Music and Apocalypse (Weitermachen Sanssouci)

Seen with correct measuring instruments,

Planet Earth

is not perfectly spherical.

No.

It rather looks

like a potato.

In fact, you could say that Earth

doesn't look like Earth at all.

It merely resembles it.

But if you're hoping for a voyage to the Moon

or even the Red Planet Mars

I'm sorry to disappoint.

Everything here is set on Earth,

in a very special potato field of science:

Berlin University.

That belongs here,

I nearly took it.

Would that have been theft?

- No one would have noticed. - You would.

True, I would.

How are we to formalize beauty?

Or, how can such a formalization be rendered socially productive?

Aesthetic condition.

The measure of aesthetic condition,

or the character class of the aesthetic condition

is 3.1,

2.2, 1.3.

The measure of aesthetic condition

depends on the relation of the numeral O -

all orientating ordering relations

to the numeral C,

the number of determinant construction elements:

complexity.

If you wish to join the free class, you're in the right place.

Sorry, I'm looking for the cafeteria, actually.

I feel bad you had to leave your students alone because of me.

You gave me the perfect excuse.

Let's go sit over there, where I can't be seen.

So what are your plans this semester?

I'm teaching the introduction to simulation studies of Berger.

With a teaching component?

- Linked to a staff position? - In theory.

- And in practice...? - The post is already canceled.

- Where was it? - At BIC. - Wow.

- It's nice up there. - Yes, very nice.

- Julius. - Phoebe.

- Glad to know you. - Me too.

See?

Mind what you wish for - you might get it.

This lighting is a sweetener from ZEUS Electrical.

They want to get in with us for some kind of strategic partnership.

Anyway, it's supposed to give a constant glow of light

at exactly the level of a sunny day in springtime.

They thought about our problems, and this is the result.

It's also said to be good for skin, hair, mind, everything.

So, how's your course going?

Pretty good so far, thank you.

Phoebe, say,

"as regards university, how you feel?"

I... have...

She was one of those highly qualified young people,

who make you wonder

why they never changed anything about their situation.

Anyway their work was always solid.

So?

For the future, I don't know.

Unfortunately neither do I.

But I might have more for you than just a teaching post.

We don't need to advertise it widely.

A 28% position. It's not particularly demanding.

Some admin ahead of the big evaluation at semester's end.

Apart from that, you'd have time to read up,

find your direction, and...

Time, Phoebe,

is the most important resource in the life of a scholar.

While acquainting her students with my standard primer

"Introduction to Simulation Studies",

it inspired Phoebe to philosophical ruminations of her own.

Can we argue, then,

that the real catastrophe would be uninterrupted business as usual?

So that our own present would be the actual catastrophe?

Can any of you demonstrate this with help of these graphs?

For everything to stay as it is, everything must be different.

That's a somehow unsatisfactory position -

driving all this effort for change...

- Where did that tortoise come from? - Please be careful.

This is Batagur Baska, one of the last surviving of its species.

How do you communicate?

I haven't figured that out yet. We're still experimenting.

How do you know each other?

From vacation. Vacation in the jungle.

I spent last summer in the Amazon, protesting mining projects.

If tortoises are removed from their original habitat,

they lose their bearings and can no longer survive in the wild.

And now? Have you found a place for her?

Tricky. She's living with me in halls.

- But that's no long term solution. - Come on, it isn't for anyone.

For her, the cold air flows there could be fatal.

She was subletting from a certain Dakkar Prinz.

Another typical representative of her generation.

A salon socialist,

whose research project on cybernetics in socialist Chile

as a model for equitable distribution run by computer

I had only recently evaluated myself.

Negatively, I need hardly add.

How did the evaluation go?

The commission recommended

not to fuel hopes history long ago debunked.

Who is "history" anyway?

Could you ask her directly how she sees things?

"Cybernetics in Socialist Chile" doesn't sound promising?

Or do I have to formulate it politically "neutrally"?

So without referencing socialism?

Could I find a way of saying

that they didn't use all this computer stuff to make a profit?

I don't know.

Me neither.

This is the studio for testing the simulations,

set up at the start of the funding period.

Only signs of disintegration again?

No wonder it's impossible to recognize the artifact.

So the idea is to simulate climate change

before it becomes a reality?

Yes, but in practice...

How do we get usable results at this technical standard?

Maybe you should come back later.

I have some technical glitches to solve.

But then watch me ruin everything at the touch of a button.

I don't want to miss that.

OK, so... in this simulation,

we have around 4º of global warming.

Um, that would bring us to a tipping point,

then the consequences of climate change can no longer be predicted.

So, yeah, because we're assuming self-reinforcing chains of events

with unforeseeable consequences.

So, like jeopardizing life on earth.

Yeah, right.

Sorry.

Thank you very much for the great presentation.

There you are!

I already thought you weren't coming to Alfons' lecture. - Sure I am.

Von Krolock? Yes, we're just on our way, no worries.

Not long ago we greeted the Queen here.

We want to uphold standards of excellency,

and Alfons Abstract-Wege is a guarantee of that.

His publications are numerous, so I'll just highlight two here.

One is a compendium

published in the USA with Professor Krull, titled,

"Who, How, What? Decision-Making in the Digital Age",

and the other is an essay from last November,

in the "Journal of the History of Ideas":

"May I Trouble You? Discourses of Politeness in the Hotel Trade".

In which spirit, it's a pleasure to say,

"May I trouble you?"

Alfons Abstract-Wege, I am eagerly anticipating your lecture.

Thank you, Julius Kelp, for the friendly welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen,

my lecture is headlined,

"Focusing on the Essential:

Nudging in Digitally Augmented Realities".

Nudging is a social technology

helping people reward themselves.

But how do we reward ourselves?

Who says thank you?

The answer is simple: it's our own bodies.

Let me start with a basic example:

The Swiss Canteen Association

cut sugar content in goods sold last year

by around 115 million cubes of sugar.

I repeat, 115 million.

What, I hear you ask, has this to do with us?

Very simply,

we launched a pilot project in the main canteen here,

to study some of these issues further.

Well, thank you for the wonderful lecture.

There's time for one or two questions before we vacate the hall.

Yes, please.

We had the intro course with Phoebe Phaidon.

Adorno distinguishes between two character types.

The strong and the weak character.

The weak character is the one that, with fascism...

so the followers, and then there's the good...

- er... strong character... - Yes.

And so my question is:

is nudging for strong or weak characters?

Thank you for the question.

Character...

Well, nudging isn't about ideological battles.

It's just about what works.

Thank you for this beautiful lecture.

Thank you, it was really well conceived.

Thank you for this daring impulse

that fills us with hope.

Thank you for this exciting work.

Thank you, we're really impressed.

Thank you for the brilliant input.

More of this, please.

Thank you for the illuminating ideas...

Can I invite you to dinner soon?

If you're up for it?