December 20ths

 

12/20/1997

Interesting interview with Harvard intelligence researcher Howard Gardner. He says that it’s time that prevents us from being adept at many things. If we had forever, then we could develop these areas.... 

[12/20/2024: AI will provide a “virtual immortality” (VI). Machine learning is essentially “fixing mistakes”.] This “VI” can also be seen as an extension of imagination, where machines are “imagining” and we will have essentially taken the magic and mystery out of it.]

[12/20/2025: “But once we realize that people have very different kinds of minds, different kinds of strengths—some people are good in thinking spatially, some in thinking language, others are very logical, other people need to be hands-on and explore actively and try things out—then education, which treats everybody the same way, is actually the most unfair education.” [This is very true–especially to people who are musically inclined. If they haven’t discovered language abilities, they are probably latent, and vice versa. One skill or talent usually logically leads to other ones, although it can be tenuous–like deciding to go into the legal profession because you like to write. Talents in the real world have to do with shifting contexts and situations, which higher education is useless for. Personally, I do believe in being an autodidact and using linear structured learning when needed. The paradigm shift with AI will create new skills and talents, but your core proclivities will always be steering your life. For me it is combinatorial methods involving building blocks or “seeds” and then working within those constraints. People should be able to create their own higher learning and continuing education. But without some college people tend to draft back towards an intellectual latency. This may be because the educational system didn’t spark them in any way. I was lucky that it did.]

“Discuss innate talents versus higher education”   

On loud bands: A good film always fills the need for good cultural experiences, and you don’t come home a little more deaf and reeking of cigs.            

[12/20/2024: It’s true–once you’re around 30 you start dropping out of pop culture and into more sophisticated interests. For me it was film–I typically saw films twice a week at theaters. It was more enjoyable than going to clubs. It might be what led me more into writing film/ambient music].         

12/20/2010   

Article on salon.com: “How America will collapse (by 2025)”. Judging by the rancor in Washington I could see how we could make this prediction.

[12/20/2025: A jeremiad that was mostly wrong. It said nothing about the potential for the rise of authoritarianism in the US--even though Gore Vidal had published the “We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US.” article in October 2009. What I think it did get right is “Future historians are likely to identify the Bush administration’s rash invasion of Iraq in that year as the start of America’s downfall.” The thinking was that if the US was already “in the neighborhood” in Afghanistan they should get rid of Saddam once and for all. What is truly poetic is that we have a dictator in the US in 2025]. 

"Discuss how the foreign policy of the Bush administration put American democracy at risk" 

"Discuss how the foreign policy of the Obama administration put American democracy at risk"  

"Discuss how the foreign policy of the Trump administration put American democracy at risk"   

"Compare and contrast the foreign policies of the Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump and Biden administrations and how they have resulted in the decline of American democracy as compared to the 1950s." 

12/20/2012

The eve of the end of the world by the Mayan calendar. It is a reminder that singular events...

[And now for something completely different--Andy Warhol...]

12/20/2019

Warhol show at Art Institute. It’s interesting to watch the crowds react. You can tell the people that perhaps it is their first time seeing Warhols on a wall. I’m always amazed at the work ethic and the sheer size of some of the pieces. Loved seeing Tunafish Disaster live—all of the silks in fact.

It just feels right to take photos of TVs showing Warhol videos because it’s a new technology (my camera) capturing what Warhol was using as new technology. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/20/2023

A new Dynaxiom that came to me on a walk the other day is, “If you’re going to make art, it might as well be arty”. I dictated it into an email and was transcribed it as “BRD” instead of “be arty”. This gave me the idea of making some text art that would just be the letters BRD. 

12/20/2024 

Interesting: If you start with a couplet for a song lyric will the song be about that? No. It’s just you being clever or cunning. 

[12/20/2025: Writing lyrics is an "association game" for me where an errant idea or wordplay gets associated with other things--sometimes randomly--and it becomes another entity in itself. Visual art is like that as well. It's only in retrospect that we can analyze it for possible meanings, If we sit down to write a song about ____ it might ultimately be about something completely different,]

"Discuss ways to use randomness in creativity" 

The internet killed our “book” brain. Eventually something will kill our “internet” brain. We won’t be “looking” at anything, or will be in goggles and glasses with voice commands. At first it will seem odd with people walking down the street dictating messages and talking to no one, but will become the norm: “New Paragraph”, “New Line”...”

[12/20/2025: It’s probably always been the case that technology has changed our brains. Yesterday I was perusing a book about microcontent published in 2011. That was 15 years ago. Those born in 2011 are already teenagers. It’s best if we adapt. I think I still have a “book brain” but I find with AI I can zero in on the parts that I think are relevant for me rather than linearly reading cover-to-cover, and LLMs are useful. What is bad however is the vertical scrolling which is in conflict with our ancient wiring for the horizontal].

12/20/2025

Tuba Christmas. Missed check-in again. Sells out within 15 minutes, so had to watch a cheesy video in adjacent ballroom (at least I got a pic of a chandelier).  Still love its Portsmouth Sinfonia charm. 350 tubas this year, including one pocket (piccolo) tuba. I love the "puffy" sound. Was inspired to do a Curio on it (No. 55). 

*** 

At State and Madison there was a dead kiosk and it made these interesting reflection artifacts.