore become adults of a certain type, liable to anxiety and prone to believe in calculation (machines.) This is the future prophecied by Musk, so the point is it's almost a self-fulfilling one!
Sitting here listening to Lotus - Santana's live triple-fold album in Japan -on a mini-hi-fi, it would be babbling to be anti-machine. Machines are good at copying things faithfully. However, the original psychic experience that is being copied is the reality of that situation.
It's copying, since spirit can be 'captured' as in the EC Tubb story. If that is all there was it would be a type of honey-trap where the sounds were actually at the service of calculation. That is the danger of a future where machines -as opposed to primal rhythm - are in control of destiny.
He turned as he reached the end of the chamber to look back to where the Matriarch stood like some priestess at the ancient altar of a pagan god. The light caught her as if entranced and, already, she was doomed. An hour, a day, a week - the period was unimportant but, inevitably, she would succumb. She would approach the Tau and caress it and become as a child and enter the world it provided. A victim. A god. A slave. (page 156)
