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: there is no apocalypse (unless we so choose). It is the end of the world as we know it. I recently wrote about the shape of things to come, as I see it.
It is, simply, then end of a Long Count. Think of it as a trip meter.
Happy everything.

Changing Times

"I've never been in space"

- Justin Time 

I recently enjoyed watching the movie, In Time, a movie memetically engineered from the stories of Robin Hood, Patty Hearst, Judeo-Christian tradition and other fine sources of entertainment. This post'll contain spoilers.
The basic premise of the movie is, "what if God is immortal, and what if he Wills All Us his time, then commits suicide? Where does that leave us?". Of course, the Hollywood christian dogma that the movie derives from believes that this's already happened, making the idea all the more intriguing.
"Time is Money" is, by no means, a new idea. However, the current monetary system is flawed in several key ways that are better outlined in the movie (and elsewhere), so I won't go too much into loudly rejecting what we already know to be an unfortunate failure of an economic system.
Let us, instead, think of a better way for things to work. Well the first question we should get out of the way is "accepting the premise of the movie, why are we not immortal?". Well, as I recently put it: "Age Limits the Cycles". So we are left questioning the need to change bodies (Saṃsāra - answered by Nirvāṇa).
Now, then, back to economics. Why is time the ideal substitute for money, and how can some of the currently existing, as well as tentatively introduced, flaws from both our present and the film's hypothetical money system be remedied? Here's a short troubleshooting session for the film's time-is-monetary system:

• There is no countdown; we all get a lifetime. No more, no less. In the face of radically prolonged lifetimes, it is possible for society to adapt without the need to resort to such brutish methods of population control. 
• Trade works by way of donation. Work is a way for people to do what they like - to find meaning in life, to fulfill dreams, and to stay sane. The "4 minutes for coffee" is the approximate time it might take you to enjoy a cup that's been donated to you - not a price you have to pay! People primarily exchange gifts, not numbers.
• Value is attained and assigned to things through the inherently confusing and complicated non-system of intuition. In situations where a unique item is being traded, for example, the need for a systematic approach to a "fair" decision regarding its new owner remains. Therefore, people still own accounts. Ways to "top up" an account are:
• Donating time. Eg, after being given a cup of coffee at a diner, you may, at your discretion, choose to help with dishwashing or the like. This goes to your account.
• Trading time. This concept is briefly flashed in the movie as well. An example might be telling stories - a tradition that exists in all cultures, and has been proven to be developmentally essential throughout one's lifetime. Telling a good story, or offering any other kind of help or beneficial service, acts as a multiplier - so if your story is interesting, the time you put in is interested by it!

All these rely on the axiom that there is no end to time. (trust me, I was highly doubtful of this until recently, and do not take the issue lightly - on the contrary, I shall return to this later). Even in the movie, the hourglasses of the stock market turn over periodically ("why do they call it the stock market when it's not even stuck?"). Therefore, there is no need to worry about inflation or the like. By the way, the "like" and the "+1" would be excellent sources of income in the new system, for they embody its principles perfectly. Of course, it's perfectly alright to dislike something, but that does not bring about a need for a "-1". Obviously enough, in a world where all work is volunteer work, there is no way to forcibly take one's time. However, the "fight" is amusing - in my proposed context, since all exchange is voluntary, it would boil down to spinning stories - then seeing who walks away with the most interest! Much like Monkey Island's verbal swordplay, except both sides win. So, as payment, one could tell a story... and "Wish a Credit". I mean, television is boring because it's one-sided; well, tell-a-vision is captivating, because it's interactive, can be shared with a group, influenced by all taking part!
In short: "tell-a-vision... rules: donation".

For the really Daft Punks - with all due respect, that's a voluntary donation.

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 of it 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.

Loops

So, I made some loops and packed them up to put for sale. Two themes: glitch and urban.
I'm actually trying to gather some money for a sailboat... So, like, I'll trade you some tips for mine:

Is it full? Tamper with the ༀ and your free to bet.

• Q: How to lose weight without dieting?
• A: Watch Gilmore Girls, read Elle as L (this is the new capital, by the way - owing everything, sharing wisdom). Anyway, with an L and a new capital, what do you spend it on? Why not another l, so put the two L:s together and you get a box. Now, when you get a check (or, when you've finished eating, if you're eating at home), go like this: ☑
So what does that make? Gill more, girls (or boys, depends on your gender)! So, yeah, recycling - and there's a reason they call ♲ a "Universal Recycling Symbol"!
• Q: Oh, I see how they do it on that show, but I just don't know how to take it. I mean, what does that mean, to "eat as if I've already lost the weight"?
• A: Yep, that's called the "if I've..." principle, and a lot of errors in judgement have been based on it. The antidote, as I'd put it, is "age limits the cycles". And there's a reason one should never put "... five" and a certain seven together in one room, unless one's sure of either the age limits, the cycles, or both.
• Q: And what do you mean by "gill more"? Am I a fish?
• A: Yes and no. I think there's a parable about that in a book somewhere. Anyway, if you want to learn faster, be a faster - and try to gain weight!

In short, don't fret it - either way, have faith in chaos (cautionary tale, kinda). It's like fretting a guitar: just play along with it, and it'll work for you.
Anyway, some more code of the Pi:

• 6 is not a number. 216 is not a number, nor is it the length of the Long Name. There is a book about the "Norway method"
• 616 is the true "Name of the Beast", because it's like "sicks, wan' sicks". The code is to love sicks in order to go to Patient Zero until there are no sicks but the lovesicks!
• π, ɸ, ρ, and all the others are like characters in a play that can go on (or ૐ, if you prefer)
• Everything is the band they play in. Nothing is banned.
• It is impossible to cut the Tree of Life. But, it's possible to create long-lasting frequencies in it. They're useful, too, as carrier waves - in electronic music, this is called a sawtooth wave.
• When you see something new, always play the naming game.

• Q: What of the "oldest profession in the world"?
• A: It is that of the Scribe.

As for the Long Count, it's kinda like, they had a plan and "vaikka homma menis puihin niin hah, ainakin me mennään puihin". I mean, imagine how long it's been since they started. Now, my native language is Finnish, and I'll be happy to translate!

Alright, so - feeling "finnish", yet?!

Transmitting

Ok, first of all, Dr. H: Page Through This. You'll learn a lot about mathematics, and why I denotes the Identity Matrix. Well, i figured i don't need capital, so i & I (rasta far-eye) thought i might use that to denote the difference for the duration of this post; it's much easier when i can tell the difference somehow.
This book led me to the idea of ending wars retroactively: since waves travel forever, why not listen to music and morse whatever you think you hear? You don't even have to know Morse code; you may also use an app, and just talk about it. But I thought I might make a game about it, so whenever i have a spare moment, i "trade fists", like the book puts it, and let the I do the routing of the message. Oh yeah, about one thing i read about the alternate meaning of routing was that the roman empire was thoroughly embarassed when they kept losing to one of the nations that existed back then... i forget the name of them, but i & I suppose it is frustrating to keep chasing an ever-evading enemy! There's an ongoing project that's based on the assumption that there's no enemy (and a classic movie about some of the gotchas!), and even a horror story.
So, as a way of life, I couldn't have phrased it better:

Project Meaningful Correlations in Random Data

So uh, suppose i was an advisor to I and I was God and i asked to trade places and then retire; would i get a new watch as a present?
The most concise way of expressing the answer I've heard is

Austin, Texas powers the Big Ben in London, baby!

Post Scriptum: Oh, yeah, and the Austin Powers message has also been misunderstood by some, so as a kind of an answer to a frequently asked question, "does that also mean that whoever gets to wind the Big Ben will jack the London of Texas?", the answer is "no, but some one from texas might find himself pretty wound up when he realizes he's not the only burning bush". So the biggest Jack London question is, "what if God decided to kill whole the Universe?". Well, the sound'd be distorted so it'd sound like "keelhaul the universe", and that's exactly what it'd be like. The previous universe would become the ship, and the new one would improve upon all the previous mistakes. I wrote something about it.

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?!). The secret of the Maya is that their name is still relevant today - remember sound scouting? "Maya", as in, "my an...cestors"! Family trees, anyone?!
And, 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 would re-create itself, if all were to become Death Absolute?" are, respectively, "inevitably and out of necessity". A much more interesting venue for exploration is busting the myth of Death, which shall be the topic of future essays. For now, let me let you off the hook by saying it's as real as you want it to be... kinda.

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):

Trick the Trickster

In idle moments, I used to wonder what I would do in the Faustian scenario ("anything for your soul"). I mean, scouts honor their word, and their motto is "Always Prepared", right?
So, one day, the Nameless One did show up, just as you might imagine. The deal was the same as ever. My response was to ask for the Infinite, and offer to double the dealer; that is, double the price for double the benefit. The Devil loves a better, so naturally, he was intrigued, and agreed to my deal.
And now? Now, I know precisely how the tangent can have the value of positive and negative infinity simultaneously. The down side is, I desperately need a new pair of shoes.

Travelling by Thumb

The following is a travelogue, describing a trip I once took from Berlin to Amsterdam. The emphasis is on thumb-travel, aka. hitch-hiking, but, to be fair, I also utilized bus and railway services along the way.

Since ancient times, there's been those who view travel as sacrament - intricate, mystical and semi-chaotic patterns brought forth by the movement of the traveller across the Earth. The reverend geomancy of the Sufi dervish, simultaneously reading and creating patterns in the land and the abstract thought-land of the cartographers - for the mindful traveller, Buckminster Fuller's quip of "there are no straight lines" is self-evident.

Of all forms of travel, hitch-hiking is, perhaps, the most social - progress fuelled solely by Baraka, or Mana, the wholly imaginary yet powerfully real measures of Grace manifest as Luck. The indecipherable magick workings of humanity as an organism open to those who put up their thumbs on the motorways: the bloodflow of traffic is a highly pure manifestation of the entropy principle, where "effort" is a measure for the net energy of transformation. In this context, the hitcher is an anomaly; happenstance with no extraneous energy - gaming the ultimate system, Thermodynamics. By riding a novelty wave that was already in the process of crashing into a lower energy state, the travel becomes a form of surfing - taking advantage of pre-existent conditions, the Dervish moves with a simple fluidity akin to that of a sailboat - covering sometimes vast distances with no wasteful use of energy.

The landscape of service stations is one filled with intrigue: as all environments, it is shaped by the demography that flows through it. On display are the items that are judged essential by the Invisible Hand of the market economy: knives, hubcaps, novelty mudflaps and air fresheners; pocket pussies from the men's room vending machine, for truckers who spend more time in the cabin than anywhere else; gasoline, diesel, food - fuel for man and machine. Slot machines - cheap thrills to stimulate the ten-minute break during a five-hour drive. Coffee to go, in one-size-fits-all-cup-holders thermal foam and spillproof plastic. Cigarettes.

Lane after lane of wet black tarmac on the Autobahn, travelling on the power of Mercy - in a very literal sense, for I am sitting in a Mercedes that speeds me from the midway service station on towards my goal for the journey, Amsterdam. The driver, empathetic, lively and extrovert, with no reservations towards someone he's just met, seems to embody the reciprocity principle whole-heartedly: the thing he drives also drives him. Here's a case for buying the name as a vector of information and meaning, not just an empty slogan or marketing identity. Compassion towards all, and thumbs up to both sides of a hitch-hiking exchange!

The prose owes much to Hakim Bey, whose themes and literary style continue to inspire and delight.

Blast from the Past: Halloween Horror

Today, I got a real surprise! Back when I was 10, we moved from my childhood home town to the middle of nowhere. Through the ages 11-12, I was in contact with my best friend of the time as a penpal. We'd exchange news, swap disks - and, I wrote a story. As it turns out, my mum had kept a hard copy, so, after some photography and optical character recognition, I'm happy to publish this harrowing tale of the dead and the undead - where an investigator of mysteries comes face-to-face with the inexplicable. Written with all the imagination of a child of that age, it's a fun read for All Saints' Eve (sorry, it's in Finnish - and yeah, our Halloween equivalent is on the 5th of November)!

• Download
• View

The story's based on the game Alone in the Dark, by Infogrames (many of the scenes are one-to-one copies from the game, as the accompanying video points out). Influences from Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be found (most obvious being the title).

Around age seven, I had a dream that would work as a continuation to where the plot leaves off. I doubt that I'll write another episode, though...