My poetry collection, «Αλγόριθμοι Σιωπής» (Algorithms of Silence), explores the quiet, often unseen structures that shape our inner lives. As a computer scientist and a poet, I’m fascinated by the language we use to describe these systems – whether they are emotional, social, or computational.
The following piece is an experiment that embodies this theme. It presents a single core idea – about choice, memory, and predetermination – in three different languages: the original Greek poem “Αυτόματον Μεταβατικόν,” an English transcreation, and a pseudocode version that translates the poem’s philosophical questions into the logic of an automaton.
– Vasileios Klimis, Queen Mary University of London
Transitional Automaton
Once,
a decision – small,
like a flaw in a cogwheel –
tilted the whole system toward a version
never written.
In the workshop of habits,
every choice left behind
a trace of activation;
you don’t see it,
but it returns
like a pulse
through a one-way gate.
•
I walk through a matrix of transitions
where each state defines the memory of the next.
Not infinite possibilities –
only those the structure permits.
Is this freedom?
Or merely the optimal illusion
of a system with elastic rules?
•
In moments of quiet
(but not of silence)
I feel the null persisting
not as absence,
but as a repository in waiting.
Perhaps that is where it resides,
all that was never activated.
•
If there is a continuation,
it will resemble a debug session
more than a crisis.
Not a moral crisis;
a recursion.
Who passes down to the final terminal
the most probable path?
•
The question is not
what we lived.
But which of the contingencies
remained active
when we
stopped calculating.
Αυτόματον μεταβατικόν
Κάποτε,
μια απόφαση – μικρή, σαν στρέβλωση σε οδοντωτό τροχό –
έγερνε το σύνολο προς μια εκδοχή
που δεν γράφτηκε ποτέ.
•
Στο εργαστήριο των συνηθειών
κάθε επιλογή άφηνε πίσω της
ένα ίχνος ενεργοποίησης·
δεν το βλέπεις,
αλλά επιστρέφει
σαν παλμός σε μη αντιστρεπτή πύλη.
•
Περπατώ μέσα σ’ έναν πίνακα μεταβάσεων
όπου κάθε κατάσταση ορίζει τη μνήμη της επόμενης.
Όχι άπειρες πιθανότητες –
μόνον όσες η δομή επιτρέπει.
Είναι ελευθερία αυτό;
Ή απλώς η βέλτιστη πλάνη
ενός συστήματος με ελαστικούς κανόνες;
•
Σε στιγμές σιγής (αλλά όχι σιωπής)
νιώθω το μηδέν να επιμένει
όχι ως απουσία,
αλλά ως αποθήκη αναμονής.
Ίσως εκεί διαμένει
ό,τι δεν ενεργοποιήθηκε.
•
Αν υπάρξει συνέχεια,
θα μοιάζει περισσότερο με debug session
παρά με κρίση.
•
Όχι κρίση ηθική·
μία αναδρομή.
Ποιος μεταβιβάζει στο τερματικό του τέλους
το πιο πιθανό μονοπάτι;
•
Η ερώτηση δεν είναι τι ζήσαμε.
Αλλά ποιο από τα ενδεχόμενα έμεινε ενεργό
όταν εμείς
σταματήσαμε να υπολογίζουμε.
Pseudocode Poem version
Pseudocode poems are poems written in pseudocode: the semi-formailsed language used for writing algorithms and planning the design of program. Here is the above poem as a pseudocode poem.
FUNCTION life_automaton(initial_state)
DEFINE State_Transitions AS Matrix;
DEFINE active_path AS Log;
DEFINE potential_paths AS Set = {all_versions_never_written};
current_state = initial_state;
system.log("Initializing in the workshop of habits.");
REPEAT
WAIT FOR event.decision;
// a decision — small, like a flaw in a cogwheel
IF (event.decision.is_subtle) THEN
previous_state = current_state;
current_state = State_Transitions.calculate_next
(previous_state, event.decision);
// it returns like a pulse through a one-way gate
active_path.append(previous_state -> current_state);
potential_paths.remove(current_state.version);
END IF
// Is this freedom? Or merely the optimal illusion
// of a system with elastic rules?
IF (system.isQuiet) THEN
// I feel the null persisting
// not as absence, but as a repository in waiting.
// Perhaps that is where it resides, all that was never activated.
PROCESS potential_paths.contemplate();
END IF
UNTIL system.isTerminated;
// If there is a continuation,
// it will resemble a debug session more than a crisis.
// Not a moral crisis; a recursion.
DEBUG_SESSION.run(active_path);
// The question is not what we lived.
// But which of the contingencies remained active
// when we stopped calculating.
RETURN final_state = active_path.getLast();
END FUNCTIONMore on
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