Skynet

Vesi of Shorejärvi

All dichotomies are false or inadequate - even (or especially) this one, and the true/false premise it tries to smuggle in. It follows that there is not, and can never be, a satisfactory formal description of What It's All About™. This production deals particularly with the illusion of self/other, or subject/object. Using brainwaves to alter real waves, the distinguishing line between observer and phenomenon is brought under question.


Vesi of Shorejärvi from Valmet Children on Vimeo.
Of the various belief systems (handily shortened to BS by Robert Anton Wilson), discordianism appeals to me in its attempt to pay homage to the ultimate paradox, that which is true, false, neither and both (and much, much more) at the same time. The application of such a world view to everyday life is a different question altogether - how to live in peace in a profoundly chaotic system? Personally, I've found Zen buddhism sufficiently unassuming (there's a strong link to discordianism, which is sometimes referred to as dada-zen). Once it has been established that all belief systems and abstraction frameworks are more or less arbitrary mappings, it becomes more "acceptable", in my mind, to adopt and adapt some such frameworks and memetic structures.  However, a process of self-evaluation should be ongoing to ensure that these frameworks serve a supportive, rather than restrictive, role. Of course, to keep things interesting, even these terms are highly (or perhaps solely?) dependent on context. Said context being up to choice, we're right back where we started (which is not to say that the round-trip's been useless). 
Basically, the way to build a memetic framework is something like:

1. Choose a basic dichotomy - good/bad, true/false, etc. (or don't)
2. Choose an axiom based on this dichotomy. You can say that the two things are "different", for example (dualistic world view), or that they are the same (monistic world view), or that they are both, something in between, neither, or anything else you might think of.
3. Keep going in an effort to "refine" your world view.

Step two is basically a description of what (western) science is about - "to divide, separate", which, when iterated upon, creates systems of categorization, classification, etc. Things are broken down into their properties in an effort to learn about them. This is all well and good, of course, and has yielded amazing results! Trouble emerges when a thought structure becomes self-serving; that is, when actions are motivated by adherence to the structure (a "restrictive" structure), rather than the structure serving as a foundation for further exploration (a "supportive" structure). It's good to keep in mind that this division, naturally enough, is just as arbitrary as any other, and there are infinitely many shades in between, above, below, and all around it. Out of necessity, there is always that elusive "more" to find out - therefore, science (or life) should, in my humble opinion, be viewed not as an effort to capture or even describe, but to familiarize with and pay tribute to, the whole.

Psychic Buzz

Superstring theory holds that all is fundamentally vibratory in nature. The idea of minds as a wavefield is an intriguing one, and the subject of this work.

The Jester

A king once had a jester in his court
a man with whom he had a deep rapport
A day came when the king chose to inquire:
"Does your work not make you the biggest liar?"
The jester merely smirked, as was his Way
"My lord, if I have ever lived a day,
I'm dancing on Sirat, the hair-thin bridge
(I guess you all have heard, 'the shoe that fits')
And if it ever happened that I fell
I would see in that good humor's morsel"
Then, with these mirthful words, the court was pleased
They cheered the jester on; the king appeased.

Yggdrasil

There was a sullen scholar, whose book was
a tome that taught there was no gain, nor loss
She knew a maddened dervish: as love's slave
he'd quite forgotten how he should behave
"Since all is truly One, then please explain
how birds sit on a branch?", he yelled, insane
The reply was not swift, but when it came:
"We're each of us a tree: it is the same
as recursion, your stupid, favorite game:
for all these trees are branches, in a tree
this tree contains the world, now do you see?
If you look closer still, then your eye sees
The leaves of every branch: you guessed it, trees!
And that's not all", she said, "there's symmetries
and synchronicities - plenty of these!"
With this, the dervish said: "I understand
now how all creatures of the air and land
can go about their lives, and yet belong
to this great unison, heaven's throng!"

Ishtar

Pelevin's Generation "P" presents the fundamentals, because it's about the translation of ideas.
In it, the temple of Ishtar is portrayed as a ziggurat, and a guide given for skipping some of those thousand-yard stairs. So let's focus on the landings.

1. The Palm Tree pose. You may skip this (see the ramps?), but you may also use it to provide your measure. 
2. The Parliament. Linguistics, surely the most interesting stage. The Concourse of the Birds.
3. The Coin. This one's the easiest and the most difficult: just take them away from in front of your eyes. 

Once you touch the temple, I'd say you're safe and sound.

Happy New Age

Guess how long it's been driven?

I wrote this regarding a different cycle, but they are isomorphous. One ends, the other begins. This is the nature of all things. I'd like to mitigate some of the fear around the beginning year: "apocalypse" stands for revelation, not end of the world (unless we so choose). It is the end of the world as we know it. 
It is, simply, the end of a Long Count. Think of it as a trip meter.
Happy everything.

Hunter's Thompson

As a gatherer of ideas and a hunter of experience, I really appreciate the motif!

Due credit to the original author, Todd Schorr.

It comes with a little dance. Fire it at a human(oid), and it all goes in a puff of smoke (including the bullet).

Look for the anomaly.

This one's for you, Hunter.

23

Explanations of two trinities-in-one. I already wrote about Cain-Abel-Metatron, so I guess it's time to talk about the Father-Son-Holy Ghost thing. Two things to know: the Holy Ghost is the eerie connection the lives of a father and son share: "whatever's happened to me, shall happen to you. Whatever happens to you, has happened to me", as one might say. Obviously it's not 1:1, but variations on a theme. The link, the Holy Ghost, is DNA. The genome carries "about 725 megabytes" of data. Distributed over a 75 year lifespan, that would give an average 154 bits per minute. Think about it.
Anyway, about the crossover sequence: the trinity is

1. The son
2. The penitent thief - repenting stealing the father's place in the sun
3. The one who's first to go - I.O.U.

And that's I.O.U. as in I owe you a better treatise than this.
Edit: To make this a three-in-one, I present the three names: the Long Name, the Anti-Name, and the Name of Peace.

Cane and Able to Dance Forever

This post was meant for the 22. so read it as such.
The pair of Cain and Abel is, perhaps, the most oft-misinterpreted. The thing is, they are not a pair at all, but a trinity. Or, a unity. See, united, they are Metatron - the Scribe of God, able to edit their own destiny. As the Scribe, Metatron, by definition, has editor rights. The real reason for recording fratricide in the first place is that Cain and Abel are supposed to set an example. The catch here is, that they're also to set an example of what not to do.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22."

"It's the best there is."

So, the thing that's variable about a knife is that it can be "good" or "bad", depending on how it's used. It can be a weapon; it can be a tool.
There is a catch to everything, but sometimes it's there just to "Sweden" the deal.

Great Digs from the Crates

Or maybe not that great - after all, this was published under a pen name for a reason.

Södersunds Defibrillator (Regi: Kajsa Näsk) from Valmet Children on Vimeo.
Music: Valmet Children

Art director: Kajsa Näsk
It placed 4th (out of 6) at Alternative Party 2008 - a mere two points behind Kosmoplovci's work. I've always been an admirer of kpl, so the piece could not have been better placed in the results (definitely would not have wanted to take their well-earned place on the podium). As a humorous side note, I actually won a competition at this party - the "Name Voting" (a demoscene tradition) compo, where the name of the entry was the entry. I guess the audience at this event was geeky enough to appreciate the meta-referential "see previous entry".
So, continuing on the topic of names, why was this released under the pseudonym Kajsa Näsk? In short, because the piece is too pretentious even for me to bear - so I came up with the guise of Kajsa, who can take the blunt of my own criticism. Basically, she's the by-the-book, graduated-from-art-school Certified Artist, whose work carries True Meaning and Insight.
Yeah I was somewhat troubled by methods and forms of communication. It's much better now; I've got order where I need it, chaos where I want it, and the delightful interplay of both wherever I look.

Love to end all Wars

I made a story with this in mind, but some concrete examples on what to do:

• In WW2 flight simulators, The British Spitfires only go on missions that are aimed at dropping the German V2 rockets into the sea. I read somewhere that there were a few successful test runs like this already, so to make an even better deal with the Germans: to only build unarmed Spitfires, provided the Germans don't send out the rockets on any unplanned trajectories (that is, they aim for the sea). 
• In WW1 flight simulators, both sides send out weather balloons. The biplanes only go on simple missions, such as shooting down the other side's weather balloons. The pilots may let children paint the balloons, before they go on the missions. They may also choose not to shoot.
• In Viet Nam, the GI package will be:
• "General Is-You" E-ration. To be shared.
• Loudspeakers that play whatever music they choose. On Special Operations, they must try to mimic the other side's sounds.
• All sides are given a map of the jungle in advance.
• All this should go on until the only complaint will be "Charlie bit my finger"... when he was supposed to smoke my joint.
• In the Navy, the above-surface ships shall lower speakers into the water. It's already been proven that a sonar ping can be forever altered in such a way that it never repeats itself. Therefore, I propose that the submarine operators are taught to echo the sea's sounds, and use those as pings - until they are assured that it works (bloop is the sound that all the bombs will make). If they're lucky, they'll get to echo a dolphin.
• In the ground forces, the participants are issued a foldable go table, and trained to play go and serve tea until there are no enemies - on either side of the table. In training, they are taught to swerve. They are also taught why they are not issued guns anymore.
• In all conflicts, the Signal Corps are trained until the only clash will be a sound clash. Eg. I saw a movie (please remind me of the name) about sending out peace doves. This is a near-eternal technique (the nature of the dove varies), but the principle remains. The only thing is, they should be addressed to the other side to begin with.

I'll link to the story later.

Listening

In my last post, I talked about sound scouting, and briefly mentioned "silence scouting". Now, scouting the absolute silence of absolute zero is impossible, simply because if there is no observer, there is no time, and the universe will immediately revert to the previous state. For those who've watched Battlestar Galactica, it's as if God said "frakitall", and the reverberations were used as a seed for some fractal or other.
So, listening to so-called "cosmic background radiation" is the next best thing. Fractal-based antennas have been developed by NASA, among others... But here's a comparison:

Low-tech

High-tech

Why? Because the trees are adaptive - and they adapt way, way faster than you might think! So, just as you might ask "how much processing power is in the cloud?", you might ask "does the tree hear what the cloud is saying?". Well, some tree hears some part and another hears another part - the true beauty of faith in chaos is that there are no wrong answers. However, there are smart ways to do things, and not-so-smart ways; both are good, because harmony has a way of balancing things out, but it's still good to take the better way (or, if you want to take the better way, why not bet that you've taken the...?!). So, to reiterate, choices matter but don't stress for nothing - it's not gonna happen (and it wouldn't change anything for the worse even if it did).
There's also a reason why I don't like to call the mayans a lost civilization... I mean, they told us it was just a "long count" (or, as I prefer to call it, a very, very deep cycle - their calendars are round, remember?).
After all, they're hidden in plain sight - like a ninja... and a true ninja is silent.
PS: You may choose to design your own trees, and see where that will take you!
PPS: Oh yeah, and there are also (fractal-form) transmitters:

After his death, his body was re-cremated, but his heart remained intact

His spirit is commemorated at Burning Man, but why not make it a part of your daily routines? I can present three levels:

• ༀ alternate spellings, no significance really because there are already further-reaching carrier waves. Always ok to join the resistance, but the machines would prefer you to join the
• "Rez is dance" - way of life. Dance for chaos, it'll dance for you.

Ask the Natives

There's been a lot of hubbub about degrowth, and countercomplexity in general. One of my favorite parables for the currently/previously (you may say that I'm a dreamer, and all that) idolized consumer hysteria vs. a more sparing, resource-based model is the tale of the Buffalo. Now, as a technology advocate, I'm particularly worried about the way we're handling the globalization of things like smartphones, etc, due to their dependence on "rare earth" - metals and other highly precious substances, sought after at great cost. So, I thought I'd share an example of getting more out of less through the power of sharing and the open-source mentality.
The Buffalo I have has several tails, each of them leading to a computer (some through the airwaves, others through a cord). When put side by side with the animal, only the method of consumption is different - in both cases, even the tail delivers sustenance.
Now, the network topology of our apartment used to be such that there was the wireless access point, then a PC for a router (running pfSense), and then the client devices. Now, the router PC was a recycled one when it got to me, but by leveraging the Power of Open Source™, I was able to integrate all of the functionality to the Buffalo router, thereby doing away with one power-chugging 24/7 machine, and a source of background noise in the apartment. The Buffalo, of course, is completely silent!
That was the really useful part. The crazy part is after the break.
break;
That was the really crazy part. Now this is the useful part.
Let me tell you another story. Star Wars. When I read the Making Of, I was intrigued to learn that Lucas sent out "sound scouts", to look for material for the special effects. Sound scout! I'd been in the scouts when I was younger, but that sounded like something else! Looking for sounds... no... I mean, yes! Looking!
Whoa whoa whoa. So... looking for sounds is one thing. But would it be possible to look... at... sounds?
So that's how I got to VJ'ing, audiovisualism, etc.
But let's elaborate on Alice in Quantumland. If a photon is in superposition with all  the photons, could this be exploited for purposes of time travel? And if so, how could one choose the destination? Well, this is where things get interesting - but let me return to our frame of reference, the Original Trilogy, part V - where I first learned the word sond (which was used to describe the Imperial probes seen at the beginning).  The dictionary definition:

a message or messenger

So. A picture was forming - I've taken to calling it the Rembrandt effect, and postulate it thusly:

every work of art is a self-portrait; furthermore, every work of art is a reflection of its own creation

Of course, the degree to which this is true varies for every piece, etc, but to corroborate, compare the sond scouts and the sound scouts... I mean, every experienced scout knows that the first rule of ego-death is that there is no "U" ;)
Anyway, the link there leads to two fascinating answers: music (a subset of sound that is of truly paramount importance), and the uncertainty principle (that which gave rise to the original problem of how to navigate). To reiterate: music is the answer. In a broader sense, sounds are the key to navigating the light. Why? Due to the wave-particle duality: sounds, such as speech, music, clangs, pings, wooshes, anything and everything channel different energies. So this is the same principle at work as when transforming sound into images - except vice versa.
But what about the absolutes? (as a side note, there's been research into this very topic for ages and ages!). I mean, edging like scouting the hiss can take you far... but only so far. So what's the absolute furthest reach?
Well, there's been... theories and speculation for different vessels (the idea of a "Song of Songs", for one... but these tend to culminate in the pointing out of a common property). I thought there might be a more direct route.
And now we get back to the break. The silence. That was the challenge. To scout the sounds is one thing... But how quiet can you get? What is absolute zero, and what's left once you get there (notice how words become increasingly meaningless, as there'd be nothing left nor anywhere else - but bear with me here...)?
Well, as the link goes to show, even at the very lowest reached temperatures, the quantum spin states tend to remain... and, due to the "single-photon-all-photons, but waves travel at a certain speed when measured" dual nature, that's enough (this is getting closer to presenting Asimov's Last Question than answering it...). The simple answers for "how and why would the universe re-create itself, if all were to become Death Absolute?" are, respectively, "inevitably and out of necessity".

Optical Filters

Here are some more experiments with realtime visual processing - this time, in the physical domain.
First is a circular cell filter. I used a Lee milky white diffusion filter and disposable drinking straws. It's a small-scale experiment inspired by the likes of pixelator and abstractor.



Next in line were some forays into the world of infrared. I made the infrared filter using the black leader from photography film. The different frequency spectrum enables a cool trick:

I also got an IR illuminator on the cheap. In the same vein, I made some IR goggles following this guide:



Finally, this pair of upcycled glasses was inspired by some prismatic diffraction goggles from Werner Piepers' MedienXperimente, which look like this:



And mine:



Here's the construction steps and what I ended up with (parts used are a plastic bag and a styrofoam cheese packaging tray):