I have been reading “Ways of Being” by James Bridle for quite a while now. On and off, to be honest. Bridle examines our relationship with the more-than-human-world with incredible attention to detail and numerous examples. I often find myself reading a paragraph then researching into something he mentioned, taking breaks to let it sink in.

Then yesterday, I was astounded. Reading about how important it is to allow true randomness in our relationships, I learned an answer to a puzzle that I had not been able to figure out about four years ago.

Silence

In the latest chapter of Ways of Being, I learned about the composer John Cage, among others his completely silent piece 4'33’’:

John Cage went to extremes with randomization, culminating in Musicircus. I also learned that John Cage used various techniques to randomize his compositions, like in the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra.

Strange Blocks

Bridle included a picture of how John Cage achieved randomization in his music. It looked like this:

When I saw this, I had a memory flashback. Four years ago, I played a puzzle app that showed exactly this structure. I spent hours trying to decode it, but ultimately gave up. Stefano Solinas (the creator of the app) even provides a video about that specific level.

Closure

I couldn’t remember the app’s name and it took a while to find it again. Imagzle did not stick in my memory, so I lost progress and started anew. When I reached the mysterious block level, I applied what I learned from Bridle about Cage’s music randomization.

And it worked!! 😁

I will not provide the answer here, but with these references, it should be easy to discover what those blocks and bars represent.

Final thoughts

I hate unsolved puzzles, and it seems that it was such a deep experience that my mind immediately recognized the pattern again. I am thrilled to finally have found the solution.

I highly recommend the app and the book. Imagzle is a lot of fun, with many things to learn along the way. Bridle’s message in Ways of Being might be one of the most important realizations of our time — a viewpoint beyond the human perspective may help us reconnect with ourselves and the world.

📖 Further Reading

• Ways of Being on Goodreads
• James Bridle - Official Page
• Imagzle - Official Page

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