The first half of this segment takes place in a university lecture hall. Krzysztof is a professor of linguistics, which I would not have guessed — I assumed he would be a math professor. But there is a computational element to this lecture, it just takes a few minutes to get there.
Krzysztof examines some Polish words and demonstrates that there are certain associations with these words that make it possible to mash them up together and be understood by the typical Polish speaker, but a non-native speaker would not be able to figure them out, that there is something culturally ingrained in the words, their usage and their origin that goes beyond dictionary definitions. He then quotes T.S. Elliot’s claim that poetry is anything that cannot be translated.
But then Krzysztof says something highly prescient — he says that a properly programmed computer, with the right inputs, could figure out the meaning of the Frankenstein phrases … and then closes with the thought that when a computer reached that level of knowledge, it will have a personality. This isn’t entirely original thought, the idea of a computer with a personality is a mainstay of science fiction, including “2001: A Space Odyssey.” (As an aside, Stanley Kubrick believed that The Dekalog was the only true masterpiece he had ever seen.)
Pawel watched the entire lecture and we see him peeking out at various times. His father sees him waiting after class and Pawel points at his watch, they must be late for something. The next shot is of the mysterious man sitting by the lake again, his back to ours. Father and son did an experiment with the bottle of water to see if it would freeze overnight — it did. Now Pawel is eager to have his dad run a calculation on his computer — is the air temperature sufficiently low over enough time to freeze the pond, where Pawel wants to skate?
He has Pawel phone the meteorological institute to get the temperatures for the last three days. I actually remember a time when calling for a temperature was a perfectly normal thing to do. His father inputs the numbers and calculates that the ice should support someone three times Pawel’s weight. Pawel then confesses to his father that he saw the skates he plans to give him for Christmas in a drawer and asked if he could have them. Krzysztof shrugs.
As Pawel is going to get the skates, Krzysztof runs his calculation one more time and gets the same result.
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