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Introduction to The I Ching Hexagram Project

taodude

Hi, Welcome to my Blog on the creation of I Ching Hexagrams using a Raspberry Pi.

 

The challengers have only just been announced, so i don't have the Design Kit yet.  Farnell have sent me an e-mail though telling me that it will be delivered some time over the next couple of weeks.  This introduction is a collection of snippets to give you an idea of what to expect in the run-up to the August deadline for project submission.  I do have a day job as an engineer, but i have not been a professional designer since the days when microprocessors only had eight bits (or 16 if you had loads of dosh to splash) and Real Programmers programmed in FORTRAN, or if you were really good, native Assembly Language (was that only 30 years ago?).

 

The idea for the project is based on a computer that features in the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (1).  The computer lives on a yellow submarine owned by eccentric Norwegian multi-millionaire Hagbard Celine (it was written a long time ago when a million was actually a serious amount of money that would buy you the best part of a hundred houses, rather than one or two if you live in London now)

 

If you want to find out the computer's real name, you will need to read the books: as this is a family show, and the Competition is based on Raspberry Pi hardware, I have renamed the computer Multi-core Executable Software Solution Using Pi (MESS-UP).

 

Once i have started the coding, i will make bits available for download via GitHub (link to be announced).  Some code will be a direct port from the core program that i created in the late 1990s to run on my Psion Organiser LZ64 (which incidentally still works), but there will need to be a lot of new code to drive the hardware that i will be using from the Design Kit.

 

First a bit of introduction (with an apology to scholars of Chinese wisdom/philosophy for cutting a few corners in explanation - OK a lot of corners):

 

If you want to learn more about the I Ching itself, please read the Richard Wilhelm/Cary F Baynes translation (2) for a more traditional explanation.  You could also read 'The Authentic I Ching' by Henry Wei (3), or the I Ching Workbook by Robert Lee Wing(4).

 

The I Ching, or 'Book of Changes'  is an ancient Chinese oracle that consists of casting Hexagrams from a process of dividing a set of yarrow stalks or tossing coins and interpreting the results from a text.

 

Reinterpreting the fundamental nature of the I Ching for 21st Century science from reading Illuminatus and the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra (5), each Hexagram consists of six lines, each of which are in one of two quantum states, even or Yin and odd, or Yang.  Given that there are six lines and two quantum states, 64 hexagrams are possible.

 

Each quantum state has two sub-states: one is metastable and the other is unstable and transforms into the metastable version of its opposite, thus completing the cycle of Life.  This means that each hexagram cast will either remain fixed or mutate into one of the other 63 hexagrams.

 

Each hexagram is made up of two trigrams: the eight possible trigrams are shown in the graphic below, that represents the T'ai Chi or 'Supreme Ultimate'.  Hexagrams and their upper and lower trigrams are built and interpreted from the bottom upwards, and the significance of each line varies between hexagram/trigram.

 

image

 

Back to the project now:

 

MESS-UP will cast Hexagrams and give an interpretation of the result, with both a visual display on the PiFace card and an audio description in the spirit of Hagbard Celine's original computer, which did not have a display and was voice operated.  I might go for a Stephen Hawking voice for the project, but as that is so popular, i might go for something different.

 

Hexagrams are created randomly, so the program calls up a number of random numbers, but as the hexagram cast is a function of the state of the universe at the time it is cast, the random number generator will be seeded from a combination of the Real-Time Clock value, the GPS position of the Pi and the attitude of the Pi determined by the accelerometer when the cast command is issued.

 

If it turns up in time, i might work in the PiJuice solar power unit that i have backed on KickStarter so that the Hexagram Generator is truly portable.

 

That's it for now.  Introduction Part 2 will follow next week, unless the Kit arrives earlier than expected, in which case there will be some progress to report.

 

References:

1.     The Robert Anton Wilson Website - The Illuminatus! Trilogy

2.     I Ching: Richard Wilhelm Translation ISBN 0-7100-9527-9

3.     The Authentic I Ching' by Henry Wei ISBN 0-7054-2507-X

4.     The I Ching Workbook by Robert Lee Wing ISBN 0-85030-372-9.

5.     Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra ISBN: 9781590308356

  • Whilst Marshalling today at at Llandow circuit https://www.facebook.com/Llandow?fref=ts, i had an idea for a game variant, and possibly using the mini touch-screen from 4D systems that i bought for my first Pi (one of the first model Bs out of the factory) instead of the PiFace to show better graphics.  More to follow after i come back from sailing tomorrow afternoon.

  • Lots of cool projects out there, this is going to be a good challenge.

     

    I've realised that my project is probably the only one based on an idea from a book rather than a film or TV, so i have the advantage that i don't have to make my project look like something people have already seen.  The downside is that I cannot grab some video clips off the Internet to give people an idea what i am going to make.

     

    I too have received the first consignment of kit bits.  The parcel arrived on Wednesday, but they took it away again before my wife could answer the door.  So, i grabbed it from the mail depot when we went out yesterday evening and unpacked it when we got back.

     

    Like most people on here, the bits that i am waiting for are the Pi A+, the Microstack Base board the Wolfson Sound card and the RTC shim.  I have the RPi 2 and the PiFace CAD 2, so i can make a start with the core program and the visual display elements, but the input seeds for the random number generation will have to wait for now.  I can't do the audio output either but that was planned for later so it is not so urgent for me.

     

    Anyway, to make up fro the lack of interesting videos about what inspired me to enter, here is a stop motion video that i made whilst unpacking the box.

     

  • in reply to bluescreen

    Thanks for the feedback.  I'm looking forward to the challenge.

  • This looks really cool, Trevor. I was just introducing my kids to the I Ching last month + showing them how to generate hexagrams by throwing dice. image

     

    Looking forward to seeing this come together.