Dancin Bones Mon

When you think about it, man, we're just skeletons covered in skin. But when you really think about it, we're just skin wrapped skeletons transporting organs in support of the brain and brain stem. The real you is just a brain and stem, man, and all the rest is the infrastructure.

Weird, right? But then everything is, if you think about it.

Everything is Information

Think about it, really. Stop whatever it is you're doing (when you read the end of this paragraph), and think of this: Everything you see, touch, hear, know, think, remember, feel, is but some form of information. But more! Everything that is or could ever be - every atom, every molecular gas cloud, every star, every planet and person and even dog that has ever or will ever live is but a collection of information - ones and zeroes. Dots and dashes. Numbers on scales. Literally. Consider vision - an important human sense. Witness above how the human eye gathers light. Once focused, it strikes a collection of differentiated cells of the optic nerve, and that nerve transmits data to the brain. The data? Lightwave frequencies. The brain takes this data and transforms it into red, or green, or blue, or some combination thereof, and that in turn is what we see. And remember. It's a wicked cool trick!

Colors exist because the material through which light passes and strikes differs. Water is different than stone, a tree different than a car. Low different than high, hot different than cold, and so on. These differences give birth to all color, as the light is reflected, refracted, blocked, twisted, or otherwise changed in different ways based on the conditions. Above you see the spectrum in part, based on the density, temperature, and speed of the water, coupled with the differing angles of light. Below,

an amalgamation of movie poster colors by year - oldest at the top. Notice the color shift! And consider it - you see this shift through a screen over the internet, clearly nothing but data which comes alive with meaning in your mind. Hence!

False color astronomy. Defined as the addition of color where there was no color in the original image. This is an X-Ray shot, after all, and alas! We humans cannot see in X-Ray. The original image is greyscale, but in that scale is revealed the different frequencies of X-Rays, and if you follow the following logic: Low end of frequency equals red and high end equals blue than here you are - false color, but real in its way. It represents something very real and meaningful - especially meaningful to us, viewers of color, as we can tease meaning out of an image in color that we cannot in grey. For the best example:

The CMB: Cosmic Microwave Background. These globes represent the temperature of the UNIVERSE at approximately 300 million years old, which is a trifling number when you consider the estimated age of the Universe (14Billlion give or take). It is near this point that light first escaped the cosmic creation soup and traveled freely across space. And thus the map - different areas of hot and cold. Where the differences are like miniscule but enough over time to shape the infinity of galaxies that make up our ever expanding reality - red areas represent places of higher density and thus matter was attracted and here was built, everything. Blue less dense areas, now representing interstellar space, and it is vast and only getting ever vaster.

Once again, but numbers, which we translate into colors, shapes, texture, form. We are the creators of everything, since everything is but a bunch of numbers and long ass formulas n' shit. Consider in closing this image - our star, "The Sun"! In neutrinos, captured by a "telescope" buried deep under a mountain. You see, neutrinos don't care about our matter so much, and pass right through. Right now there are trillions upon trillions - seriously! - streaming right through you. Yet we found a way to measure them, and so here's the sun in False Color, neutrino style. Pretty dang sweet, science. Also too, eyes!

Finally, yay art! Previous post photo setup - not my picture, but alas I don't know who to credit. Whoever you are, rock on!

It's awesome what people can make out of all this information.

Artist's Representation

Did you hear the big nerd news? Disney bought LucasFilms, and so now the Mouse owns The Force. I don't like it in principle cuz "Monopoly" but creatively, hell yeah! Lucas was space drunk on his own fame/wealth and turned to crap. But he only got 4 billion for it, which, combined with the many other billions he's made off Star Wars, heh. You win, George, you win. Here's a cosmic Ring:

A spiral of death, a sun-like star expelling outer shells in its old age, prelude to star's end. Fitting for the finger of such a creative titan. But here's an industry secret: False Color

Mighty Orion, most beautiful of all nebula. But this picture, and pretty much every awesome astronomy picture you've seen, is a 'shop of sorts. In some form or another, astronomers take the raw data of their images and "translate" these images into colors. Since data is just numbers, in this case, the redshifts of various elements. These redshifts are numbers, these numbers are translated to colors, the colors you see above. What you might see with your eye could be quite different. Who knows - you'll never get a chance.

But isn't "False Color" what our brain is doing with all color anyway? Without eyes to see, there's no blue, or red, or green. Just frequencies of radiation. It is the seer that defines color, and thus, all of life is "False Color".

Or at least creatively enhanced.

Black and white memories

My mental images of the past - all of the past, well, from the 1950's to the beginning of time - are in black and white. People lived in black and white back then, right?

Of course not. Their sky, blue, their grass, green, their dirt and wood, brown and tall. Just like our world. But having seen enough black and white photos of recent history, I've been programmed to think of the past as B&W. It's weird, but I think pretty common. And hence how shocking it is to see an old time dude or event in color. Honest Abe looks fine in color, and is ugly as sin. Can you imagine him running for President today? LOL Abe.

Tolstoy, Leo (1908). Looks like he could be in an old time hippy band, playing bass or rhythm guitar.

Zindan Prison in Bukhara, 1907. Good times, good times. In color!

Yesterday's Nerds (Spergin' in Silence)

Think back into smoky mists of time (and they were damn smoky - candles and flames everywhere for light and warmth), to an age before the MTV and the hippety-hoppy music, before the talkies and the radio, the silent movie and peep show. Further back, past dozens and dozens of your Great-Grandmothers, to an age of silence. Think of it!

Finally home, to a cold hunk of meat, water, and a book by candlelight. Relaxing, right? But every night (if you're lucky - this guy looks rich), and can you imagine your boredom? No TV, no Net! No iPod to rock the jams. In fact, no noises at all, save the wind through your rickety roof or the rats in your walls. So damn quiet! Check out that table in detail - it's neat.

What would a nerd of this day do? If lucky, a monk or scribe of some sort. Treasurer types perhaps. Otherwise, nerds or not, they probably worked in the fields or some other grueling physical labor that crushed their snarky spirit as well as their bodies. Like most everyone else. Thus perhaps the appeal of the Monastery.

Buddha was a nerd, clearly. Also, did you know he left his wife and kid in the dead of night? Not cool, Siddhartha. He also starved/slept on nails/lived in woods under a tree alone for seven years, which is pretty good penitence I suppose. Very quiet.


Point being, however, for all we have gained - and it's a lot (greater equality, health, longevity, safety, etc) - we have lost an equal amount. Imagine living in a world of silence save for natural sounds, or the sounds you make yourself or with others. Discussion would become a major form of entertainment. Self made music or listening to friends play would be mind blowing.

You had to make your own fun, damnit! And now that we don't, I fear that part of the brain, that part of humanity, fades away to nothing. And we'll all be nerds then, if not already.

Paladins Suck

One of the early nerds, rocking a dot matrix printer. What a wonder! Has the world ever produced a person so magnificently useless? They dedicate a goodly portion of their lives sitting in front of a screen, typing at other nerds sitting in front of screens, arguing arcana of anime and the like. Such glorious sloth! Tis a Godly thing, as in this world of tooth and claw here we are, humans, fat and given to wasting lives on pointless minutia. Like Gods.

And so I give you the apex of humanity (for now): The Nerd. Totem to the wealth of our societies, the great luxury of our conquest of evolution. No longer are food and shelter and tigers the issues, but rather high scores and Boss Battles and quantity of soda on hand for the epic quest to capture the Fortress of Paladins.

Master of all he surveys. A Dark Power he wields in the keeping of it. Verily!

The Young Knight would have words for such Paladins.

This all is leading of course to the point where we humans shed our bodies and move on to more flexible forms. Without major interruption, it is inevitable. And the Nerds shall lead us.

iU

As with all things body and mind, if you don't use it, you lose it. The transition from paper and pen to laptop is a change in cognition - gaining something, losing something else. But this new way of thinking - through technology - also can lead to diversion, distraction, compulsion. So easy to goof off. Resulting in diminished cognition.

These trends will continue, relying more and more on our technology and less and less on our bodies. It will inevitably and fundamentally change us in major ways. Over time - but you can see it happening already. Some people have lost all sense of direction thanks to GPS.

The solution of course is to exercise the very skills technology is turning obsolete - navigation, sense of time, memory of numbers and addresses, recall of facts, focused attention, etc. Hard work, though, rite?

Legotivity

Perhaps our reality is truly like this - up is up is down is down is up and so on, forever - and it is only our brains which give it the apparent order we call the "real world". Our senses - eye, ear, etc - are the only way we perceive anything. All these senses provide information to the brain, which decodes and translates into action. It's just bits and boops and blops and is us and only us - humans - which assign the green leaves and sometimes seas, blue skies or pink sunrise, cool mist upon the wind. Perspective is defined by the perceiver - and it is only life that perceives. And all life is different.

And so, Escher. This Legofied lithograph is a marvel. It's got all kinds of science baked into it. Wiki it up.

Aperitif:

Death of Boba Fett, unreasonably popular minor character. Except of course, not. Dead, that is. There's money to be made! And so he rises from the vaginal depths of the dread Sarlacc's grasp! Hallelujah!

If you're bored, check out the Lego poses here: a LEGO a day
Awesome.

Popped Culture

So, apparently the gal above had a hit song with some inane repetition of the days, or something - I've never heard the song, and don't know what her name is, yet somehow I recognize her. O Mighty Internet, how you seed my brain with visions!

This makes me realize I've officially become "old" - it happened a year and half ago, actually. All of a sudden I no longer "got" the younger generation. It's all skinny jeans and tattoos and big glasses and I don't know what the heck is going on, gosh darn it! I realize in my wiser moments this is a sure sign of generational age - you're far enough removed from the 14-20 age group that you have no clue what's "hip". If the kids still use that word.

I'm cool with it, of course. Redshirt adapts. It's just interesting how suddenly and noticeably it seemed to happen (I'm sure it was long in the making, me unawares). Like one day, POW! Get off my damn lawn.

Free Your Mind

Are you afraid of heights? If so, perhaps simply looking at this picture might be enough to make your stomach roll a bit, or hairs to stand up on end, or sweat to burst forth from your sweaty regions. Just a bit?

Fear is a funny thing. It's all in our minds, one way or another, but some fears far more so than others. Fear of heights seems to be a biological reaction largely disconnected from "you" - the controlling part of the brain. Your knees buckle, your mouth dries up, your hands start shaking uncontrollably. Beyond thought. But is it really?

Fear of mice on the other hand? Neurosis, like so many other fears. Collections of repetitive thoughts ("I'm so afraid of mice!").

Agreed? If so, then it's all in your mind, and thus mostly under your control. Free your mind of your own repetitive thoughts, and gain a wider and deeper understanding of this, our reality.

For the record, I have a mild fear of heights that sometimes can get the best of me, but also can be controlled if I calm down and breathe. Breathing is always the answer.

Tourists and Museums

Museums would be so much better with far fewer tourists, yes? Except yourself, of course. Perhaps this is also true about everything else.

Here's some art found in a museum:

Seeming random sculpture turns to a faithful reproduction in shadow. Now that's art!

I think Plato had it right with the whole "shadow in the cave" analogy. We are bound by our senses as biological animals - this would be the cave - and all we can perceive is what our senses allow us to - in this case, the shadow thrown against the cave wall. We know there's more out there that we don't know about - for instance, that regular matter and energy only makes up 4% of our Universe. 4%! That's nothing, and yet here we sit, no doubt thinking we have it all figured out.

Delusions of a mammalian brain, high on itself. Ain't it grand?

Knows no Genus

Love can't be denied, man. Randy and BIG ELLA were friends for 10 years till one night, a few too many drinks, a strange goodbye turns into a passionate kiss. It was a mistake, of course, since they worked together, but especially for Randy. Given the later mauling, you see.

Speaking of, I love stupid debates about stupid stuff - like could astronauts defeat cavemen, if set in similar circumstances (out in nature, to fend for themselves)? Anyways, could a man defeat a bear in a fight? Let's start with a super huge ninja versus a smallish Black Bear and work our way up. Barehanded, of course. Or, with a big knife?

Could a man fight a lion, and win? Maybe. Maybe the strongest man in the world.

 Ask the Great Google about "Egyptian Man fights Lion". Hilarity to ensue.

Could this Egyptian Hercules defeat a Gorilla as well? Would you fight a gorilla, even if given no choice (like going to die anyway)?

Umm, no? Curling up into a ball and preparing to die would be a perfectly honorable - and Logical - response. Animals are strong, and we're relatively weak.

One thing we, as a species, do excel at in the Animal Kingdom: Sweating. We cool our bodies better than any other large animal and thus are capable of long periods of physical endurance, i.e. long distance running. We can literally chase down wildebeast et al, since, eventually, they must stop to cool down. And we'll keep coming.

Oh yeah, also our awesomely dangerous brains.

Falling from Heaven

Can you feel the pain about to happen? Science fact! New techniques are showing how certain areas of the brain "light up" when the person is shown specific types of images. For example, with images of this type (falling, etc), the mind simulates the actual act and little panic lights flash on all over the brain, and this is a measurable and predictable phenomena.

Point being, soon enough, mind reading machines will be here. Get ready - I recommend a mind training technique where you learn to lie to yourself, convincingly.

Some say in ice

Our brains are hard wired to see patterns, shapes, faces. What did you see here, the first time you looked at it?

How about here?

But then sometimes our brains, via our eyes, are presented with something that makes no sense, too abstract, too absurd, and it bypasses that identification channel:

And the absurd is a liberation.  Or a fortress, of solitude (yes, the google's source for Superman puns!).

Or a theory turned into visual metaphor:

This is Freudian, literally, to the Extreme. Not sure if it's correct, or even close to correct. Yet, there's something here that makes sense to me - do you have another voice in your head? One which often says things like "I'm not sure that's a good idea", or "Maybe we should sleep for a couple of hours before driving" or "Maybe you shouldn't eat that piece of cheese on the floor". Etc. I believe - hope! - we all do, and if so, I ask you: What is that voice? Or who?

Are we all schizophrenics? Or, is the idea of different personalities, different perspectives within the same "individual", the truth? Or a closer approximation thereof.

Real World Winnah

Fret not though, dear readers! It's all fiction! Look, here's the real guy, all happy and wearing a bold pink shirt!


But, to ponder: Is not everything we experience a fiction? That is, an artificial story constructed by an author (in this case, our brains)?

Also, given recent research into the brain, and dreaming specifically (which is, dreaming is the way the brain can more efficiently process new information, AND run through simulations of possible future situations), art as a whole serves many of the same functions: It allows us, the audience, to live through situations we may never experience, and learn from these simulations (for instance, I already know I don't want to be buried alive. No need for me to have to actually go through that process to know this). 

A view into the Internet's Brain

Lookie over there to the right - "Google Hot Trends". It shows an up-to-the date list of the top google searches at the time. I find it endlessly fascinating, since to view this list is to see precisely what the "internet" is "thinking". Fer instance, of no great import but revelatory of the phenomena, this past Saturday night, at about 7PM, the top four searches listed were some derivation of "what channels the Cowboy's game on?". A few hours later, once the game was underway, those searches disappeared.

You may say: So what? And I would answer: Are you sure you're on the right blog?