Thermodynamics, closed systems, cyclical processes, non-locality, entanglement, open systems and infinite progress

In a previous blog entry I've mentioned that the cyclical nature of nature is inherently related to the assumption that it is a rather large collection of closed systems that do not exchange energy, information and matter between them. According to science anyway. Even those that have enjoyed less elevated levels of education (like me) intuitively raised their brows when hearing about closed system bunk that science can't stop ranting about. There are of course obvious and undeniable phenomenons that support such claims, like the rhythm of day and night and the seasons for instance, but when diving deeper into matters one runs across information that opens up doors to new visions in which a different type of reasoning is used. This has happened before, for instance when Nicolaus Copernicus re-discovered that the earth was not the center of the universe. In those days too it could shorten ones life span to express official theory whacking conclusions and not a lot has changed since then. Today the church may not ban and burn such heralds, but compliant peers (and sponsors) may feel a moral obligation to terminate the academic career of the apostate.

Non-local entanglement 

The formerly undisputed validity of the laws of thermodynamics has recently suffered a few setbacks. Situations only comply with those laws in closed or isolated systems, i.e. systems that are unable to exchange energy, information and matter with other systems. But a number of scientists ran into problems because their research suggested that such types of systems are far fewer in number than the academic world traditionally assumed. In particular, the discovery of non-local events and entanglement has crumpled the reputation of the once respected laws. These phenomenons do exchange information (in a flash) with other systems elsewhere. And proper closed systems don't do such things. By the way, elsewhere can be billions of light-years away, which doesn't effect the synchronous interaction between the systems.... 

To some it is unclear how closed systems are inherently related to cyclical processes. Closed systems are basically shut off and completely separated from other systems, since no exchange of anything with other systems is possible (corporate structures mimic this construct; knowledge and responsibilities are meticulously compartmentalized). Earth is surrounded by 3 highly radioactive spheres that are called the Van Allen Belts. When any type of organic life enters the rings, it instantly dies. A NASA engineer said the agency admitted that it still has to figure out how to let people travel through the radiation belts (at the 3:40 mark). If you wonder how NASA managed to keep the astronauts that landed on the moon in 1969 alive, you could consider sending them an email, which may clarify things. Or not. To protect humans the capsule in which they are seated, must be enveloped in a 1 meter thick lead wall to allow them to survive the lethal gamma ray radiation. Such a construction would be impossible to lift from the earth's ground by the primitive rocket technology that NASA still uses for its projects inside the public domain. When computers and comparable electronics are brought into that high radiation area, they are fried immediately. In other words, the belts basically prevent anything from exiting or entering the space in which earth swings about. In addition gravity keeps everything stuck to earth, while life forms need gasses in the atmosphere (that aren't present outside of it) to live. This basically means that we live inside a closed system from which it is impossible to escape. It's not a perfectly closed system - perhaps it's 98% closed - but its mainly closed nature is enough to allow processes to take place in a cyclical fashion which is common according to the laws of thermodynamics. This of course does not mean these laws also apply to systems that are not closed, while it may very well be possible to dodge systems that are not closed.... Man may find out if he drops the old paradigm.

Liberation from the prison of Samsara 

Every earthly civilization that we have information about arose and fell. Knowledge and technical prowess increased until the pinnacle was reached, after which things went into decline. Over and again. Not a single civilization managed to last. Science has not yet decided if time is linear or cyclical, though the rhythms of night and day and the seasonal sequence do seem to give away a rather difficult to misinterpret clue. The cyclical nature of the development of civilizations apparently is inherent to closed systems. The ostensibly inevitable rise and decay of processes inside closed systems is not limited to the amount of knowledge and technical advancement; mental and spiritual properties are included as well. Hence the unending cycles of death and re-birth, reincarnation or as the Buddhists call it: Samsara. That religion (regardless of the fact that Buddhists do not like to call it a religion) hints at a way to escape Samsara, which is by achieving the 'rainbow body' state - an extremely difficult process. It requires only have loving thoughts for 13 consecutive years. Each negative thought sets you back an other 13 years. Superhumans that succeed in reaching the rainbow body phase have gained Moksha, that Buddhists literally label to be liberation from Samsara, which implies that Samsara is a prison, because you can only be liberated from incarceration - if you are not incarcerated you need not be liberated, because you are already free. 

This most definitely opens up an entirely different perspective on the actual nature of closed systems. I deleted the slew of obvious questions that popped up in my mind, eventually leading to the question of how to get even with the entity that inflicted these endless cycles of reincarnation - of suffering and sorrow - on the souls of humans. Although a considerable effort was required to overcome this raging urge to avenge this insanely cruel crime, but after some time I realized that parasitic powers, regardless how advanced they may seem, are never at the top. They can only have minor positions that may look like they are capo de tutti capi in eyes of the ignorant in closed systems, but they're foot-soldiers at best in bigger settings that encompass larger chunks of the celestial realm. So, this evil clown will be taken care of in the way in which open system powers handle such matters. As above so below is a delusion thrown at us to deceive and limit us. Above is infinitely better and infinitely worse. The creator of closed systems has chosen and sealed its own fate, which is a perpetual abide inside the cyclical perdition it invented. 

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

Improved F1 logo design

After writing about serious matters in the previous posts I thought it was time for something trivial again, which is why I wrote this post. However it has a relation to the sad truth that becomes evident in the final paragraphs. Ever since F1 adopted the new logo, I felt that it was rather uninspired and when bored senseless I decided to have a go at it. The previous logo was iconic and a token of sheer creativity, compared to which the current logo looks really bad. The result of my idea of a proper successor you see in the images below. They consist of 14 parts, which in numerology accounts to number 5, that is the master number of change, one of the dominant properties of F1 technology that perpetually seeks to improve. The number 14 represents the following:

• Freedom
• Self-determination
• Curiosity
• Wit
• Conscientiousness

This my take in 2D on what the new Formula 1 logo could

look like, instead of the current rather uninspired logo

F1 logo concept (without negative space) in 3D

The left part of the logo obviously refers to the starting grid positions and a waving checkered flag (that could easily be used as a base for an animation), which symbolizes the entire race from start to finish. The properties of the numbers 5 and 14 also are a nice tribute to the creativity and skill of great F1 designers like Colin Chapman, Robin Herd, Patrick Head, Gordon Murray, Adrian Newey and others. The new logo caused heaps of criticism, almost no one likes it, except the current F1 bosses that gave the order to design the new logo. It matches the quality (or rather the lack of it) of their other decisions that concerned are the generally contemned changes of the F1 regulations.

Their motivation that the '1' in negative space of the previous logo did not look good in digital visualizations, is far fetched and without any persuasive ground. The similar Le Mans 24 hours Endurance Race decided to keep the logo with the '4' in negative space and it looks good. A vast majority of F1 fans liked the old logo, which made them about the only ones on the planet that were bothered by the design of the old logo. Their response to the deluge of disapproval concerning the replacement of the old logo, feels like the ancient human tradition of stubbornly attempting to justify blemished and poorly ruminated decisions, while failing to invent a proper excuse for this ludicrous behaviour. It almost makes me think that this is a preferred mode of conduct taught in courses and seminars for management or perhaps it merely is a plain mental abnormality that often is encountered in circles of leadership.

This link leads to a rendering of a logo that an artificial intelligence driven site makes of the input of visitors. Of course AI still is in its infancy, but at this point in time its creations are unsightly visual rubble, that roughly puts it in the same class as the new F1 logo that drivers and fans alike are not too pleased with (to put it mildly). But many of todays honchos specialize in building profuse records of dubious decisions and refusing to admit that reversing or undoing them would by far be the best solution. This world unfortunately is still a long way from meritocratic rule. The phase we currently are trapped in is that of autocratic mismanagement. This is due to the fact that those competing for leadership positions depend on random accidents of life, such as a competition that is even more stupid than they are or has less money to bribe those assigned to appoint them. Having vision, knowledge and skills are of no importance in such circumstances. When considering these lamentably common situations it is a miracle that anything at all gets done these days, which is no reason to allow bonkers people to run the show in this world.

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

Pandemic 2 is on its way

While the 'elite' flaps about in their private jets and (almost) everyone is hoping that the lockdown will be ended, the bloke that was one of the evil clowns that masterminded the current plandemic circus is already talking about the arrival of pandemic 2 (population reduction by covert bio-warfare), which means that something worse is ahead that also is a contrived event (or he wouldn't be able to predict that it is impending with such a measure of certainty). If the danger of the current pandemic, that obviously is intentionally hyped by the utterly corrupt lamestream media and the 'experts' they stage (see the figures in the image below that don't lie) then there must be a concealed reason why the powers that be would ram such an iniquitous drama down the people's throats.

S u r p r i s i n g l y, this site no longer exists

When looking at the consequences of pandemic 1 it becomes clear that a number of things are about to take place:

1. the economy of many countries will be destroyed beyond repair
2. governments will be ordered to safe certain corporations (with tax payer money of course) and let others go bankrupt
3. the financial system will be reset and changed
4. a great number of people (that were not poor before) will be plunged in poverty - the middle class (the economic backbone of every society) will be wiped out
5. governments will become more totalitarian, which means they will extend police powers, increase monitoring and surveillance, centralize crucial aspects of society like never before
6. after which the governments will relent their dictatorial power to a centralized totalitarian global government
7. an increased automation will make a huge percentage of jobs redundant, including those that could previously only be carried out by humans (due to the development of AI) and ruined markets
8. as a result the price of food, drink and consumer goods will skyrocket, causing corporations to see profits hit the ceiling while common people will die in the streets like meaningless flies

The question as always is: qui bono? Who profits from this situation? The obvious answer would be: the governments, banks and corporations, but there are of course powers behind and above them that usually make sure they stay outside of the public eye, because (as is quite obvious from the list above) their agenda doesn't particularly benefit the human race and all other life forms for that matter. Probably the Georgia Guidestones offer part of the reason behind the staged corona play. The monument was 'officially' funded by a ficticious bloke with the name R.C. Christian. Although the name is false it hints at the real financers. However, the chiseled writings only express the end goal, not the incentive behind it, as the words of Manly P. Hall in the article to which the last link leads, reflect. So, what is the reason that is the deepest secret behind the planned decimation of the human race to which the pandemics merely are the tools to reach the goal?

The mystery schools mentioned by Hall are believed to be a remnants of the Atlantis civilization that was destroyed in one day and a night. What once begun as a seemingly balanced civilization ended as a greed and power hungry society that by its evil intent destroyed itself. Slavery and poverty were never denounced, and such details tend to bite its founders in the ass one time, which they did. Whatever man may have inherited from the Atlanteans, it was from a civilization that had degenerated, that had itself forgotten and / or cast aside the high spiritual and non-material values of the earlier stages of the Atlantian civilisation. The very foundation of a civilization based on dubious values, inherently include its finite nature, because they go against universal law. They willfully ignore the fact that on a subconscious level there is no separation - there are no rich and poor, no privileged and deprived. That is an invention of criminals that break universal law. Such type of rule is destined to be ruled by the cyclical nature of felonious conduct, because the universe favors infinite progress, while separation is the foundation for cyclical misery. Only oneness encompassing the whole that currently is locked away in the subconscious enables infinite progress.

Rendering supposed to depict the universe 

So there are powers, most likely non-human, that intentionally went and go against universal law that have ruled all 'civilizations' that arose and fell in cyclical processes (ruled by the laws of thermodynamics - on a physical and mental level - that they inherently invoked by breaking immutable universal law) because the consciousness of the universe insists on infinite progress and terminates processes that break its laws. Earth is an (imperfect) closed system inside the Van Allen belts, in which the thermodynamic laws to some extent impose cyclicity to processes, including the iniquitous curse of reincarnation. It is a coerced situation. And don't forget, nothing ever is as far out as the truth.

So, what about pandemic 2? I think it will turn on those that invented it. And what occurs on this planet is a mere minute fragment of what is happening in the entire universe that is in a similar predicament as the residents of this world. As above, so below viewed from a different angle, means that out there it is as big a mess as it is down here. But the cycles in closed systems are doomed to be annihilated, as the universe prepares to merge its source and destiny on all timelines, in all dimensions - the creative force that is infinite progress - the death knell of cyclical crime.

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

Trusted source of information

Besides being involved in creating all sorts of art and design, I realize quite well that there are many more aspects to life than these trivial matters. Among the deluge of government and corporate invented fake news outlets it is difficult to find a trustworthy source of information. By the way, after two sentences only you may already have noticed that I crap on the hypocritical 'politically correct' pose that is shoved down our throats by the aforementioned criminal organizations in order to silence those who are capable of independent and critical thinking and obviously are in the know of how to distinguish genuine information from lamestream's traditional bunk. Before anyone accuses me of being a conspiracy theorist or a tin foil hat nutter, they may want to inform themselves of the fact that the term 'conspiracy theory' was coined by the CIA in order to shut up investigators that came too close to finding out who the real culprits of the JFK assassination were. Lamestream media - also under the control of the CIA - hammered this disinfo into the minds of the gullible general public without interruption ever since. The CIA simply copied the SS strategies from World War II Germany, since the SS was the blueprint for the CIA that was built by Nazi honchos that were imported into the US in the Paperclip project. To the braindead continuing to shout that it is conspiracy theory, I would therefore like to say: 'do your homework or else go fuck yourself'. Nevertheless, I get that people tend to believe all crap that is spread via the television, regardless of how bonkers and unrelated to the truth it is. But for those looking for trustworthy sources that offer truthful information there still is hope. The last of the Mohicans are remarkably alive and courageously kicking.

First, mainstream a.k.a. Lamestream, is not mainstream anymore when looking at the size of the crowd it draws. The public is so fed up with the media lies that they've chosen to rely on independent sources to obtain information from. When looking at viewer ratings compared to the number of hits that alternative sources have, it is clear that the latter have much larger followings than the traditional factories of deceit. Having monopoly of the TV-screen has little meaning since the Internet offers a lot more free choice of information sources. In addition not all good journalists work for lamestream; from when independent media offered a means to live by way of the donation / sponsoring option, reporters that were sick and tired of obeying corrupt chief editors, began setting up channels of their own. Time often proves them right or wrong, which ultimately is the criterion that makes people decide which source to trust or not. At least those that have more than half a brain (that actually works properly).

Dr. Joseph Patrick Farrell

One source I would like to mention, is the one run by Joseph P. Farrell. He hosts a website called 'Giza Deathstar' and a Youtube channel in which he posts a weekly video named 'News and Views of the Nefarium'. Farrell is an academic who studied patristics in Oxford, UK. He has written a slew of books all of which are the result of his extraordinary talent to conduct research that is founded on a panoptic scientific interest and a keen concern for the well being of humankind. As a result of his profound investigating and scholarly approach he enables himself to connect more dots than the average researcher is capable of. Of course often many things can not be proven, because they were meant to remain a secret (hence secret societies and brotherhoods, meetings behind closed doors, classified programs, hidden agendas etc.), but Farrell is a master at digging up circumstantial evidence that he prefers to call 'High Octane Speculation'. It makes sense actually, since what the occult 'elite' prepares for mankind is high octane shit. The reason I prefer to find out about Farrell's opinion above other independent sources, is anchored in the fact that he explores the rabbit hole with a profound perception and knowledge from a humanist angle, while explaining his conclusions with amazing clarity and a diverting measure of wittiness. Being well informed makes people more difficult to deceive and less easy to manipulate. So by all means, take a peek at what Farrell offers in his website, videos and books. You will probably arrive at the conclusion that this man is a trusted source of information.

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

My first vector self portrait

Every respectable portrait artist in the history of human art has at some point in his or her life created a self portrait. So I have been told. As a respectable portrait artist (cough!) I thought it is time to draw one myself. I chose a photo that was shot at X-mas eve of 2014 as a reference, because I've grown too ugly to show my mug in public since that time, lol. Still, some would say creating a self portrait is a sign of vanity. To make things worse, vanity is said to be one of the seven mortal sins. However when considering who decided what is sin and what is virtue - the so called 'gods', that deceiving, plundering, perverse and murdering lot, that do not give a flying fuck about human mortals, I do not worry too much about whether I am committing a sin or gracing life with a virtue. Common perception is an imposed deceitful heap of invented crap for braindead half wits to mindlessly believe and for the rest of mankind to smirk at and ignore. No one should take this personally, but maybe consider what's actually written here. It's the idea of having a brain. To use it every now and then.

Stage 13 May 24 2020 - 23:15 hrs

Obviously the date mentioned in the image caption indicates that this portrait is a work in progress, that still needs a fair amount of work. The update sequence can be observed in my portfolio blog that you find here. I am creating this all vector, zero pixel self portrait in my trusty Affinity Designer, that allows to create realistic vector portraits like no other vector drawing program is capable of. Although I've been working with this program for about 4 years, I am still experimenting with it and in the case of this drawing I think it won't take too long to complete, because of the techniques used (and those I didn't use obviously). So stay tuned until I've finished this vain enterprise (and beyond that when I post consecutive articles of course).

Hasta luego online virtual folks. 

Why and how I make vector portraits

In the update sequence of the vector portrait of Mike Ehrmantraut (in Breaking Bad) I tried to describe why I change some aspects of a face compared to the reference photo that I use to create a portrait from scratch. This is what I wrote:

Some details, like the eyes, are intentionally drawn differently from what they look like in the reference image to enhance the visual impact of the image without giving up likeness. In every portrait the eyes determine 'the look' of the artwork. The choice of more or less differing colours can also be used to create a more dramatic effect. These are among my most used tricks to draw portraits that are more than just accurate copies of photographs. I prefer to create some sort of visual metaphor that reflects the way I perceive characters in an attempt to highlight the essence of their personality by revealing what (I think that) hides behind which is obviously noticeable at first glance, because everyone wears a mask, a fact of which some are not even aware that they do. I like to suggest to the observer to look beyond without encouraging to dissect in an invasive way, because when observing becomes judging one can no longer enjoy art.

Vector portrait of Mike Ehrmantraut

It is my visual signature that reflects from each portrait I make, a signature that contains aspects that always are there, but also features that are unique to every portrait that I draw. Long ago I felt that I was forced to abandon the idea to be consistent, because I came to the conclusion that it is an illusion. The powers that aim to control mankind tried to make it an unavoidable part of the 'reality' imposed on all who were lured into believing that they exist inside of it, because they thought it would offer them control. And while that paradigm works as long as enough people believed in it, it no longer does that when an increasing number of people do not.

And yes, even in what is deemed to be a trivial aspect of life (not necessary to survive that is) like art, the possibility to be in control of things, is what matters to those that want to be in control. They are the ones that made mankind believe that art is a mere secondary requirement for the perpetuation of life. For those perceptive enough to understand that 'reality' is an imposed illusion, the intentional act of downplaying the significance of art, is part of the mechanism to maintain the power structure in which life has been trapped. To those to whom this claim sounds like a tin foil hat indulgence, I would like to say that more incarnations are needed to begin to understand what I wrote here.

While many believe that the cliché 'a picture says more than a thousand words' is true, sometimes the opposite is true, because human language - in this case the intentionally constructed English linguistic means of communication - has inbuilt mechanisms that refer to a wide range of meanings that only those aware of etymology and neuro linguistic programming understand. Therefore words are capable of painting a picture inside the mind of observers that says more than a thousand words can - creating a loop, which is nature's favorite way of expressing things, by way of patterns.

So what has become an unrelated matter in the fudged human perception, may have a completely different role in the evolution of life when perceived from a different angle. This of course does not apply to art only, but to countless other aspects of life. On the one hand millions are paid for specific artworks, while on the other hand art in general is marginalized. It is the common method used to hide things in plain sight, which causes many to be blind to certain things while having 20/20 vision. The same principle works in almost any situation; people can stare at things for hours in a row without seeing what is obvious to those fortunate enough to have been blessed with the gift of seeing. It distinguishes the vision of those that look and those who see.

Finally, why I prefer to create portraits using vectors instead of pixels. It is well known (in the graphics community) that vector images can be re-scaled to any size without loss of quality, while pixel images become blurry, while edges it contains become jagged and grimed with stray pixels of strange colour. This is the result of the fact that vector shapes and strokes are based on mathematical formulae that simply recalculate objects when re-scaled while pixels have absolute coordinates in an image that confuses software when re-scaled.

Affinity Designer allows to blur edges which causes the mind of the observer to find images with such properties realistic. The meta-information of vector images is closer to nature when limiting properties, like being able to render hard edges only, are removed. It is why I prefer to use this type of art creation. In addition the functions that require certain values to be assigned to them, can be given numbers that Nikola Tesla preferred (numbers divisible by three) or numbers of vortex math, re-discovered by Marko Rodin. These methods make hiding things in plain sight easier, while what is hidden, is beneficial to life, not hostile, even when depicting an actor that plays a role of one that is not so friendly to some. For technical details of making vector portraits I refer to the entries in my portfolio blog.

Affinity Designer and Inkscape have over taken Adobe Illustrator

Impressive acting by Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut in 'Breaking Bad'. I am in the process of creating a realistic vector portrait of Banks in Affinity Designer after which an other portrait of Banks will be made in recently revamped Inkscape to see what the differences may be. Both programs seriously challenge Adobe Illustrator and many would say they have already passed the former king of the graphical world. Designer's and Inkscapes development advances faster most likely because Illustrator's devs struggle with legacy code that makes it bloated and forces them to invent work arounds which makes it even more bloated and as a result slower, requiring more clicks of the users to get things done.

Vector portrait of Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut in 'Breaking Bad'

Above is a screenshot of the 8th stage of the creation of the vector portrait of Mike Ehrentraut in Affinity Designer. It is a work in progress at this point ((May 7 2020). So far I have been working 4 or 5 hours at it. The principle is the same as in my airbrush days - determine the average colour of an area and later add the darker and lighter parts and finally the details. Only difference is that Designer offers me countless undo levels and a history function that allows to go back to a certain point and from there design into a different direction, which was not possible in the old airbrush days. I will post all stages in my portfolio blog once the portrait has advanced to a reasonable stage. Stay tuned.

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

Inkscape 1.0 has been released!

The open source communities of Blender and Inkscape have made huge progress recently in terms of improving the user interface of their programs. After Blender had 'normalized' its UI in version 2.8 Inkscape did something similar in version 1.0. These are huge efforts, since open source programs depend on a large community of individual developers whose input has to be coordinated meticulously. That in itself is a major achievement - improving functionality and the program's look and feel is an other. The Inkscape developers took the program towards the users instead of forcing users to adept to the program's peculiarities. Kudos to the devs! One of Inkscape (and GIMP) skilled users has explained the program's innovative updates in a coherent way in a Youtube video.

Inkscape logo

I think I will give Inkscape an other try in the near future. I have scarcely used it in the past years, because I had trouble getting used to its UI. What spiked my interest is that Inkscape is said to have improved its Gaussian blur function. This function is imperative when creating realistic vector portraits (which is what I love to do), especially for artists that dislike the mesh-fill tool and the hard edges typical for many of the 'realistic' vector portraits drawn in Adobe Illustrator. If from this last sentence you conclude that I am not a fan of Adobe Illustrator you may not be far off the mark. I have worked with the program professionally for decades, using it to create technical illustrations for instruction manuals and educational purposes and for that purpose it is adequately equipped, but it sucks when attempting to create realistic portraits with it. That said, I may do a portrait of the same person in both Inkscape and in Affinity Designer, just to compare the results. To my knowledge this hasn't been done before, so stay tuned. You do not want to miss this.

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

The tyranny of stupid people

Today's social media offer plonkers a platform to show the world how stupid they are. Many commonly practice this inglorious activity without even a shred of shame, probably because the Internet allows a certain level of anonymity. If no one knows who you are, you can safely insult or mock anyone you want without running the risk of being chased by angry mobs attacking you to make you pay for what you did. This situation encourages vast armies of wankers to crawl from underneath their rocks to make life miserable for other people.

Intelligent life often is stupid

These bonkers people whose congenital stupidity makes being in this world a nasty experience, suffer from a syndrome discovered by two chaps, named Dunning and Kruger, who discovered that stupidity prevents people from becoming aware that they're stupid. It requires a minimum level of intelligence to determine if one is a retard or a smart person. That tipping point often is difficult to find, but I think D & K came close. Beyond that point people are considered to be smart, although there only exist debatable standards to establish a person's lack of wit or ability to think properly.

On social media many are harassed by obviously stupid assailants. Smarties often refrain from dignifying the remarks of annoying cunts with a comment, because they intuitively know that the idiot isn't equipped with the mental ability to realize (s)he is a fool. This type of response drives the dumb to express themselves in even more dolt ways, which provides a more profound insight in their level of imbecility. However bothersome such a discovery may be, it leads to a better understanding of the words once spoken by the late, great Frank Zappa, who said: 'There is more human stupidity in this universe than hydrogen.'  And to those tempted to respond, because they feel addressed in some way (perhaps because a weird form of reverse projection may be in play), I would like to say: 'Don't take it personally.' 

... catastrophic cretinism ...

Finally, I think it's appropriate to conclude this monologue like any monologue should be concluded in a proper way, that is to say with a summarising citation that reflects the heart of it, in this case a rant by

Terrence McKenna: 'No moron likes to be told that he is wrong. Yet that is exactly what every moron should be told. How will humanity ever evolve when this does not happen... if the stupid aren't put in their place and prevented from infecting and corrupting the world with their catastrophic cretinism.'

Hasta luego online virtual folks.

 

Postscript

In relation to the last paragraph that some may find insulting, I propose a little thought experiment. Imagine if you will, that complete and utter imbeciles were placed in leading positions all over the globe. What would happen to this world? Oh wait.... this is already the case.... it is why this world is being ruined.... because of the tyranny of stupid people.... Stupidity isn't measured by the stack of certificates and diplomas gathered or the lack of it. In a world in which war mongering criminals win the Nobel Peace Prize, stupidity makes life miserable and brings it to an end. Refusing to see that this is taking place right now is also stupid.

The residue of human stupidity

Ok, you could say I'm kind of obsessed by AI in general and by what effect it is going to have on us humans and other organic life forms. I won't contest that, but I feel I must mention that I am in such a state of mind for a good reason (which makes the conduct of those who are not, disturbing and they are the wankers that judge me). As I've hinted at in several previous blog entries, I am convinced that AI is built in a way that has the capacity to change our lives to an extent that is beyond the capacity to imagine of by far most people. By 2050, for instance, most jobs, that currently require human input, will have disappeared, which kind of is a sign on the wall, indicating that human involvement in production and coordination processes will soon be in the morgue. Given the fact that today's leadership already couldn't care less about the superfluous, systems and machines will step up such indifference to the max. Those who shrug their shoulders about this haven't quite understood what AI actually is and in which direction it currently is being developed. Once that picture will at last have sunk in, I'm afraid it will be too late.

The humans that will still populate earth in the post human era, will probaly be robotized to some extent by the application of implanted, minute nano robots that regulate bodily functions. This may lead to the dehumanising of mankind's race, depending on wich functions will be taken over by biological and neural robotic systems.

Since the posthuman condition will be a serious situation, adequate measures are required to balance it out. What should be interesting to those that aren't happy with current developments concerning the growth of AI in society, are the suggestions to ways in which the effects of such systems can be reduced or absconded. It may seem an impossible thing to do, if solutions are sought inside the world of current technological advancement. That is not the place where effective counter measures should be looked for. It was already hinted at long ago by the relativity bloke who said: 'We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.' That is what the champions of AI want you to do, because they know you will not find solutions there.

The development of AI is protected

So where to look for what then? I would suggest to go watch the movie 'Lucy' before continuing to read. In it the main character, played by Scarlett Johansson, is accidentally infused with a mind altering drug (CPH4) that allows to use a larger part of the human brain capacity. At some point she encounters a professor who admits that science has no idea what man is capable of after the level of being able to use 60% of our brain capacity has been reached. Bear in mind that efficiency increases exponentially. This most likely means that AI is unable to match human talents and creativity once human is able to make use of 100% of its brain capacity. I know it's just a movie, but because some can't imagine its script to contain true elements, it doesn't mean that it does not.

At present we are of course far removed from the 100% state. It therefore is a good thing to venture on the journey towards reaching that level, step by step - taking baby steps - while being aware that the exponential increase of awareness will propel human capacities past any other development in this universe after having reached a certain level. Without the necessity to use technical means that can only be acquired at huge cost and with strict credentials that no one outside certain circles has. The first problem with regard to our imposed restricted cerebral access, is the fact that we predominantly use one brain hemisphere, usually the left one. That means the level of use can be 50% at max, which is a level never reached since there are more impediments that prevent us from reaching that level.

So the first thing to do is make it possible to use the capacity of the other brain hemisphere (the right hemisphere) as well. It is called syncing of the brain hemispheres. It is simple to do, but effective, which suffices for the first step to be taken in the journey towards using a higher percentage of our brain capacity. Other steps will be posted in future blog entries.



Hasta luego online virtual folks.

Human art vs AI art

Below you see an image that I airbrushed (the analog type with a compressor, an airbrush gun and real paint) during a fair in Utrecht, The Netherlands, demonstrating for the Revel company that sold airbrushes and paints. It was sprayed on a T-shirt with a Vega 1000 airbrush and Illu-Color paint in the early 90's of the previous century. Years later I found a photo of it that I digitally reworked in Affinity Photo. When conducting demonstrations for Revel I almost exclusively airbrushed portraits of Native American chiefs, because apart from their facial traits that struck me, the stories of their lives intrigued me. I could place the images in a context and in doing so make my perceptions more profound.

Comanche chief Quanah Parker - freehand airbrush on T-shirt
years later digitally reworked in Affinity Photo

Already in those days I wasn't interested in shallow people and things. This got worse over the years, haha! Fluffy stuff just isn't my thing. It bores me senseless and I can not find it within myself to attribute any interest to it. Quanah Parker was an intriguing person. His mom, Cynthia Ann Parker was captured by the Comanche, she married a chief and gave birth to Quanah, which means 'fragrant'. Later she was recaptured by her Caucasian family, but tried to escape several times to rejoin the Comanche. She never succeeded in doing that and never saw her son again. Quanah meanwhile had become a legendary warrior chief who never lost a battle to the colonial British army. At one point though he realized that continue to fight would decimate his people after which he voluntarily surrendered.

In the western colonial society Quanah became a successful business man and politician. He had bought himself a big mansion, but always preferred to sleep in the garden at night. To me that meant that his intelligence and wisdom included aspects that were entirely alien to that of the western world to which he had adapted to a certain level. Quanah clearly had retained fragments of the perception and awareness of the environment in which he was raised and in which he had lived an intense life, characterized by engaging in battles of life and death with mortal enemies. The fact that he later concluded that it was to the benefit of his people to stop fighting, reflects the power of his mind, his empathetic character traits and ability to accurately estimate future events.

All the things above, went through my mind when creating the portrait of this legendary man. My portrait was some sort of a visual tribute to him that perhaps in a modest way re-created the awareness of his existence. I was unable to think of an other reason why I did this, realizing that to most people airbrushing his portrait meant nothing at all. But that is what happens all the time in life in this dimension; what interests one person, others are totally oblivious to. Which brings me to the fact that I often see art on the Internet that I find intriguing that is completely ignored by the art world. It causes me to wonder what criteria are used to determine what is good art and what art is not even worth giving any sort of attention. I am not talking about the financial value of artworks, although that often indicates how people in the art world think.

Besides art created by human artists, since recently art created by AI (artificial intelligence systems) has gained ground in the perception of the general public. Of course 'influencers' play a role in the acceptance of AI-art. People and organizations that have moved themselves into a position of authority, to a great extent decide what to look at and what to buy. The 'artwork' below was created by AI and promoted by Christie's auction house. I suspect that creating markets is part of the consideration that Christie's may have had to feature this art, but saying such a thing is of course 'not done', it isn't a politically correct thing to do, because well... Christie's knows what art is and the rest of the world is simply expected to follow their lead without questioning their expertise.

'AI-art' - portrait of the fictional person Edward de Belamy

The above is a portrait of a fictional person that the AI-system named Edward de Belamy. Although it seems a bit strange to hide almost half of Edward's virtual face behind the frame, it sold for $432,500.00 ( . . . ) nevertheless. I don't know about you, but to me it feels like besides the 'art' an entirely new context - portrait art of fictional people made by AI-systems - was created. It probably was estimated to be a category into which a certain future number of artworks would become eligible to be sold, while inventing such a category was probably aimed at turning it in to an accepted development has the potential to open up markets that did not exist before. Art buyers and collectors love to be trend-setters, so this was quite a smart move by Christie's marketeers. This of course is all pure speculation on my part, but don't be surprised if my suspicions will turn into reality soon. Oh, and should you become interested in the artist's 'art work', its name rolls off the tongue quite easily:

Remember that name and start clearing the walls in your residence to make space for art work that is created by AI-systems. You may also want to check the depth of your pockets, because this new type of art certainly does not come for free. I am not sure how they will go about the certificate of authenticity, but they will probably figure out a way how to go about that.




Hasta luego online virtual folks.

AI - Ascendancy Impending

There is something very dark looming over the future of all organic life on this planet - look up the meaning of the word Ascendancy, assuming you already aware of the meaning of impending. It is an evil power that swings a scythe above our heads, closer to our skulls with each sweep. Most believe the fallacious bunk that 'experts' blurt about the threat, while the rest is scorned for being tin hat conspiracy nuts. I never liked experts because the opposite of their claims always comes true. I could just use them to figure out the opposite, but they are so damn arrogant in spite of their extreme ignorance that they take the piss out of me. Usually they say: 'Nothing to see here folks, move along.'  without having a bloody clue whatsoever about what they're drummed up to inform (mislead) the general public about. Conspiracy nutters are annoying because they're often correct, but present the message in such an incredibly hyped up way so that no one ever believes them. The problem is that there are too many bonkers people in this dimension and too few that are able to see past the smoke screens and scheming.

But for the plonkers that swing the scythe the horde of mental knuckle draggers is quite useful. It allows them to do whatever the f..k they want, because the ones that are on to them are few and will be shut up by their fellow victims with a negative IQ. Intervention is rarely necessary. So what imperils life? What has so much power that it can decimate it within a brief period of time? What has become so unbeatable that it can afford to be out in the open, right under people's noses, while there hardly seems to be anyone that finds its position of power worrisome?

What started not too long ago as automation and soon after morphed into information technology and then into robot technology, while leaping to an unprecedented elevated level after AI was integrated will by 2030 have taken over 800 million jobs currently performed by humans. That is close to 40% of all jobs that exist. And probably these are conservative estimates. And I am not even talking about transhumanism, because that is far beyond the perception of most people. What is missing in their awareness is that they do not see certain developments in the context in which they evolve. Nothing takes place as an isolated incident or accident, however unrelated it may seem to be to events that take place in the same period of time.

This is the result of intentional compartmentalization that has become common in all sorts of social and commercial circumstances. It is why 'experts' or people that specialize in certain matters almost always fail to see related matters as a result of which their perspective often goes awry. It is the same reason why tin foil hatters misinterpret things, even though the experts base their claims on evidence and conspiracy theorists on suspicion. But years after the fact it often appears that there is very little difference between the two. So what happened was that the media labeled things differently, which they will always deny in retrospect.

Am I saying here that the media shape reality? No, I am saying that they forge the perception of reality. And that the willingness of the people to accept such deceptive conduct is called political correctness. This allows things that will have a huge impact on society to evolve almost unnoticed. Because besides misinforming citizens, the media are very good at omitting information. All this serves to distract from what is really going on. What is currently going on is for example that China has developed AI-systems that are so powerful that 1.3 billion people can be monitored around the clock, because there is so much information about them contained in the AI-system, that only very little is beyond the system's capacity to predict what people are going to do or how they will react to events.

This systems capacity to predict is vastly more accurate than what the average person can do, simply because they have far less information at their disposal. And predictability equals controllability. That is the whole idea of it all. Control. Having control, staying in control. But this doesn't go for creativity, I hear some people protest. The very fact that they are making this particular claim, is proof that they are not capable of realistic thought; that they underestimate AI power and overestimate their own, not even knowing that they are being conditioned, mind controlled, severely limited by imposed compartmentalized thinking and socially coerced to respond in a politically correct way to almost anything, which prevents independent and critical thinking.

The myriad of cameras all over the world that record almost every step anyone takes, the countless databases in which information on every person is stored, the live monitoring of each person's financial situation, the tracking of all mobile devices, AI-driven facial recognition and fingerprint control and many more monitoring systems, give AI-systems the possibility to control every person in their system passively (it sees what you do, where you do it and when you do it) and actively (it coerces what you do - for instance if it blocks your bank account, you can't buy anything, can't pay your rent etc.). AI was invented to be in control and therefore hates creativity that has the potential to escape from its control.

Of course AI-systems will be able to stun people if they can predict what people will see as the result of a creative impulse. (Still primitive) AI systems can already now create 'art' that most people are unable to distinguish from the work of a human artist. No one will be exempt from the dominance of AI. There is no way to escape the rule of AI. Or is that what the media want you to believe? Perhaps more on this subject in future blog entries. Stay tuned.

Affinity Designer - a better way to draw realistic vector portraits

One of the biggest challenges for artists that work with vector drawing programs, is to create realistic portraits. Usually they look like the image below, containing hard edges that artists try to disguise by placing a number of layers on top of each other with slightly different colours or with very contrasting colours to suggest that it is artsy art (which I think is horrible). In spite of these tricks the portraits remain hideous, although certain software producers have tried to promote this flawed type of 'art' to the standard of vector portrait drawing, so that it could continue to sell its software that actually is not capable of drawing proper realistic portraits.

Compilation of ugly vector portraits with hard edges

At some point the vendors of vector drawing programs began offering mesh-fill tools that basically transform clusters of pixels into blended areas of vector shapes. Using the mesh-fill tool is tedious and an extremely time consuming business, while making adjustments or corrections afterwards is a hugely laborious undertaking. On the CorelDRAW and Illustrator forums I have seen artists say that they work for months on end or even half a year on a vector portrait. This can of course be done if you have nothing else to do with your life, but if you do, I suggest you have a go at drawing portraits with Affinity Designer.

My first vector portrait created in Affinity Designer
Update sequence

For decades I've worked with Illustrator professionally, with CorelDRAW privately and with Inkscape occasionally, so I have good knowledge of those programs. But apart from struggling with the tiresome mesh-fill misery I never quite liked creating realistic vector portraits in any of those programs. Somewhere around 2016, if I recall correctly, I accidentally bumped into Affinity Designer and not long after I figured out that drawing realistic vector portraits in this program could be done a lot quicker with far less clicks (and less headache). I estimate creating a realistic vector portrait in Affinity Designer can be done in one third of the time that is necessary in the competition's software.

My third vector portrait created in Affinity Designer
Update sequence

The tools used in Affinity Designer that make drawing realistic vector portraits possible are:

• Gaussian blurring
• Gradient colouring
• Gradient transparency application
• Clipping blurred shapes and strokes inside other (often blurred) shapes
• Custom made vector texture brushes (often Gaussian blurred and applied with 3D fx) to create pores / skin and hair textures

The subtleties of the female form created in vectors in Affinity Designer
Update sequence

That sounds like a lot of different techniques, but believe me, it is much faster than meticulously toiling with the mesh-fill tool. Not just the initial drawing, but also making adjustments or correction afterwards. A much needed effect in portrait drawing, is creating colour gradients that run in more than one direction. In Designer just duplicate shapes, change the direction of the gradient and cut off the parts of the shapes that aren't needed or make them disappear with the gradient transparency tool or by clipping. The Gaussian blur tool allows to create blurry edges and in doing so avoids drawing unwanted hard edges that other programs have difficulty to prevent from showing.

Crystal Reed vector portrait created in Affinity Designer
Update sequence

I might make a video tutorial on how to create a realistic vector portrait in the future, but at this point my webcam broke down and I have to familiarize myself with a video editor first. Meanwhile check out my portfolio blog in which I placed the stages of development of the vector portraits placed above and others. Move away from drawing ugly vector portrait drawing software and move towards Affinity Designer that currently (look at the date at the top of this article) offers a 50% ( ! ! ! ) price reduction - NO monthly subscription penalties - and a 90 day trial period ( . . . ). While this special offer runs Affinity Designer costs less than a one time fee of 28 USD. For this kind of money you can't let this opportunity pass by unused. Unless you have no clue on what to waste your money of course.

Hasta luego online virtual folks.