Silence - A Fable

Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz.

I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast,

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Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz.

I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast,

a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CMBC.

And if you're like me,

you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence

is changing the business world and our lives.

So each week on Big Technology,

I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech

and outsiders trying to influence it,

asking where this is all going.

They come from places like Nvidia,

Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more.

So if you want to be smart with your wallet,

your career choices,

and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties,

listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Silence, a fable by Edgar Allan Poe.

The mountain, pinnacle, slumber, valleys, cracks,

and caves are silent.

Listen to me,

I set the demon as he placed his hand upon my head.

The region of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya

by the borders of the river Zaire.

And there is no quiet there, no silence.

The waters of the river have a saffron and sickly you,

and they flow not onward to the sea,

but popitate forever and forever beneath the red eye

of the sun with a tumultuous and convulsive motion.

For many miles on either side of the river's oozy bed

is a pale desert of gigantic water lilies.

They sigh one and through the other in that solitude

and stretch towards the heaven,

their long and ghastly necks.

And not to and fro, their everlasting heads.

And there is an indistinct murmur

which cometh out from among them

like the rushing of scepterine water.

And they sigh one and through the other.

But there is a boundary to their own,

the boundary of the dark, horrible, lofty forest.

There, like the waves about the hebrides,

the low underwood is agitated continually.

But there is no wind throughout the heaven

and the tall primeval trees rock eternally,

hither and dither with a crashing and mighty sound.

And from their highest summits, one by one,

drop ever-lasting Jews.

And at the roots, strange poisonous flowers

lie writhing in perturbed slumber.

And overhead, with the rustling and loud noise,

the grey clouds rush westwardly forever

until they roll a cataract

over the fiery wall of the horizon.

But there is no wind throughout the heaven

and by the shores of the river's ira,

there is neither quiet nor silence.

It was night and the rain fell.

And falling, it was rain.

But having fallen, it was blurred.

And I stood in the moraths among the tall lilies

and the rain fell upon my head.

And the lilies sighed one and through the other

in the solemnity of their desolation.

And all at once, the moon arose to the thin ghastly mist

and was crimson in color.

And my eyes fell upon a huge grey rock,

which stood by the shore of the river

and was lighted by the light of the moon.

And the rock was grey and ghastly and tall,

and the rock was grey.

Upon its front were characters in grey,

there is engraven in the stones.

And I walked through the moraths of water lilies

until I came close into the shore

that I might read the characters upon the stone.

But I could not decipher them.

And I was going back into the moraths

when the moon shone with a fuller red.

And I turned and looked again upon the rock

and upon the characters

and the characters were desolation.

And I looked upwards and there stood a man

upon the summit of the rock.

And I hid myself among the water lilies

that I might discover the action of the man.

And the man was tall and stately in form

and wrapped up from his shoulders to his feet

in the toga of old room.

And the outlines of his figure were indistinct.

But his features were the features of a deity

for the mantle of the night and of the mist

and of the moon and of the dew

had left uncovered the features of his face.

And his brow was lofty with thought

and his eye wild with care.

And in the few furrows upon his cheek

I wrapped the fables of sorrow and the weariness

and disgust with mankind

and a longing after solitude.

And the man sat on the rock

and leaned his head upon his hand

and looked out upon the desolation.

He looked down into the low and quiet shrubbery

and up into the tall primeval trees

and up higher at the rustling heaven

and into the crimson moon.

And I lay close within shelter of the lilies

and observed the actions of the man.

And the man trembled in the solitude

but the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

And the man turned his attention from the heaven

and looked out upon the dreary river Zyra

and upon the yellow gaffly waters

and upon the pale legions of the water lilies.

And the man listened to the size of the water lilies

and to the murmur that came up from among them.

And I lay close within my covered

and observed the actions of the man.

And the man trembled in the solitude.

But the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

Then I went down into the recesses of the moraas

and waited a far in among the wilderness of the lilies

and called into the hippopotamus

which dwelt among the fence in the recesses of the moraas.

And the hippopotamus heard my call and came

with the behemoth unto the foot of the rock

and roared loudly and fearfully beneath the moon.

And I lay close within my covered

and observed the actions of the man

and the man trembled in the solitude.

But the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

Then I cursed the elements with the curse of tumult

and the frightful tempest gathered in the heaven

where before there had been no wind.

And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest

and the rain beat upon the head of the man

and the floods of the river came down

and the river was tormented into foam

and the water lily shrieked within their beds

and the forest crumbled before the wind

and the thunder rolled and the lightning fell

and the rock rocked to its foundation.

And I lay close within my covered

and observed the actions of the man

and the man trembled in the solitude.

But the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

Then I grew angry and cursed with the curse of silence,

the river and the lilies and the wind

and the forest and the heaven and the thunder

and the size of the water lilies.

And they became a cursed and were still.

And the moon seized to totter

up its pathway to heaven

and the thunder died away

and the lightning did not flesh

and the clouds hung motionless

and the water sunk to their level and remained

and the trees seized through rock

and the water lilies sighed no more

and the murmur was heard no longer from among them

nor any shadow of sound

throughout the vast, illimitable desert.

And I looked upon the characters of the rock

and they were changed

and the characters were silence.

And my eyes fell upon the countenance of the man

and his countenance was one with terror.

And hurriedly he raised his head from his hand

and stood forth upon the rock and listened.

But there was no voice throughout the vast,

illimitable desert and the characters

upon the rock were silence

and the man shuddered and turned his face away

and fled a far off in haste

so that I beheld him no more.

Now there are fine tales

in the volumes of the Magi

in the iron-bound melancholy volumes of the Magi.

Therein I say,

our glorious histories of the heaven

and of the earth and of the mighty sea

and of the genie that overruled the sea

and the earth and the lofty heaven.

There was much lore, too,

in the sayings which were set by the civils

and holy,

holy things were heard of old

by the dim leaves that tremble around the donor.

But as Allah lived,

that fable which the demon told me

as he set by my sight

in the shadow of the tomb

I hold to be the most wonderful of all.

And as the demon made an end of his story,

he fell back within the cavity of the tomb and laughed.

And I could not laugh with the demon

and he cursed me because I could not laugh

and the links which dwelleth forever in the tomb

came out there from

and lay down at the feet of the demon

and looked at him steadily in the face.

And of silence a fable.