Lascaux cave painting, ca. 20,000 BCE
A “zero-knowledge proof” in computer science is a way to prove that something is true without revealing anything else about it.*
But is this not what artists, musicians and poets have always done?
Palaeolithic painters show the beasts have souls,
And countless other artists' "zero-knowledge" goals
Need no evidence to prove their points.
Blind fools doubt them, which scant sense anoints.
Bach proved his God a mighty fortress;
Songs prove that love's a real thing;
Piero, that angels walk on air;
Yeats, that bees might supplant a stare.†
Hamlet, act 5, should not distress!
It states its case with gravid flair:
"If it be now, 'tis not to come:
if it be not to come, it will be now:
if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all."
(But such things might be forgotten
In times when nonsense lacks a bottom)
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
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