THE PALE KING

LIBERTIES AND HYDROGEN

I just noticed that liberties on a go board correspond to the placement of hydrogen atoms on simple alkane hydrocarbons, e.g. n-propane includes eight hydrogen atoms and three go stones placed in a straight line will have eight liberties, the same holds true for any straight chain arrangement. Isopropane would correspond with the empty triangle with seven liberties or seven hydrogens––but isopropane does not exist–– if you were to create isopropanol with an opponents stone representing an oxygen atom then the analogy would stand or an isopropyl moiety with the central carbon/stone attached to an R-group. Cyclobutane includes eight hydrogrens and a square four stone unit (not to be confused with a ponnuki) will have eight liberties. Cyclohexane includes twelve hydrogen atoms and the corresponding six stone ring/eye has twelve liberties. I wonder if the convergence does not end there, could the same factors that define the strength and influence of a go shape impact, say, the stability of a molecule?

ON READING AND BOOKS

"When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. It is the same as the pupil, in learning to write, following with his pen the lines that have been pencilled by the teacher. Accordingly, in reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater part, done for us. This is why we are consciously relieved when we turn to reading after being occupied with our own thoughts. But, in reading, our head is, however, really only the arena of some one else’s thoughts. And so it happens that the person who reads a great deal — that is to say, almost the whole day, and recreates himself by spending the intervals in thoughtless diversion, gradually loses the ability to think for himself; just as a man who is always riding at last forgets how to walk. Such, however, is the case with many men of learning: they have read themselves stupid."