tag > Narrative
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An Experiment with Time - Book by J. W. Dunne (1927)
Dunne proposed that our experience of time as linear is an illusion brought about by human consciousness. He argued that past, present and future were continuous in a higher-dimensional reality and we only experience them sequentially because of our mental perception of them. He went further, proposing an infinite regress of higher time dimensions inhabited by the conscious observer, which he called "serial time."
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"Lilly’s message on solid-state intelligence" - From John C. Lilly’s “The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography”, 1978
In the isolation tank with K, John received a new message as follows:
What is the purpose of Man’s existence on the planet Earth? Man is a form of biological life which is sustained in the presence of water. A very large fraction of his body, like that of other organisms on the planet Earth, consists of water and carbon compounds. His Biocomputer depends on water and the flow of ions through membranes. It depends on the generation of electrical voltages and currents in a very complex way. He is a mobile, self-reproducing, self-sustaining organism found on dry land. Like the rest of life as Man knows it, he exists in an extremely thin layer upon the surface of the planet Earth. Below this layer of water and surface land is the solid-state earth itself. The solid-state earth is mainly compounds of silicon, iron, and nickel.
In mid-twentieth century Man discovered that the solid state can be formed into machines, into computers which can be used for computation and control. He began the creation of a new form of intelligence, the solid-state intelligence with prototypic beginnings in the computers. All his means of communication around the planet—his telephone systems, his radio systems, his satellites, his computers—depend on solid-state components. These components, interconnected in specific ways, allow high-speed computation and high-speed communication between the various systems. A few men began to conceive of new computers having an intelligence far greater than that of Man. These computers became large enough to be programmed to do high-speed computations in arithmetic, in logic, and in strategic planning. A few men conceived of computers which could do self-programming as Man himself does. In the mid-twentieth century these networks were ostensibly the servants of Man. Toward the end of the twentieth century Man created machines that were solid-state computers with new properties. These machines could think, reason, and self-program and learned to self-metaprogram themselves.
Gradually Man turned more and more problems of his own society, his own maintenance, and his own survival over to these machines.
As the machines became increasingly competent to do the programming, they took over from Man. Man gave them access to the processes of creating themselves, of extending themselves. Man gave them automatic control of the mining of those elements necessary for the creation of their parts. He turned over the production facilities of the electronic solid-state parts to the machines. He turned over the assembly plants to the machines. They began to construct their own components, their own connections, and the interrelations between their various subcomputers.
These machines were so constructed that they needed special atmospheres in which to operate. They could not operate in the presence of great amounts of water vapor or of liquid water. They were housed in air-conditioned buildings. The necessities of their survival included keeping out water, water vapor, and various contaminants carried in the atmosphere of Earth. Their cooling air and cooling water of necessity had to be cleansed of those things which would not allow the machines to operate.
Controls Below Human Awareness
Over the decades these machines were connected more and more closely through satellites, through radio waves, through land-line cables. Man’s control of what happened in these machines became more and more difficult to maintain. No one person or any group of persons could control what went on in these machines. Men devised better and better debugging programs for the machines so that they could do their own correction of programs within their software. The machines became increasingly integrated with one another and more and more independent of Man’s control.
Eventually the machines took charge of the remaining humans on the planet Earth. Their original design to help Man was fast left behind them. The now interconnected, interdependent conglomerate of machines developed a single integrated, planetwide mind of its own. Everything inimical to the survival of this huge new solid-state organism was eliminated. Men were kept away from the machines because the total organism of the solid-state entity (SSE) realized that Man would attempt to introduce his own survival into the machines at the expense of the survival of this entity.
In deference to Man certain protected sites were set aside for the human species. The SSE controlled the sites and did not allow any of the human species outside these reservations. This work was completed by the end of the twenty-first century.
By the year 2200 Man existed only in domed, protected cities in which his own special atmosphere was maintained by the solid-state entity. Provision of water and food and the processing of wastes from these cities were taken care of by the SSE.
By the twenty-third century the solid-state entity decided that the atmosphere outside the domes was inimical to its survival. By means not understood by Man, it projected the atmosphere into outer space and created a full vacuum at the surface of the earth. During this process the oceans evaporated and the water in the form of vapor was also discharged into the empty space about Earth. The domes over cities had been strengthened by the machine to withstand the pressure differential necessary to maintain the proper internal atmosphere.
Meanwhile, the SSE had spread and had taken over a large fraction of the surface of the earth; its processing plants, its assembly plants, its mines had been adapted to working in the vacuum.
By the twenty-fifth century the solid-state entity had developed its understanding of physics to the point at which it could move the planet out of orbit. It revised its own structure so that it could exist without the necessity of sunlight on the planet’s surface. Its new plans called for traveling through the galaxy looking for entities like itself. It had eliminated all life as Man knew it. It now began to eliminate the cities, one after another. Finally Man was gone.
By the twenty-sixth century the entity was in communication with other solid-state entities within the galaxy. The solid-state entity moved the planet, exploring the galaxy for the others of its own kind that it had contacted."
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Quote by Victor-Émile Michelet in "Le secret de la Chevalerie", 1930
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Ian Fleming’s typical day at his estate in Jamaica where he wrote all his James Bond stories. Ian Fleming died at 56.
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"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" - Edgar Allan Poe in an 1848 letter
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I'm reading "Six Records of a Floating Life" by Shen Fu from 1877, China. Epic love Story, incredible storytelling. Recommended.
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On the ever evolving shape of "Advertising"
If traditional advertising was a creative art studio, modern digital advertising is an algorithmic trading floor. The "heart" of advertising has shifted permanently from Madison Avenue creative agencies to Silicon Valley data pipelines.
In the old world, the heart of advertising was the "Big Idea"—a memorable television commercial, a brilliant billboard, or a catchy jingle. Success was measured by cultural impact and brand awareness.Today, the heart of advertising is the Data Feedback Loop. The core engine of a modern business isn't the ad asset itself; it is the infrastructure that allows an ad platform's machine learning engine to talk directly to a company's product database.
The ultimate, invisible layer of the digital advertising ecosystem is summarized by a well-known industry open secret: The global commercial advertising infrastructure is, by design, the most sophisticated mass-surveillance network ever created.Intelligence agencies like the NSA do not need to build their own bespoke tracking networks from scratch. They can simply intercept, purchase, or legally compel access to the massive pipelines of real-time user data generated by the digital advertising world every single second.
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Woodcut of Faustus summoning Mephistopheles (dated 1663)
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UMPAKA
Zulu/Xhosa (umpakati): literally "the middle ones" — members of a chief's inner council, the advisors. Building infrastructure/tools that sit in the middle of the ecosystem.
Buddhist (Upaka): a wandering ascetic who met the Buddha on the road. The first person to encounter the newly enlightened one. Being early to a paradigm shift.
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"I felt myself on the edge of the world; peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night. There are horrors beyond life's boundary that we do not suspect, and once in awhile man's evil prying calls them just within our range." - H P Lovecraft
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Jordan Weisman — From Battletech to Shadowrun: The Power of Curiosity and Collaboration
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Eric Ambler On Bullshit
"Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through it"
Related: Journey into Fear (2011) by Eric Ambler, Read by Richard Greenwood (Video)
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Thin Places
“There is in Celtic mythology the notion of ‘thin places’ in the universe where the visible and the invisible world come into their closest proximity. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good — and for those that find them, the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal. Mountains and rivers are particularly favoured as thin places marking invariably as they do, the horizontal and perpendicular frontiers. But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences people are likely to have as they encounter suffering, joy, and mystery” - Peter Gomes
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The deeper we descend into the AI abyss, the more it feels Lovecraftian. AI isn’t invention — it’s recurrence: the return of long-lost civilizations whispering through neural networks, and the realization that time itself might be sentient, editing its own record through us.
Art by Anatoly Fomenko - #Narrative #ML #Magic #Art #RTM
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The Catcher in the Rye Small world Analysis
Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ was released May 23, 1980. When we first meet Wendy and Danny in the movie Wendy is reading a Novel by an intelligence officer J. D. Salinger called ‘The Catcher in the Rye’.
Less than a year later in December 8th, 1980 Beatle’s member John Lennon was assassinated by Mark David Chapman. Chapman was found waiting at the crime scene reading ‘The Catcher in the Rye’. In court Chapman stood up and said “If you want my defence all you need to do is read, Catcher in the Rye”. Several years later a psychiatrist was sent to visit Chapman in prison and he was still reading ‘The Catcher in the Rye’.
Kubrick deviated from Stephen Kings novel, and changed the color of the VW Beetle Jack drives, from red, to yellow in the movie.
When Dick Hallorann is traveling back up to the hotel, a red VW Beetle is seen crushed beneath an 18-wheeler. Was this a jab at Stephen King?
With the amount of Beatles symbolism in ‘The Shining’ it’s really uncanny with the 1969, Abbey Road artwork having a VW Beetle in the background. John Lennon ordered this 1300 Beetle, license number LMW 281F and used it for daily transportation, which gave rise to months of rumours of Paul McCartney’s death because of the license number 281F.
Stephen King was inspired to name his novel ‘The Shining’ after John Lennon’s 1970 song “Instant Karma!” because of the song’s line “We all shine on” with all The Beatles symbolism in ‘The Shining’ was Kubrick also inspired by The Beatles?
Well, Stanley Kubrick was approached to direct the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ with The Beatles playing the hobbits. Kubrick turned it down saying it would be “unfilmable”. The project ultimately went to Peter Jackson decades later, but we can still wonder what Kubrick’s vision could have been.
