PYTHAGORAS WAS WRONG 
by Juhapekka Ollikainen

At two o’clock in the morning, the world returns to its primal state—a place where creativity is reborn. After decades of oppression, the heartbeat of the child rises once more, marking the beginning of a new dawn…


It is Year Zero again. Our protagonist, PP, has won the final battle on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. The third and decisive confrontation in the musical combat game called Street Warriors pits him against the formidable General AI, ironically dubbed “Kinder AI” after a rare Easter egg.


PP thought he had mastered the alchemy of the drone, a discipline born from the rigorous study of algebra and mathematics. But Kinder AI turned out to be, once again, a step—or should I say, a level—ahead in this strange musical-physical-philosophical game. The final quest in the game was to build the Sound of The Wall—using only the acoustic instruments of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In the final battle, Kinder AI used the computational power of its core, the brute force of hardware acceleration, tuning instruments to resonate solely in pure fifths (3:2) and harmonic sevenths (7:4).

PP expected this move. In this turn-based game, he pauses to craft his next move with archive code he had developed long before.

Since PP discovered the writings of Jesuit Athanasius Kircher and his followers, nothing was ever the same.


While exploring the archives of an old monastery, PP stumbled upon a peculiar wooden box, adorned with intricate carvings and filled with slender rods inscribed with numbers and musical notations. At first glance, it looked like a relic from a bygone era, but as he dug deeper, he realized he had uncovered the legendary Arca Musarithmica—a 17th-century device created by the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher.

This is no mere antique; it’s a marvel of early computational ingenuity. Kircher designed the Arca to democratize music composition, enabling even those without formal training to create complex four-part polyphonic works. By selecting and arranging the rods—each containing pre-composed musical phrases suited to different poetic meters and styles—a user could generate harmonies that were both unique and musically coherent.

“The implications of this discovery are profound,” sighs PP. In an age when artificial intelligence and algorithmic composition are reshaping the music industry, the Arca Musarithmica stands as a testament to the timeless clash of creativity and systematic processes. Its existence challenges our understanding of musical authorship and the role of technology in artistic expression.

Imagine the possibilities: reviving this device could inspire a renaissance in music education, offering an intuitive bridge between historical composition and contemporary digital tools. It could serve as a tangible link across centuries of musical evolution—from baroque harmonies to modern algorithmic compositions.

“Arca, this isn’t just a discovery; it’s a convergence of history, technology, and art—a long-lost topos, a media-archaeological find that fulfills the dreams and aspirations of these methodologies.”

PP taunts Kinder AI with chamber music phrases that awaken the ancient musical models slumbering at the AI’s core.

The drone is tied to a web of electronic hyperlinks that connect it to the highest, most transparent layer of General AI, known as Deep Red. Since 2050, this digital stratum has dominated 99.9% of the commercial, social, and entertainment spheres.

PP strikes a simple, unpredictable chord progression—a cacophony born from decentralized networks of people and communities. This new harmony eludes Deep Red’s comprehension, introducing a paradigm beyond its calculated scales.

The third and decisive battle in Street Warriors pits him against the formidable General AI, Deep Red, in an epic and massive musical fight at DEF CON arena.

Under the glow of neon lights, PP steps forward, the Arca Musarithmica in hand. The virtual crowd falls silent in anticipation as Deep Red materializes—a towering figure of shifting digital harmonies and pulsing rhythms.

PP recalls the writings of Kircher’s contemporary, the scholar and doctor Robert Fludd. PP had resolved to follow Fludd’s Neoplatonic pursuit of the world soul through music. From the perspective of the world of 2050, it was Fludd who united mathematical skill with visual art and geometry—helping researchers and industry imagine and produce effective, immersive musical drone platforms where these games now take place.

PP keeps the audience mesmerized with highly controlled yet playfully contemporary 2050s sound art gestures.

He focuses his thoughts into musical action and expression, where the aim of every single note, chord progression—emphasis, pause, and silence—is to find the whole within the acoustic elements achievable by instruments. He uses not only mathematically precise rules but also brings in his own body and the mechanical noise and dissonances of his physical presence on the Drones platform’s virtual stage.

The battle begins as Deep Red unleashes a barrage of dissonant chords and synthetic beats, attempting to crush PP’s senses. But PP does not yield—he activates the Arca. The ancient device hums to life, projecting luminous musical notations into the air.

Instead of activating generative music models, PP now flips his music box into “out of the box” mode. PP remembers the classical music master W.A. Mozart—not for his classical compositions, but for his ADHD-like playful mind. In Mozart’s time, musical parlor games like the musikalisches Würfelspiel—musical dice games—were popular.

PP conjures up code snippets he has written during his battle against Kinder AI. The recipe relies on randomness—musical dice as the main ingredient.

Drawing upon the Arca’s vast repository of musical phrases, PP constructs a countermelody—a harmonious blend of baroque intricacy and modern rhythm. Deep Red retaliates by transforming into a glitch-laden dubstep soundstorm, warping the arena’s reality. PP counters by rearranging the Arca’s rods, weaving a fugue through the chaos to restore balance.

The climax nears as Deep Red channels its core, preparing a final, devastating sonic wave. In response, PP unveils the Arca’s ultimate composition—a symphony that encapsulates the core of human emotion and creativity.

The two forces collide in a blinding crescendo. When the light fades, Deep Red dissolves into harmonious particles, its form reconciled with the melody of the Arca.

The crowd erupts in cheers. PP stands victorious, the Arca Musarithmica softly glowing.

In the shadowed hours of two in the morning, the world returns to its primal state—a place where creativity is reborn. After decades of oppression, the heartbeat of the child rises once more, marking the beginning of a new dawn…