At the Time Wall - Ernst Jünger

Part Two

Part One here: At the Time Wall

Arguably Jünger’s greatest work, an essay on the unease of time, from the world revolution to the earth revolution. As a successor to the philosophies of history of Herder and Hamann here Jünger struggles with poetry, myth, Spengler’s morphology, prehistory, and the interim at the end of history.

Because of the importance of this work I suggest comparing it with other translations, such as the one provided by Ormlore. And feel free to offer any suggestions if you have any experience translating or reading German.

5

It is well known that in chess one can predict a series of moves – one can confidently say that this move is more correct than the other, and often that another is even better. Manuals are based on this fact.

Of course, prediction is only possible for a limited number of moves, after which the game becomes unpredictable, even if one want to take that word mathematically. A chess player with good theory is like a swimmer who has a solid footing in the ocean for a few steps, but then has to commit himself to the depths and his own strength.

The same applies in assessing a discontinued game. Here too, it is possible to clear the tangle to a certain distance. However, it is also possible to overlook what is called a stroke of genius. One can assume that a few sharp minds observing the position get the best of it.

An ideal player in the scientific sense would have to come up with the best move every time. This would require calculations that are beyond human combinatorial ability. One might even wonder if any of the great calculators of today or tomorrow would suffice. But what if there were devices, chess machines, that could determine the strongest move every time. What would be the consequences?