I saw an image of what is considered a "dark molecular cloud" of cosmic dust. Seeing this picture, I couldn't help thinking... what if the dark mass was actually an immense extraterrestrial swarm of nano-machines? It would be amazing & terrifying at the same time.
This precursors of interstellar nanotechnology are already being explored here on Earth. • NASA is experimenting with tetrahedral forms in a primitive version of autonomous swarm technology. • The University of Glasgow is taking it closer to the molecular scale by designing interacting devices comparable to dust particles, only millimeters across.
Innocent dust cloud or world-devouring hive mind?... Hopefully we never have to find out.
Ebaum's World gives me countless reasons to be ashamed of my own species.
The picture I linked to below is so disturbing that I don't even want to post it, but it a compelling vision of the state of the human race. I am so eternally grateful that I am not this wacko...
After posting the designs with hidden optical messages, I decided to try to replicate the effect in Photoshop to create my own phantom message.
It took me about 30min of experimenting to get a decent result... I could briefly explain the process, but I really don't feel like it. Besides, anyone who is fluent in Photoshop should be able to figure out a method.
Click on the image for the full size, which creates the optimum effect:
I've been mostly for Obama since John Edwards dropped out... but tonight "Osama-bama" sealed the deal for me. He had the good sense to pander to the creative engine of the American marketplace - the graphic designers!
While discussing the need to provide schoolkids with mentoring for future careers, Sen. Obama used the example of a student interested in art that could learn from a professional graphic designer.
Bravo, Senator! His preacher can go bananas for all I care, he's the first presidential candidate I've heard acknowledge America's design industry.
Art is an important intellectual aspect of any culture & it's a vital resource that cannot be outsourced. To have a President intelligent enough to even recognize that fact alone would be a godsend.
I usually browse the first page of FFFFOUND! for a dose of visual inspiration each day.
I saw these awesome optical illusion/designs that look like a field of dots or lines. It appears they are album sleeves for a band called Soulwax.
I would have passed right by it, but I usually stare at optical designs for at least a few seconds to observe what prolonged visual effects there are. As I was looking at it I must've briefly blurred my eyes, because I was surprised to see words appear for a second. This is a pretty crazy effect that can be seen a few different ways:
• squint your eyes • make your vision blurry by ''flexing' your eyes • cross your eyes just a little bit • raise your eyebrows & stretch your eyes tight • you get the idea
I think these are perfect examples of the ephemeral nature of language & ideas...
When I was a kid in school, I wisely spent alot of allowance money on Mad & Cracked magazines. They taught me about realities and absurdities of the world that you can't find in a textbook.
I've seen alot of funny stuff linked lately from the Cracked.com site. It's cool to see that sort of deranged sort of creative publication can successfully adapt to the Internet Age.
Anyway, a cool digital application of the classic Mad Magazine folding back cover is being featured on the NY Times site. It's an interactive slideshow where you can 'fold' the illustrations by Al Jaffee that have graced the back overs of Mad since the 60's. Even if I didn't buy a magazine back in the day, I would take one off the rack & try to at least bend the cover enough to find out what the folded picture was.
I always thought those covers were really ingenious, but being a designer has given me more appreciation for the work that goes into each one.
Lo & behold, I went to the Mad Magazine website & their next issue is The Monkey Issue! I saw this banner for it, & had no choice but to click it:
You can download medium-resolution sample pages, including the cover featuring an office full of stock photo primates. It's good to see the monkeys of the world getting the attention they deserve...
I'm going to really let my 'inner nerd' shine through.
Although I've been a fan of mainly Star Wars since I was young, I've also picked up on bits of other Sci-fi knowledge, too. I think science fiction is fascinating in the sense that it's like a conceptual nursery for the future possibilities of humanity.
Searching through "Google Images" as I sometimes do, I came across these great charts. The first one is a comparison of everything from (comparatively tiny) earth-bound vessels from history to Darth Vader's mile-long intersellar craft, the Executor-class Star Destroyer.
The second chart is a map of all the planets in the Star Wars galaxy. "The galaxy is filled with over 400 billion stars, around which circle over a million inhabitable planets that are home to over 20 million intelligent species."
*I also found this website that takes it to yet another level, including everything from the scale of humans & Ewoks to the Death Star to structures like the "Dyson Sphere" that encompass an entire solar system!
One thing that nobody has thought of yet is the "Monkeybuddhasphere™" which is a spaceship, the size of the entire Universe. The control system for this complex vehicle is already in operation- your own brain!
I was reading this article which argues the British Empire still exists & actually dominates world affairs through "it's" influence in the realms of finances, politics, & natural resources.
Supposedly "it" just isn't called "The British Empire" anymore. Well, that made me question the very nature of the collective entities that we call empires & nation-states.
A 'nation' is basically an abstract concept of organization that people mutually accept or are usually forced to accept. It's interesting (for me, anyway) to consider the rise and fall of social structures throughout history. Despite its ephemeral nature, the nation-state is a useful organizing principle for the chaotic swarm known as 'the human race'. I just think it's good to keep a perspective on the actual reality of powerful institutions such as nations, banks, religions, sports teams- that we take for granted as 'real' things with a individual existence unto themselves. This, of course, is an illusion.
These videos from Maps of War shows what I've called the amoeba-like quality to the interaction of these political & religious movements throughout time.
That an 'animal' can operate technology as complex as a vehicle should prove that the difference between 'man' & 'beast' is a division that only exists in the human mind.
It should also further prove that monkeys are hysterical.
I'm not what you would call a Bible Literalist by any means. Although I have a fair amount of scriptural knowledge, I have cultivated an interest in the myriad religious philosophies that have existed throughout history.
I discovered the best way to read about the socio-theology of ancient desert people... is with illustrations using Legos. The fact that someone took the time to create something like this completely astounds me.
Of course, the Bible has stories of sex, violence, intrigue... so some of these Lego scenes contain 'mature' content. These scenes are, of course, the most interesting.
One of the basic tenets of Buddhism is that 'suffering' is an unavoidable consequence of mortal existence.
However, another basic idea is that our individual & collective negativity can be transformed through right practice & awareness.
As long as we all have bodies of flesh, misery of every kind is to be expected. Therefore, it is tough for a skeptic like me to believe we can even make a tiny dent in the unfathomable behemoth that is human suffering.
Right now, the instant reporting of events is possible anywhere a person has a camera & internet access. In spite of this, the world's most powerful national bodies continue to flaunt their technologically superior, but morally inferior, methods of brutality. The civilian leadership of the US and their neo-con puppetmasters used our military and our financial resources to viciously decimate inferior nations. Russia continues to try exerting control over its satellite states to ward off American influence. Israel continues to propagate the fantasy of security through cultural segregation. China continues a senseless quest for domination over the people of Tibet, a nation of monks & villagers. The Chinese government's characterization of the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan followers would be laughable if it wasn't such a tragic situation.
These huge movements of Oppression vs. Dissension could be an indication of a tipping point for a collective rejection of all the paradigms we've been culturally brainwashed into accepting as inevitable reality. Such a drastic shift could have tremendous positive results, but also tremendously negative consequences. Will the result be an apocalyptic wasteland or a harmonious utopia? Probably.... neither.
I'd like to think that we are capable of creating a more positive reality for as many people on this planet as possible. Perhaps the people of the world will eventually reject the idea of subjugating other humans and finally unite as a global force of infinite diversity & productivity.
Unfortunately, I'm no starry-eyed optimist. It easily as possible that justified dissent will continue to be crushed in more efficient and widespread ways. There seems to be unlimited power in the soulless entities such as nations and super-national corporations that seem to feed off ever-increasing control of human beings. From the rise of ubiquitous surveillance to the growing Doomsday Robot Army, there are plenty of reasons to think everything in our future is not going to be all rainbows & jelly beans.
That is, unless the military robots are going to spray psychedelic colors and shoot out candy to overwhelm the world with joy...
This wonderful season of the vernal equinox and the Resurrection of Life. Like all institutions, the holiday we celebrate as Easter has had a very interesting evolution which I've posted about before.
What most people don't realize is the hidden truth behind the Mysteries of Easter. Luckily, the masters of crazy wisdom at South Park have cracked the code:
You type in a word or phrase and it uses images from the Web to form phantom images in realtime, using abstract brushtrokes, that eventually coalesce into recognizable forms.
I can just sit back & watch Dreamlines be created into ethereal images that meld into one another over & over. It can really be a mesmerizing non-linear visual experience. Wooah, dude.
I typed in "Da Vinci's Challenge" & took some screenshots of the resulting images that formed:
The "magic" Google News aggregation software has transmitted to my eyes the news that the visionary legend Arthur C. Clarke has passed from his mortal shell, back into the infinity of the universe.
If you don't find this classic movie to be an aesthetic & conceptual masterpiece, then you are really no better off than the ape-man tossing a femur bone into the sky.
I read somewhere that the black monolith (which appears during each of man's 3 quantum leaps of consiousness) had measurements equal to the dimensions of an actual movie screen. The implication is that the movie itself, and art in general, were vehicles for the evolution of the soul/psyche.
Unfortunately, the world has been overwhelmingly influenced by the violence of tyrants, the unbridled greed of faceless institutions, and man's own infinitely chaotic nature - all which prevent the human race from achieving exactly what Clarke envisioned. Therefore, the movie's optimistic projection of 21st century technology hasn't come to fruition.. yet. This hasn't stopped "2001" from being a continual source of admiration & interpretation now that the iconic year as come and gone.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Absolutely one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I used to watch it back in the day when there was nothing else like it on. From his jungle home in Sri Lanka, Arthur C. Clarke assured my young mind that our world was, in fact, as completely weird & crazy as I thought it was!
Sir Arthur engaged imaginations around the world with ideas that revealed the mysteries and the endless potential of the human race.
I saw the awesome photo below on Google Images as I was searching for random images.
The website is for a bible ministry of some sort. Therefore, I can only imagine, judging by the name of the photo, "tim-ta-tion", that this character is some kind of freakish acid-head puppet who is supposed to scare kids about the "tim-ta-tion-s" & effects of psychedelic substances.
Personally, I think just looking at this picture qualifies as a "psychedelic" experience!
As a student, I could say without a doubt that the subject I always hated the most was history.
The funny thing is that, nowadays, I'm completely fascinated by the past. I always check out The History Channel & I've posted about historical stuff alot on this blog. I'm always reading at least one book and they're often about ancient cultures or some historical theme.
I think the reason history turned me off so much when I was younger was that there was very little visual stimulation & mental interactivity involved in the lessons. From what I remember, the emphasis was on cold facts: names, events, & dates. The truly interesting aspects of society, however, are the arts, the myths, the living situations- the 'human' details that really put us into the experience of that culture.
I've found that the most invaluable tools for learning are 3D visualizations that are now possible using ever-improving rendering software. Seeing a visual representation of ancient Rome, or watching a movie like Apocalypto that's set in an ancient Mayan city gives a strikingly clear view of life in that time period. This is simply not achievable by reading words about it in a book.
One of my favorite shows is "Engineering an Empire" because of the quality of the show's 3D renderings of both art & architecture that have been lost to time.
Here are some great links I've found to sites about the virtual re-creation of historic places:
I started playing this wonderfully stupid game, Monkey Kick Off. The only objective is to kick the ball as far you can by tapping an arrow key at the right time.
I got hooked for a little while, and ended up booting a couple 5000+ Monkey Meter whoppers. It has to bounce once every 1200+ meters to get this far... fun stuff.
On Neatorama there was a post about Superman's Kryptonian chimp, Beppo, who I would think would be a horrifying menace to the general population.
Actually- according to their post, "Because it’s from Krypton, Beppo the monkey had super powers … that it used for mischief! Superboy had to lead the super monkey into deep space and left him there."
Man, that's pretty messed up! What's even more messed up is that once in deep space, Beppo found Curious George in Space... and showed him that despite the vast reaches of the universe, there's only room for one Space Monkey.
I took a few minutes to re-create the grisly encounter as accurately as I could:
Anyway, this cover is so great & shows exactly what a pain-in-the-ass a Super-powered monkey would be...
DC Comics' store actually has a plush version of this super-powered primate.
The doll's cuteness betrays the actual horror Beppo has the potential to release upon mankind.
I was watching a TV show about a person who was blind from when they were very young. Retinal implants actually restored the sense of vision that had been missing from that person's mind. This in itself is an astounding story.
What I thought was really interesting was the guy's description of being able to finally see for the first time. He explained that, at first, all he saw were blobs of light & dark, and spots of color. His mind had to learn to 'see' what he was looking at.
Our vision is not like a TV or monitor, which assembles a picture as soon as you hit the 'on' switch. I imagine that as neurons are stimulated, more patterns and connections are made, & the increasing visual processing in our brain allows sight to develop at higher resolutions over time, like adding pixels to a screen.
This was all on my mind when I ran across this Wired article whose title hints at the huge part that the idea of language plays in the consciousness, regardless of what senses are present:
The idea of losing my sight is probably one of the worse things I can imagine. As a designer my entire world is dependent on vision. However, it's good to know that brilliant technical minds out there are working to solve such complex problems as blindness & the endless number of other difficulties that human beings must face.
I saw this quiz on mental_floss. It is a test on a variety of artists & their work that they have featured over 5 months.
Being the art history buff that I am, I figured I'd try taking the quiz cold turkey (having not followed this particular feature on their blog).
It turned out to be pretty tough. I only answered a measley 8 out of 20 correct. The answers I did get I managed to figure out mostly by looking at the painting accompanying the question & recognizing an artist's style!
When looking up the link for Giordano Bruno that I used in my last post, I came across this interesting image below. (Interesting to me, anyway.)
It is a woodcut of geometric studies apparently done by the great philosopher. What caught my eye was the use of patterns created by the overlapping circles that create the Flower of Life symbol. This is the symbol that forms the basis of the strategy game I created, "Da Vinci's Challenge".
Being such a unique pattern, it instantly grabs my attention when I see it or its myriad variations. I would be really interested to find out what the great 'heretic' & proponent of the infinite world system was studying in these figures...
Both the religious dogma of the biblical Genesis & the scientific dogma of the singular Big Bang always seemed equally absurd to me, in the sense that the entire universe supposedly began at a certain 'discernible' point.
I always struggled with what existed before, which had to be- nothing! Then, the question is how everything came from- nothing! There is really no adequate explanation that our monkey grunts can properly convey. We can say "God did it." or "There was the singularity" but these are just phrases that help us box up The Unimaginable in a comfortably managed package. We try to intellectually deal with the infinite nature of the universe... as long as it's confined inside definite, finite parameters!
The human mind, trying to imagine the state of reality before the beginning of the universe, is easily overwhelmed by this incomprehensible and eternal mystery.
I am definitely of the school of Giordano Bruno who accepted that, as far as human perception is concerned, the infinite worlds inhabiting infinite space. Outside of human perception, however, I am not qualified to speculate - being that I'm only human.
What I find endlessly interesting is the continuing correlation between modern scientific interpretations of the cosmos with ancient metaphysical concepts. I read this Wired interview with physicist Neil Turok in which he makes the following case:
"...the Big Bang represents just one stage in an infinitely repeated cycle of universal expansion and contraction. Turok theorizes that neither time nor the universe has a beginning or end. "
The further explanation he gave, no matter how scientific, is really just weaving a story around this central concept. Ultimately, Mr. Turok makes yet another excellent point when he says "I feel that the main role for these scenarios of the early universe is to stimulate our thinking. I don't necessarily believe any of them."
Reading these theories about the cyclical nature of reality reminded me of the Hindu idea of the cosmos as going infinite cycle of inward & outward "breaths" that are quite literally the fractal fluctuations of an infinitely complex reality:
"It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, no doubt, by accident, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the earth or the sun and about half of the time since the big bang. And there are much longer time scales still.
There is the deep and the appealing notion that the universe is but the dream of the god who after a 100 Brahma years… dissolves himself into a dreamless sleep… and the universe dissolves with him… until after another Brahma century… he starts… recomposes himself and begins again the dream… the great cosmic lotus dream."
A while ago I ran across The Millenium Simulation project that uses supercomputers to process 3D visualizations of the large scale universe. The structure & distribution of galaxies and dark matter can be explored using this model that also has great aesthetic value. Because the link above uses a movie format I can't view, I could only appreciate the still pictures.
Boingboing.com linked to a website for a DVD called Galaxy Dynamics. The menu has very cool Quicktime animations of cosmic processes enhanced with trippy soundtracks. It's the closest thing to having your own rave-powered spaceship.
E-paper & ultrathin displays are going to be the source of all kinds of amazing applications. I'm looking forward to the day when I can design motion graphics for e-packaging & other surfaces that will use this emerging technology.
I saw this awesome concept called Nokia Morph on a couple different websites. It is a glimpse into the exciting & innovative creations that are just around the corner. Everything is cool about this - the styling of it, the translucent green, the interface visualizations... it's like the iPhone of the future.
There is really no reason why this device can't exist right now. It's only the misuse and waste of our collective resources and potential that prevents the realization of such inventions.
Having now finished my third decade in this amazing world, I have spent alot of time observing and contemplating the human experience.
It seems about time that I recorded the ultimate consequence of years of accumulating knowledge and Crazy Wisdom: The Meaning and Purpose of Existence.
I have contained all the transcendent truths and esoteric revelations that I have discovered over the course of a lifetime within the action of a single click....
I've always been interested in holograms and their relationship to the nature of our universe. Reality and our integrated human minds experiencing & existing within it have been shown to possess holographic qualities that are still barely understood.
I've noticed a few articles on the progression of holographic display & data storage technologies. I really think that we're getting to the point that almost anything the human mind can visualize can be either represented virtually or actually created in the physical world. Holograms, like fractals, are one of those topics that make less 'sense' the more you really try to understand them.
Besides getting real-time poll numbers for the current races, Presidential Primary coverage on the cable news networks is almost unwatchable. It's like there is a deliberate plan to keep all discussion of actual issues and their possible solutions completely out of the picture. Wait... Nah, can't be!
Instead of critical examination of the obstacles our country faces and the answers needed to overcome them, the hours are filled with insane jibber-jabber about:
• who's getting the vote of old/young/white/black/latino/male/female/rural/urban/blah/blah/blah
• why the above groups are voting as the completely uniform hive minds that they apparently are,
• what provocative verbal barbs are being slung, and what the response is, etc.
• which campaign has the most money and who's donating,
The only truly useful information that comes out of these shows are the poll numbers and when the next debate is, so maybe you can get some time to hear what the candidate say what they actually stand for
The complete irony of hearing the army of "experts" saying that Barack Obama has lacked substance (before tonight's speech, anyway) is off the charts. You could have CNN, MSNBC, & Fox News running simultaneously, and you will hear nothing but horserace talk.
I'd support Hillary if she was the nominee, but I think Obama would be a great President & a positive force that would be a healthy dose of sanity and insight after the Bush/Cheney Dark Ages. Hell, I even think John McCain would be a better, more competent leader than The War Monkey. Unfortunately, McCain represents a political party in Washington that, for all its talk of righteousness, has proven to be completely bankrupt of moral integrity. I think Obama/McCain debates would be a fascinating dynamic, whereas I see him and Hillary having a much less interesting interaction. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.
Continuing on the logo theme, I saw this interesting article about the development process that went into different logos for the world's largest tech companies. I eat this stuff up. Thank you Neatorama.
The cynically realistic part of me says "Probably not."
There are a few reasons why:
First, electronic votes can't be verified by the voter, there is no vote-by-vote paper trail for backup, and the software used is not open-source. Therefore, the process itself is entirely suspect.
Second, (and perhaps because of reason #1) it's possible that the whole thing is rigged by players on the stage and powers behind the scenes. There are billions of dollars at stake & I just can't imagine everything's on the up & up. David Schuster on Countdown was talking about the so-called Super Delegates, mostly non-elected party officials who make up 40% of the primary vote. The election system is made with safeguards to prevent the plebian mob from picking the 'wrong' candidate.
So... why bother?... I think my own selfish motivation is simply so I can argue politics & policy with people and not have it thrown back in my face that I don't vote. My vote seems like a grain of sand on a beach, pretty insignificant. But it makes me feel like a responsible citizen, so it serves some function I guess.
Even though the Super Bowl was a good game, the contest that really interests me is the Presidential Primary Race. Instead of the football, though, our countries top politicians get to throw around platitudes and promises.
Anybody who knows me or has read this blog knows my disdain for Bush, Inc. - so voting for any of his band of lackeys on the GOP side who will continue his mindless policies is simply out of the question.
I've been thinking about who I was going to pick for the Dems in their Primary. My first choice would have been John Edwards, but then he left the race... I think Hillary & Obama are both articulate, competent people with alot of life experience and intelligence. Especially after the chaos-causing ignoramus we've been dealing w/ for the past 8 years, either of these candidates are like an oasis of sanity. If they both end up on the final ballot as Prez & VP, in either order, they will crush the Republican ticket.
At first, I was trying to rationalize all of the practical advantages to a Clinton presidency, despite the contempt for her created by right-wing ideologues. However, after watching Barack in the debates and giving speeches on CSPAN & the internet, I changed my mind completely. My individual vote doesn't make any real difference, so I decided not to try to calculate my vote like there was some grand strategy that would unfold as a result. I voted for who I liked the best & Obama ended up winning me over. I think having a woman President would be a great change for this country. The more I hear Obama, though, the more I am really inspired by his ideas & outlook. He's really got alot of momentum behind him in a short amout of time.
So, when I went into the booth, I pressed the lit button next to Barack Obama's name on the mysterious black box. Of course, because our voting system is a scandal in itself, I have no idea whether or not my vote was actually tallied. I could just assume that the little burst of electricity zipping through the circuits added up to some digital tally somewhere. Whatever.
If Hillary Clinton ends up winning the nomination, I'll be fine with that, too. I just think that along with her great advantages, her and ol' Bill also bring along an awful lot of baggage and disadvantages. Ultimately, if it boils down to it, I would prefer relative sanity under a Clinton than more unfettered insanity under a member of the Bush Cabal.
The majority of Dirty Jerseyans went with Clinton. After seeing both candidates giving their speeches Tuesday night, though, I was even more comfortable w/ my decision. Hillary might be a charismatic person, but it doesn't shine through as clearly as in Barack. Although the mantras of "Hope" & "Change" are starting to be mocked as overused generalities, they are still very powerful motivators. This is especially true when delivered with confidence and authenticity.
The other book he scanned, Usborne World of the Unknown: UFO's brings back childhood memories for me. I used to check out as many books as I possibly could at each trip to the public library when my mom would take me & my siblings back in the day. I know I checked out this UFO book and similar ones about ghosts & strange creatures several times each. These books were really influential in the development of my fluid world outlook. They illustrated how much is out there that we have not even begun to understand.
I was amazed by the fantastic presentations, like this:
...& my young mind could endlessly ponder the implications of such strange possibilities:
This is a pretty cool website I saw on Posthuman Blues that allows you to apply different destructive graphic simulations to any web page! This is such an awesome idea.
Monkeys, besides being our closest genetic relatives, are just plain amusing. Maybe it's because they are so similar to us that their antics seem so crazy.
This video my friend showed me is one of the most disgusting (& also one of the funniest) things I've ever seen. As the little girl so rightly exclaims in the video: "Eeeeeww! Grooooss!!!!"
When trying to track down the origin of that crazy flourecscent guy in my last post, I was led to Everyone Forever. This site has alot of really cool stuff on it, with a few things I've seen before -
I don't remember how I came across this wacky page a few days ago, but it's literally crazy. It is like an actual visual representation of complete lunatic's mind. There's barely anything on the page that makes even a bit of sense, & it's pretty awesome.
I am so used to trying to create designs for readability and coherence in the mass market, that seeing a schizo mess like this is almost refreshing. It kind of reboots my creative sensibilities while my brain implodes & goes "WHHHAAAAAAAT??????"
Visual overload of any kind, good or bad, tends to fascinate me. Speaking of visual overload, I was looking on FFFFound! to see if that's where I saw this. Not only did I find another ridiculous image that causes instant visual overload..... I also found the maniac whose evident madness, I believe, has manifested into HTML through littledagger.org...
