Umberto Eco

Eco is an author and semiotician. He works as a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco for useful Bio and complete Biblio.

Novels:

The Name of the Rose (1983 ISBN 0156001314 ) (Il nome della rosa, 1980): A philosophical detective novel in a medieval setting;

FoucaultsPendulum (1989 ISBN 0345368754 ) (Il pendolo di Foucault, 1988): A present day conspiracy theory novel;

The Island of the Day Before (1995 ISBN 0140259198 ) (L'isola del giorno prima, (1994): A novel about a 17th century nobleman marooned across the international date line;

Baudolino (2002 ISBN 0156029065 ) (Baudolino, 2000): A novel about a young peasant adopted by emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, and his adventures;

Eco spent many years studying novels from a functional, structural point of view. He was considered an expert in that field which very few programmers got interested in.

An alternative classification could be:

The name of the rose: A book about books made of stolen snippets and crossing levels, whose real topic may be "smiling and truth".

FoucaultsPendulum: A novel about creativity and building reality by expressing it in some form (i.e., narrating it).

The Island of the Day Before: Classic voyage as introspection theme, mixed with the semiologistic "the only truth is narration".

Baudolino: Do lies determine truth? And is the action or imagination which can keep you young forever?

Eco spent many years telling lies, trying to make the deeper truth emerge. You can think of it as writing tests, but he still did not struggle to get a GreenBar.

-- GabrieleRenzi

The following excerpts are from an English translation of Umberto Eco's back-page column, "La bustina di Minerva," in the Italian news weekly "Espresso," September 30, 1994.

...Insufficient consideration has been given to the new underground religious war which is modifying the modern world. It's an old idea of mine, but I find that whenever I tell people about it they immediately agree with me.

The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counter-reformist and has been influenced by the 'ratio studiorum' of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach--if not the Kingdom of Heaven--the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.

DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revellers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.

You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counter-reformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It's true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions; when it comes down to it, you can decide to allow women and gays to be ministers if you want to.

And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and is talmudic and cabalistic...

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