Bill Gates and Gordon's String Theory...

A Bill Gate*, Inishmore, 21st C.

Well, one fine afternoon high on the rock road of Inishmore, I stood pondering the structure in the photo to the right. Its function appeared obvious: it was designed to keep some stones more or less lined up across the intervening space which it occupied...but why? As I pondered, an old fellow wandered along on his bicycle and stopped to ponder me. After a few minutes, he asked,  'And are yez enjoyin the day like?', to which I replied in the affirmative, to which he then inquired, 'And would yez be from America?', to which I replied in the negative, adding 'Canada'. 'Ah', he said, 'Dat would explain it, den'. Curious, I asked 'Explain what?' 'Why the fields, to be sure. You Canadians are the very divil for the fields. I saw a picture of a field in the county of Saskatchewan that must have been twice the size of all of Ireland, and I hear that was a small one, and there were a hundred thousand more that were twice that size, with herds of buffalo roaming about in them'. 'Something like that', I conceded, and then asked about the curious structure made of rope and wood. 'Who do you think built such a thing, and why?' 'Well, to be sure, I built it myself, didn't I?  To keep the cow in the field'. 'But there is no cow in the field'. 'Well, no, the cow has been let into another field this week'. It turned out that my interlocutor's name was Bill, and he had built this particular structure

Sophisticated rustification of geosphere and biosphere

and many more similar ones in the area. 'And what would you call this structure, Bill?' 'Well, I would call it a gate, but you Canadians may call it something else, to be sure'. Bill demonstrated how, with a simple hoisting of the outer wooden bar, the inner part of the structure could be pushed inwards and flattened, to allow passage in or out of the field, then the gate flipped back up and secured. Ingenious! I mentioned that I had seen many variations on enclosing structures around the country side, but this form seemed unique in its simplicity. "I think I will call them Bill Gates in my notes, in your honour if that's alright with you?' 'And why not? It's as good a name as any at all, is it not?' So, having established that detail of nomenclature, I began to explain to Bill the rudiments of Gordon's String Theory, within the context of which I would be considering the function of Bill Gates and associated fields as macro/ microcosmic colonies of enclosure,containment, exclusion, signified

The simple 4-bar with diagonal

The elegant double-knot horizontal

passage ways and controlled egress and exit, not to mention their possible  affiliations with bar structures, mathematical fields and their relationship to theories of the layered universe. Indeed, within this simple organization of space, loosely tied together, exist formal elements of the geosphere, the biosphere and the noosphere. Unfortunately, Bill suddenly remembered he'd been on his way to his sister's for supper and alas was already a bit late. So I will share with you a few more examples of Bill Gates and allow you too to continue admiring  their amazing string and wood elegance at your leisure, and of course, perhaps draw your own conclusions about their function in GST.

 *Please note that the term 'Bill Gate' is only used in GST - local nomenclature for this structural form may differ widely depending on location and common historical usage, and may not have been built by anyone named Bill…in fact, Bill himself may have been a figment of my imagination, brought on by too much exposure to wind, sun, rain and Guinness...