in the late 80s james gleick came out with a book "chaos". it talked about a revolution in mathematics and theory, with the introduction of fractals and chaos theory. he said it was revolutionizing physics, science, etc. 

a very influential book!! he talked about the collapse of Euclidean geometry.

yes, I think it was a definite paradigm shift.

but, it still seems much of our world is quite euclidean. particularly w.r.t what I call, the Box.

in a word, the Box is everywhere. ubiquitous, omnipresent.

the Box is alluded to in much human literature. the Box represents limitation, constraint.

I live in a house, which is basically a Box.

I go to work in a car, back and forth. the car is like a moving Box.

I sit in a cubicle, which is basically a territorial Box. the cubicle is on one floor of the building, another Box. I travel to the floor in a Box called an elevator. the building is another Box. the building is one of 3 building Boxes. they look kinda round/curved on the outside, so they dont look like a Box.but that is just an architect with a dark sense of humor.

the company, the corporation, is a Box. I cannot work outside of this company unless I get terminated or take a risk of leaving. but it would only be to go to another Box. I cannot maneuver outside of the carefully delineated lines of my job/responsibility, or my micro (nano!!) managing manager intervenes, to push me back inside the Box.

I have friends, but sometimes I wish I had better ones. sometimes it seems like they all came out of the same Box.

I love my family. but I didnt choose them. especially when I was growing up, my parents explained how to stay inside the Box and punished me if I diverged too far from it. when I left the house, I realized the blend of visible and invisible boundaries of the Box that I lived in, and temporarily escaped it. I went on grandiose new adventures. ultimately, to discover terra incognita-- ie new Boxes.

sometimes when I have great sex it feels like Ive gotten outside of the Box. or maybe just forgotten about it temporarily. other times, it seems like a monumental illusion, a trick of the mind, like a colossal waste of time. like an empty Box.

I work on a computer all day. the IT guys call it a Box. the screen that I stare at intently is another Box.

its a joy to get email from anyone I know or readers. in my in-Box.

in engineering, a Box that you dont understand what is inside, or dont need to know, or dont care, is called a black Box.

sometimes I order dinner from a nice restaurant as a treat, it comes in a pizza Box. I just ordered parts for my robotic travelling sprinkler, they came in a Box.

little kids like to play in those large cardboard Boxes.

when you move all your stuff, you'll need a lot of Boxes.

dont forget to keep all your receipts and records in a Box.

when you are taking a test, that determines the future of your life, like what college you will go to, or whether you are even going to college, make sure you check the right Box.

cigarettes come in a convenient Box.

at christmas and on birthdays, we wrap our presents in a Box. preferably, it should be colorful and festive looking.

Ive been in my current amorous relationship 6 yrs. its another Box. I am not allowed outside of that Box either by the ancient constraints of convention, culture, society, and monogamy. marriage really is the ultimate-- Box.

I live in a country. it seems to have an irregular border. but it is another Box that is difficult to travel out of. the widespread attitudes that keep me in this Box is called xenophobia and nationalism. we do everything to keep outsiders out of this Box, its called "border security". it seems the last administration did much to tighten the screws on this Box.

the entire world is comprised of these tightly restricted/compartmentalized Boxes. these borders are mostly invisible from space, but highly visible in the human mind. it would seem our minds are highly evolved and optimized to recognize a Box whenever we see one.

the vast government is tightly organized into agencies and departments. they might seem fluid at times, but other times, if you try to do something creative within the framework, they are brutally restrictive. Boxes.

it is said that 9/11 was a failure of communication between the different Boxes labelled eg CIA, FBI, NSA, etcetera. so we tried to unify them into a new Box called DHS. but the old Boxes remain. somehow, I dont think we've solved the problem.

the problem at times seems to be the existence of the Boxes themselves.

there is a Box that keeps the poor inside of it. there is another Box, under compression, that contains the middle class. the rich live outside both Boxes, but the rich also live in another Box of their own.

real estate in New York, especially, is based on Boxes called "apartments". status and wealth is highly correlated with the size of your Box.

we elected a new president who at times, seems as if he defies some of the Boxes. there are the Boxes that separate White from Black, which he seems to blend. he gave us "hope".

but on close inspection, he is not fundamentally altering anything.  he is Boxed in by other forces even more powerful than he is. such as the money Boxes called "banks". which coincidentally enough, manage "security deposit Boxes".

you can cast your vote at the ballot Box. it might even be counted, eg if you dont live in Iran, 2009. or Ohio, 2004. or Florida, 2000.

I once served on a 12-man jury. they play a video at the beginning of jury duty that traces the ancient right to the Magna Charta, 1215 AD. you have a right to a trial by jury, unless, after the Bush administration, you are designated an Enemy Combatant by the president-- this later fact not mentioned in the patriotic video. in the trial, we convicted the defendant on 2 counts of drug dealing. during the trial, we sat in the jury Box.

we have two different Boxes that hold the Left and the Right. but strangely, they do not seem to contain everything. for example, which Box contains the people who think that the monstrous military bleeding spending should be decreased? there seems to be no Box for them.

the president is increasing the military spending. so that more of our citizens may come home dead in Boxes. which the media is not allowed to take a picture of, because its unpatriotic. so that they and we can pretend those Boxes dont exist. in 2004, a military contractor Tami Silicio & her husband were fired for taking pictures of those Boxes.

before the war in Iraq, there was a famous quote about Saddam Hussein by Hans Blix, nuclear weapons inspector who did everything he could to avert war. "he's trapped in his Box". Bush and Cheney disagreed. for Blix's valiant efforts, he was smeared by the War [Propaganda] Machine. 

we have a new sophisticated Box for prisoners in guantanamo, less than a decade old. it was built by a company called Halliburton. as part of our new enhanced techniques, sometimes the prisoners are put in dark Boxes. which is a curious synchronicity-- some terrorists train for suicide missions by lying in a dark Box.

what is a "cell", but a variant of a Box?

we have a "game" where two males attempt to beat each other near unconscious in front of spectators. its called Boxing.

if you break the rules in hockey, you go into the penalty Box.

sometimes you might see a dirty, bedraggled homeless person. living in a cardboard Box. of course, generally, you take pity on them. you can empathize/sympathize.

you might think I need a vacation. I agree. its difficult to plan an escape from the Box. but, in my life, I have indeed managed some really good ones. on a vacation, its usually essential to get there in a flying passenger Box called an airplane. where passengers increasingly complain about being treated like a Box. and you might go somewhere on the water. on a floating Box.

in the movie 2001 by kubrick, there is a mysterious black object called "the monolith." there is much speculation on the meaning of the monolith. I think the meaning is, its a Box.

this world, this reality, is probably another Box, which we escape when we die. presumably. but probably, there is just another Box.

the universe seems to be composed of Boxes within Boxes.

some people think there may be an escape from the Boxes. eg maybe religion describes how to do it. but most religion(s) seems to me, another ultimate Box. the different Boxes are again mutually exclusive and antagonistic. I admit Im a little bit suspicious that in Catholicism, you confess your sins... in the confession Box. I could go on. but its not like your time is an infinite Box.

maybe there is a God, outside of all Boxes. but wouldnt it be dangerous, subversive, anti-authority, if he let us escape from our Box?

I write posts in cyberspace to try to temporarily escape the Box.  when someone else comments, I feel Ive temporarily escaped the Box of isolation. I get a few hits, sometimes more, sometimes less. I know some ppl are listening. I think I will eventually give up after awhile. just another Box.

I try to Think Outside the Box. but its difficult. I dont even really know if its possible. one of my favorite books of all time, Tantric Quest, by Odier, talks about it. or not thinking at all.

the Ego is a Box. how do you escape that one? maybe even death is no escape.

(feel free to reply to any of this, just type your comment in the Box.)