Achilles: What? A jukebox with only one record? That's a contradiction in
terms. Why is the jukebox so big, then? Is its single record gigantic-
twenty feet in diameter?
Tortoise: No, it's just a regular jukebox-style record.
Achilles: Now, Mr. Tortoise, you must be joshing me. After all, what kind
of a jukebox is it that has only a single song?
Tortoise: Who said anything about a single song, Achilles?
Achilles: Every jukebox I've ever run into obeyed the fundamental
jukebox-axiom: "One record, one song".
Tortoise: This jukebox is different, Achilles. The one record sits vertically
suspended, and behind it there is a small but elaborate network of
overhead rails, from which hang various record players. When you
push a pair of buttons, such as B-1, that selects one of the record
players. This triggers an automatic mechanism that starts the record
player squeakily rolling along the rusty tracks. It gets shunted up
alongside the record-then it clicks into playing position.
Achilles: And then the record begins spinning and music comes out-
right?
Tortoise: Not quite. The record stands still-it's the record player which
rotates.
Achilles: I might have known. But how, if you have but one record to play,
can you get more than one song out of this crazy contraption?
Tortoise: I myself asked the Crab that question. He merely suggested that
I try it out. So I fished a quarter from my pocket (you get three plays
for a quarter), stuffed it in the slot, and hit buttons B-1, then C-3, then
B-IO-all just at random.
Achilles: So phonograph B-1 came sliding down the rail, I suppose, and
plugged itself into the vertical record, and began spinning?
Tortoise: Exactly. The music that came out was quite agreeable, based on
the famous old tune B-A-C-H, which I believe you remember ...J
Achilles: Could I ever forget it?
Tortoise: This was record player B-1. Then it finished, and was slowly
rolled back into its hanging position, so that C-3 could be slid into
position.
Achilles: Now don't tell me that C-3 played another song?
Tortoise: It did just that.
Achilles: Ah, I understand. It played the flip side of the first song, or
another band on the same side.
Tortoise: No, the record has grooves only on one side, and has only a
single band.
Canon by Intervallic Augmentation 155