notes on central role 

-on orienting networks of trade

We figure the priorities, national and global.

At large scale, towards 

- the enduring ability of Earth to be the only home we have ever known

- the unifying vision of humanity to advance into Space

- the advancement of well-being and progress of human beings

- towards the dream of non-conflict or peace

1.

Art in Originality.  

Each small act of creation is seeming and without cause but draws from the depths and draws from without to be restrained within the natural limits of the medium, canvas, and computer.

 -

-

- 

 -

  -

-

creative art and arts in general   

and generation of technology

The motivation of the creative act originates in originality intrinsic to individuality, premising on independence and freedom, touched by sensibility and rationality, it motivates the inspiration of art to create works of beauty and sense, for cognition and contemplation.  

The dynamicism and fast shifting landscapes of activities in various spheres are at times destabilizing even when their sources are external to domains of an individual or a group of individuals; art offers the moments in between for gathering and togetherness: therein lies the reason for the creative act and the presence of art.

The generation of techniques and technologies for utility is upon cycles of creative development involving one or more individuals, oftentimes involving more than one group of individuals.  The creative activity results in the production of items provisory for activities by other individuals; sometimes such activities are explicitly creative, while other times they are utilized for the fulfillment of work or leisure.  

Where the creative force resides and is active, and where the numbers remain strong, the projection that a community and its works remain confident and committed to works driven from the creative act.  

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-

-

2.

The representational potential intrinsic to each demographic and community and the extraordinary depth and breadth of values belonging a people define the orientational roles each locale could take, culminating in representation and position at world trade and financial centers distributed across the world.

3.  

While transactions in actions and things are made towards equivalency in trade for both quantifiable and qualifiable return for all parties, modes of trade and its actualization towards mutual advancement are not exclusive to financial currency.  Consequently, the withholding and retention of reserves for original advancement to continue and persist for either party of a trade returns self-sustenance so to eventually re-finance further efforts.  

That the status of a positive, zero, or negative value or a numerical value for a reserve cannot qualify 

at concurrence in trade how the denomination would tend towards having centralized or distributed attributes implies that qualitative accounting remains essential to the conduct of trade at any level.

With monetary currency tending towards being a currency of distributed nature, with centralization quoted within geopolitical boundaries, and with a long heritage as foundation, its viability is retained despite being without the capacity to guarantee equivalency in trade nor is it with a sophisticated level of augmentative powers for advancement within a world in balance.

For the case or scenario where destabilization recurs, conversion to earlier forms of currency at a determinable rate remains possible while future forms of currency may arise to become enhanced.

The consequence to that the foundation of trade does not lie in monetary currency is that money is not necessary to trade.

External nodes to which relations are enacted and retained from trade and financing are in balance with nodes internal to the boundaries of a geopolitical zone: strengthening or expansion of reserves internal to the zone is based upon  how trading and financing upon currency beside monetary currency.

The role of financing and microfinancing concerns the worth and value of an investment.  In cases where the address of the investment is outside the normal and known domains of the investor, the investment is made as best as per the interests demonstrated or indicated previously, and also it is made as a proposition in inquiry where the outcome is at best projected even if it will likely consist of a multitude of outcomes.

4.

From consideration for there being the continuing precedence of beginning with a delimited initial sphere of advancement, where there is a view to the differences distinguishing other spheres, the networks could then be extended at the appropriate opportunity when the original objectives and their advancement have become reliable and viable at a state of sophistication.

5. 

The endorsement and continuation of memory to account the past actions of significance and support present and future push to advance and maintain.

Revise to return to original meaning:

The representational potential intrinsic to each demographic and community and the extraordinary depth and breadth of values belonging a people define the orientational roles each locale could take, culminating in representation and position at world trade and financial centers distributed across the world.

While transactions in actions and things are made towards equivalency in trade for both quantifiable and qualifiable return for all parties, nevertheless, modes of trade and their actuality in mutual advancement are not exclusive to financial currency.

Consideration of continuing precedence of delimiting the initial sphere of advancement.  To expand its network (with a view to differences in other spheres) when its own objectives and their advancement become reliable in a state of sophistication.

The endorsement and continuation of memory to account the past actions of significance and support present and future push to advance and maintain.

----

The representational potential intrinsic to each demographic and community and the extraordinary depth and breadth of values belonging a people define the orientational roles each locale could take, culminating in representation and position at world trade and financial centers distributed across the world.

The 

orientation roles 

for each locale 

 

to 

reach 

representation

that culminate in 

occupancy at 

bases for the orientational roles to reach representation for 

world trade and financial centers distributed across the world.

The representational potential intrinsic to each demographic and community and the extraordinary depth and breadth of values belonging a people define the orientational roles each locale could take, culminating in occupancy, representation, and position at one or more world trade and financial centers distributed across the world.

 

----

While transactions in actions and things are made towards equivalency in trade in both quantifiable and qualifiable return for all parties, nevertheless, modes of trade and their actuality are not exclusive to financial currency.

-That modes of trade and mutual advancement are not exclusive to what could be acted upon by financial currency has for its consequence any set of transactions may not grant equivalent or symmetrical returns for parties involved: )

-The obstacles towards equivalency in trade being in context of the evaluation of value which is relative to qualitative  developmental stages of societies as well as their capacities to maintain their histories and yet be advancing towards ideals agreed upon for the new world, the modes of trade and mutual advancement may not be exclusive to established financial currency.)

XThat the modes of trade and mutual advancement are not exclusive to financial currency and transaction.

While transactions in actions and things are made towards equivalency in trade for both quantifiable and qualifiable return for all parties, modes of trade and their actuality in mutual advancement are not exclusive to financial currency.

 ti esti and why: to finance...

-consequence to non-monetary foundation of trade is that             

-implication of non-necessity for monetary foundation of trade 

While transactions in actions and things are made towards equivalency in trade for both quantifiable and qualifiable return for all parties, modes of trade and its actualization towards mutual advancement are not exclusive to financial currency.  Consequently, the withholding and retention of reserves for original advancement to continue and persist for either party of a trade returns self-sustenance so to eventually re-finance further efforts.  

That the status of a positive, zero, or negative value or a numerical value for a reserve cannot qualify 

at concurrence in trade how the denomination would tend towards having centralized or distributed attributes implies that qualitative accounting remains essential to the conduct of trade at any level.

With monetary currency tending towards being a currency of distributed nature, with centralization quoted within geopolitical boundaries, and with a long heritage as foundation, its viability is retained despite being without the capacity to guarantee equivalency in trade nor is it with a sophisticated level of augmentative powers for advancement within a world in balance.

For the case or scenario where destabilization recurs, conversion to earlier forms of currency at a determinable rate remains possible while future forms of currency may arise to become enhanced.

accounting

--

The endorsement and continuation of memory to account the past actions of significance and support present and future push to advance and maintain.

appropriate opportunity to extend what network where there is a view to distinctions of other spheres when 

objectives and their advancement have become reliable and viable at a state of sophistication.

the network could be extendeded where there is a view to what differences distinguish other spheres 

when its own objectives and their advancement have become reliable in comparable states of sophistication.

expand its network

with a view to the differences

other spheres

when

become reliable 

in a state of sophistication

Consideration of continuing precedence of delimiting the initial sphere of advancement.  To expand its network (with a view to differences in other spheres) only when its own objectives and their advancement become reliable in a state of sophistication.

----

XThe orientational roles of world trade and financial centers distributed across the world to reach representation.

XThat the modes of trade and mutual advancement are not exclusive to financial currency.

XConsideration of continuing precedence of delimiting the initial sphere of advancement.  To expand its network (with a view to differences in other spheres) when its own objectives and their advancement become reliable in a state of sophistication.

The endorsement and continuation of memory to account the past actions of significance and support present and future push to advance and maintain.

-> to those who wrote over my personal note in the post here before: This consists of my recollections of memories from how a particular city was built from an original vision by a predecessor from a long time ago which was shared. I'm an architect as my predecessor was an architect.  Should you feel differently, please post elsewhere and email me a link or otherwise publicize your information.

  Honestly, should that happen to me and seeing you already know who we are talking about, I think it’s the type that slash paintings in wars back in the day. If I have choice, I would go listen to lectures at Cambridge. You know my premise is peace. 

In case of any misunderstanding, I’m becoming a space architect already with work started and contacts. I don’t know about anything about Order of Canada. 

  

  Bought a new phone

Come back soon Mr A and Mr A

  Thanks for the messages regarding making in space, Mr A and Mr A. We’ll look into keeping safe zones, just as in all our heritage of being free societies since the 1800s, and continue to advocate for them. We’ll miss you in Canada!

  Onto Space. 

                                                                                                   "

"

  How do we add re-entry capabilities to newly launching satellites to prevent further accumulation of space junk?  

-is it a matter of a guidance system and boosters?

-is the problem that re-entry involves the unknown variable of whether the whole unit will burn up or if there would be debris?

 

“The new world opens”

“Let’s mark this moment. We have made it here. We will always make it.”

(cont.)

   

Circumstances differ elsewhere for the development of infrastructure, whether planned decades in advance or determined by external parties

Bureaus always began as grassroot efforts as in bottom up.  Individual projects, of great interest and relevance coupled with the right personnel or “agents”, are how they began  could it be a few pilot projects?

...so called “emergent offices”.  Governmental or commercial?

Coordinating nexii formerly known as the square bureau: "A.Desk"

- casting of funding for private R&D

- record office

- patent office 2.0 =  ________________

Public services - the human and technological services that uphold our common way of life here.  At scale then becomes infrastructural services, as is the case of the digital networking services.  Despite being held in many parts by private interests with some parts held by establishments, that the network structure is a foundation to how we conduct our day to day life and work is [...]

A.desk

- idea points for review selection and implementation

- return A way for adapted local or regional bulletin boards, privately connected for the purpose of _______ ; how secure (?) who admins (?)

- connect to managed publicity and public/crowd-funding (??)

   the goal to recognize and support and eventually fund creative analysies and creations and inventions from the onset of inspiration.

- 

. references:

Interstate Commerce Act 1987.  link. link. 

Patent Act of 1790  link

 

A diagram showing transmission of information from an equatorial location on the moon to a satellite with the sun in the background

HALO link  gateway

Artemis NASA lunar exploration program overview link

at scale - "Planning" in real time

  (the capital could stand in reserve as held by the federal government)

in the case of a dynamic and organized effort at scale

for infrastructure upgrades 

in America

it's apparent that digital systems and administrative personnel could augment existing levels of government

-to collect proposals for consideration ie. where seed monies are to be placed... where federal funds are warranted

-for community dialog towards decisions - ie. municipal, city, state, regional 

-to support organization of fund raising where federal funds are not warranted

-mediation where appropriate to businesses providing services

also, for the imagination of how infrastructure may be upgraded in a future looking orientation:

-fundamentals on what comprises infrastructure

-outline of expectations in what qualify for federal funding and what needs to be arranged for locally

-expanse of timetable to reach ultimate goal of upgrade at scale

>>>catalog of novel and or recommended infrastructure components

-identification of localities experiencing highest demand

> towards prototypal programs

consideration should be further given to things that support not only economies and life quality but also the environment 

  Could elevate about sf and nyc to start

Where water is expected to intrude due to expanse of coast (south), deep channels may be dug to assimilate water, with sub-channels to divert water into main channels. Dirt may be moved to elevate land at strategic locations

[removed without permission]

  Major farms located in Midwest

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

  

*note the elevation legend on the left of the first image. 

Water levels are not expected to be that far above sea level.

Canadian Oxford World Atlas 6th Edition, Quentin H. Stanford General Editor P70-71

  terraform

 

 Just saw a dove

*and another a few weeks later

  This is bothering me. People don't seem to be aware of ocean levels rising. A $2.1 trillion infrastructure plan that doesn't include raising sea walls or infrastructure that can absorb or redirect water. It would be nothing within a budget of that scale.

What does it take to reinforce a wall? Is concrete the strongest material we have in building? What form should reinforcement take?

-impermeability and Strength: structure with many layers of reinforcement

-of course, it is the ground behind the immediate barrier that needs to hold

Need better predictions about the volume of water

-will ice in deeper portions of the ocean melt?

(-the obvious still needed: what is the volume of ice quite certain to melt Intuition: an educated guess is better than nothing)

-rate of water level rising

-given that we are concerned with only the surface layer of the ocean, possibly the pressure would be less than what initially appears

Complex problems usually require complex solutions  

-was the land elevation survey done: then, prioritization and traffic planning

(-water, food, shelter, communication, transportation)

  Buildings, especially aging buildings, do have to be maintained. When necessary and appropriate, a restorer could be invited to conduct an evaluation for reference.

  Green infrastructure is about infrstructure that loves and cares for the planet.  

Carl Sagan: "Cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known"

Green infrastructure is the priority for innovations in infrastructure.

-don't forget the ones already pioneered, waiting for the patent process

Related, there is also Hyper-natural by Blaine Brownell and Marc Swackhamer from Architecture Briefs The foundations of Architecture, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

  regarding thinking in other modes of thought

Something I have dealt with before

It is possible, of course, to apply a specific mode of thought to all areas of life and see the wilderness for your self through the prism of that mode of thought.

It is not, however, practical, to travel this way if it transports you to places you did not intend to go. We should guess first where we are going and what it is like and if we want to go there before we actually go there.

"When you think, you travel."

It is probably better to survey what the sights are that you are intending to see first, before you arrive.

It is also better to imagine a few thoughts and ideas, even hypotheses, about what you expect to encounter and discover: this is a way to maintain the intended domain for the possibilities at disclosure.

  could sprawling be a problem that could be partially or initially addressed with the placement of meta elements and increasing the intricacy and extent of infrastructure such as paths and parks?

  In retrospect, I think part of the difficulty of the dilemma was the deep wish to believe that histories and their associated things that enable memory should be due each place and people.

"[a] new world opens."  (what was said there before)

- the premise

 

- architecture emerges from cultural movements, the sum of human activities

- historically, architecture comes last in a movement, but times have changed

- that architecture designed from the future rather than in synchrony with social movement is effective has not been proven

- for example, elsewhere they are known to be 20 years ahead of the present, but there has already been large scale failures: not feasible here

- even if we move away from designing architecture last, there should be synchrony between architecture and societal movements

- there is little credit and reference in architecture to trace back each instance of origin, and thus little lasting accountability

- to be able to track historical development is a capacity existing elsewhere, as in citation system of academic papers and semantic web

- seems to exist in architecture as well, through knowledge becoming in the community's consciousness

- to build infrastructure at scale it must be in a coordinated fashion

- masterplan lies in the aesthetics of function and beauty: the network

- first, (re)building core elements and relatedly secondary elements

- meta elements could be built before, simultaneously, or later

(-architecture has different functions)

It has been said that architecture had always arrived last on the scene, being part of a movement. It is the natural order of things. The elements of social construct are generated one by one, with intent and care, over some period of time.  Over time culture itself is cultivated. Today, it may be called a happening or an event.  Although the new arrives in each present moment or further, epoch, whether brand new or momentously, it is not aligned with the historical records for architecture to be the first on the scene.  Perhaps in the case of the ancient cave dwellers, the situation of effective architecture for dwelling and painting was the reverse because the accommodations were simply given.  However, as they came to an understanding of the dwelling as shared space which could be created on demand with the then developed skills, in fact, these dwellers discovered they could create art first.  They painted the cave walls with depictions of their environment, the world they negotiated, in such sophistication that even Picasso exclaimed that already all was known, that discoveries apparently only made in modernism were practiced from the beginning of history.  

But to return to architecture - from whence does it originate?  Has something changed so that architecture could now no longer follow the natural order of events?  Again, where does the instance of architecture begin?  This is a question worthy of consideration, as in today's information society, many things that used to happen in linear sequence, now occur simultaneously or at least in some sort of hyperlinear order.  The practice of referencing and citing literature when ideas are used in one's propositions ought to provide some guidance for making sense of the nonlinear distribution of things and events.  It is a practice that is reliable, perhaps at first sight antiquated, but nevertheless embodied in the technologies which have emerged from the practice itself.  When did Memex emerge as an idea later discovered to be viable and became hypertext?  That was before the widespread development and adoption of hypertext, or course.  The methodologies of modern science were maturing and so also the systematization of referencing other literature became developed.  The scientific community discovered that a system of reference and citation allows accountability, credit, and accuracy and precision.  It allows new and old work to be able to be traced back to their original sources.  This can be a very revealing action, to know where something had come from and what later developments are.  Well, perhaps the second possibility is not yet real.

I propose that we venture forth by attempting the following.  We plan to put forward a series of elements, let's call these core elements.  We will not put them onto the land all at the same time nor even sequentially one following another.  We will locate one site for the first one first.  How the site will be determined should be by some form of consensus, not a literal vote, but by the genesis of conditions deemed appropriate for the situation of a core element.  How should such conditions find their appearance?  This is indeed the problem.  How many designers and architects and artists and writers and everybody could contribute to identifying the local or regional problems where the land is more sparse, which require solutions?  If we were to follow the established order for the emergence of architecture as posterior, then where first problems can be identified and agreed upon, then a concerted effort to resolve them with new or adapted designs would become possible.

Has cultural amnesia erased our memories of how roads and bridges are built in synchrony with the growth of a society?  We can willfully move our communities to propose and resolve problems that had arisen due to distending.  If core elements are subject to review in context of an emergent masterplan that spans, say, a nation, secondary elements can then be built upon a view to the aesthetics of the network.  We can't allow our symptomatic tendencies towards sprawl and abandonment to lead to apathy towards the furnishing of our home and thereby and more importantly our sense of well being.  The problems of the world do not need to be before our own.  Perhaps they are not even presently relevant.  

This is where I propose we begin again.  I must emphasize the importance of some form of synchrony between putting forward infrastructure and the growth of localities.  In summary, the proposition of core and secondary elements; the invitation for identifications and proposals; the making of optimal conditions for local and regional growth; and synchronized erection of design solutions for the community and infrastructure supporting them.

A starter kit.

  The upgrade perk: you pay the same amount of money, but you get something better.

  “Start anywhere” - Bruce Mau

Where do you begin to (re)build all of it? And also, but where? In just one place?

Had not technology enabled something like this precisely?

“If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere”

(I’m not really sure)

Reputation as orientation: moral high ground

There is no war here. 

  “It’s about recognition.” - Buzz S.

If there were work or play that is important to do, does it matter if the public at large can recognize why it is so?

  Fortune has smiled upon me.

  in the virtually infinite universe is a conscious being that is me

these are the moments when i felt the most free

  on heartbreak

I am going to talk with a word I hope you'll forgive me using... I think when you reach out and love, your soul changes shape. If in the future, you couldn't be with them anymore, try as you may, your soul will never return to its previous shape. Because that person has become a small part of your soul. When a departure is not away from this world we know, you can take light in the fact that they are still somewhere in the world, living, prospering. They are not gone at all, merely somewhere else doing something else. You can imagine how they are doing, that they are building their life, somewhere in the world, becoming happy and growing, always growing. You could never know what could happen between you in the future - just be their friend. Let them know you are still here. This is not saying you couldn't move on. You too will do other things, be in other places.  Perhaps you'll forget much of it, you will forget too. But in time, the few memories you have retained you will hold onto as precious as anything.

""All love is great, love doesn't come in different sizes, whenever one is in love, they're in love with a unique person. Maybe every person is unique, maybe when one is in love they see a person as they really are, or how God sees them." -Borges in The Last Interview and Other Conversations (p169)

Most people would say love is a feeling, and I would agree. But I think love is also an action: it is in what you do for the beloved and how you reciprocate.  When I had loved, and perhaps still love, with my lover I felt at peace.  I felt happy and I felt like I am myself.  There was a likeness between him and I.  I wouldn't want to overstate what it was, so for an explanation, I think he and I were both young, filled with anticipation, excitement, and purpose toward the future.  We were in a beautiful place and we were beautiful people for each other.  (Maybe he was more beautiful than me, but there is no way to find out now.)  We were looking out together, holding hands and dreaming what the future could bring.  And this appears in retrospect as love.  Yet this explanation does not explain why, even now, after all these years, indeed a lifetime later, I still feel contentment and fulfillment when I ponder that he is somewhere in the world, doing what he does.  It makes me happy to think I am so lucky to have found someone like that, to have this experience which I had never imagined.  And surprised too, that nothing could take this away from me.  I am quite certain I have lived an experience I had never expected.  I wasn't looking for it, yet I found it, which makes me think I do not know so much, that there is so much more.  And what's more, the feeling that something greater than me was made for me.  Even now, when he is so far away, and perhaps many expressed attributes about either of us have changed that our old selves we could barely recognize as ourselves anymore, I still think it would be regrettable, though I wouldn't know it, if it had never happened at all.  I didn't know there could be so much meaning in knowing of another human being's mere existence.  Although these feelings have never left me after our paths diverged, I feel no urgency to summon him back into my life.  I am not sure if our circumstances today would allow us to be so close again.  How badly do I desire a simple friendship with him.  Is it even possible?  There is no opportunity to reciprocate and that is regrettable.  Perhaps I had given back to him what he had given me, at the time, at the time.  How do I reciprocate what has been given to me, to last forever this memory, his being there in the world?  It is true that in this life we cannot have everything we want - but how I look into the future, hoping against hope that one day our paths should cross again.

I think loving confers a greater benefit to the lover than the beloved. When you love, you feel elation and the future is full of possibilities.  It's as though the sun is suddenly shining in a bright blue sky, and all the colors of nature come to life.  There is so much good in the world.  And that no one can stop you from loving, while in being loved and needing to be loved we are constantly conscious that it could all end, if the lover changes his mind or goes off and love someone else instead.  There is nothing to lose in loving.  You choose to love, and that confirms your freedom, to live, to love.  I admire those who say "Spread the love" - I think they love and are in love and see love everywhere in everything.  What an enviable position to be in.

  

Four or five new beginnings now, where I've left my entire life behind to start somewhere new, in my nearly 4 decades of life on this green Earth. I'm starting anew this time conscious as to how to begin.  I think it has to do with bringing forward my likes and inclinations, and doing away with the rest.  

I love traveling to new places and becoming a local.  I discovered that I have retained a little of each place I've lived. This doesn't make me a complex person; I'm still a simple person with simple thoughts. 

restoring the original splendor

an unusual incident

 I relayed to Dave last week this incident. Let me summarize it as follows: I got off work on a normal night and proceeded to the train platform. As it had snowed lightly, I did not sit down on the bench. After a minute or two, I saw a person coming down the tracks, that is, in the rail tracks and not on the platform. I first thought he was drunk or high, and or making his way to the exit at the end of the platform. But instead of going to the exit, he stopped about 15 feet away from me and lied down on the tracks. After a few moments of hesitation, I walked towards him, not knowing if I should call for help (he was right in front of the help line) or if I should talk with him. Thinking that the train was still a good five minutes away, I thought I would try to talk with him first. I asked him, "hey man, are you ok?" He started to tell me that he missed his brother, and also his girlfriend. A few more words were exchanged before he got to his feet and told me he is not "that guy." He tried to hop back onto the platform but couldn't. At this point, I could hear the bells for the train ringing. I reached down and offered him my hand, even though I was not sure if I was strong enough to pull him up.  We got him back onto the platform safely.  When he got back on his feet (as he was on the ground), I saw that the train has pulled into the station.

I am most baffled by a paradox. Had I known the train was going to come this quickly, I would have called for help. Ironically, this might have resulted in a delay that could have costed him his life. So not knowing led to what turned out to be the right action. My presumption has always been that knowledge leads to right action. Here, it is flipped. If I had known, I would have done the wrong thing. Not knowing the truth about the arrival time led me to talk with him first, to see if something could be done. This is truly completely baffling.

I suppose I like to think in a state of possibilities. But what possibility can imagine truly pales when the full force of reality hits.

      "according to our present conceptions the elementary particles of matter are also, in their essence, nothing else than condensations of the electromagnctic field"

    

Where the ether is a sort of non-substance making up the dimension of space-time, in the dimension's curvature, energy is collected as for such as corresponding to increased density that eventuates into something like condensation.  In that, certain very minute forms have emerged to be elementary particles identifiable as the basis for matter: at this threshold energy which otherwise could propogate through the dimension has become as matter.  [The conversion between energy and matter]  The phenomenon of an attractive force appearing to come from the matter in fact found its source in the curvature.  The significance of the ether seems to be that certain finite unities or finite states, ie. matter or fields, are like particular properties arising from the ether's being the substantial definition of the dimension.

    "But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable inedia, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time."

     (...Matter could be thought of as an outcome resulting from the curvatures of space-time)

 Knowledge is like a lens with which to see the world. Learning new things create the reality one experiences. There is so much to marvel at, all the improbabilities that have and had to happen for subjective life to be possible. To behold, hold in the mind a full picture, rendering, with abundant details is a complete experience.

 

This image here is one I am wanting to translate into a painting. To be honest, the picture was a compromise coming upon viewing probably about 1000 images. I had wanted to render into oil a sense. Here is the poem that inspired this sense. 

The Snow Man

Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land 

Full of the same wind 

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow, 

And, nothing himself, beholds 

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

After looking through many images, this is the only one that I feel begins to encapsulate something of the poem.  I had an image in mind, but this I didn't find, so I settled for the last three lines.

"For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."

The painting is not meant to be interesting or dramatic in any way.  I didn't enjoy adorning it with so many gestures, which I believe leads to the failure of capturing a sense of quietude. What is it to look and be filled with the sense of nothing that comes in a moment of pondering. What am I to behold the inherent beauty coming with no sound nor any indication that there is anything there at all?  It is a muted sense of grandeur in a mundane moment made grand in the subjective self's sense of being small and being there upon being as included in part of a larger design. Are there gestures in paint that could bring a meditative moment to life? Or is it better unadorned with fancy tricks. Is it possible to paint a feeling?  This is the first time I disagree with the instructor, here the intent being to make it interesting. If the object is nothingness, what restraint must one exercise to capture something entirely elusive, yet perfectly depicted in words? Personally, the poem especially the last few lines confirm subjective experiences I have had in regards to looking outward into undefined distance, so close and so far. The moment, though technically uninteresting, holds a far greater gift. I think the sentiment of being nothing beholding nothing that is somehow still something, and it is something greater revealed only in a moment in reflection, this is well worth dedicating a painting to. I think grandeur can be contained in the minute. That's where the uninteresting photograph becomes an interesting subject.

I think I am not mistaken that in the photograph is the beginning of a reflection upon this. To try to adorn it with bold gestures or to embolden the visual with the introduction of particulars would take away from the original intent. In the past, I had not known what the end result ought to be and so go along with the expertise of the instructor. This time, somewhat different, I have the image in mind to be something in particular, and so set the reference frame to a moment of inspiration which I drew from the poem.

 The Idea is [...]

 Frontier is against the unknown. We are poised before something unknown. It is on the verge on changing from being an unknown to being new.

 The self is a temporary state of being.

 I have been thinking awhile now about Alberta. It is distinguished as an energy producer in Canada and across the world. Its status is well earned as a crown jewel for the oil and gas industry. I understand that hundreds of thousands of jobs, maybe more, drive this production forward. The industry is sophisticated and wide spread, many people, much more than the workers and executives, depend on this province for its product. Alberta holds an esteemed position as an energy producer. Here is a huge "but": if you look at progress in energy production globally, it is impossible to deny that there is motion in new forms of energy that is gaining momentum. Alberta is king (or queen) now, full of natural resources in fossil fuel to supply the country and other parts of the world with energy. I want to digress and talk about Blockbuster, the prevailing video rental, ie. media distribution, company in the late 1990's. At an opportune time, when it became possible to visualize the state of relevant technology and to envision new models of media distribution, Blockbuster turned down a startup company called Netflix to buy. Netflix now not only stream main stream consumer content by the Terabyte, but because Blockbuster rejected their offer, they have streamlined their process and have become a content production company. Blockbuster was a giant in the 1990's and their future to continue that way seemed guaranteed. Nobody significant at this company had stepped back and looked at the whole scope of things. There was denial that media distribution was going to change; it was a mistake in that they had thought their method and appeal, and thereby their status, was going to continue without end. Things changed regardless, and now they are bankrupt and no longer remains a player in the industry. Can we learn something from this example? Opportunities come as possibilities played out in a window of time. How would Alberta fare in the long run as an energy production and distribution enterprise? Is the world changing? It is common sense knowledge to the everyday man and woman that fossil fuels have become seen by progressive members (scientists, automaker, even grade school students) to be something that is increasingly backward.  Another point of digression here, what do we know about the roles fossil fuel play in the strata of earth? This digression could be a controversial thought, so let us put it aside for now. If Alberta wills to continue to be a shining example of energy production in a world that has started (slowly at first, but now gaining momentum) to move away from fossil fuels, then there must be a beginning in taking charge of the task at hand, energy production, and seeing that energy can be different from oil and gas. The window has opened; emissions and usage are coming under policies that suggest this change: yet, what alternatives is there? Certainly, there are alternatives, as we can see in the news and journals bright harbingers of new forms of energy being implemented in all sorts of places around the world. There may be many people invested in oil and gas, some with money, and others their livelihoods. These people have the means and passion and most importantly, skills and abilities to learn new ways.  Perhaps the saying that nothing can come overnight, ie. Rome is not built in one day, is central to what I am getting to here. Bruce Mau says, Begin anywhere. Start now, for tomorrow. I say all this in order to put forward an idea tentatively. I think we need to make a start. My proposal is something called (and this is a working title) New Energy Institute, to be built right here in Alberta. An organization such as this could secure funding, provides in-house research ("in-house" meaning not only research to be carried out in the organization, but also in the specific context of the province of Alberta), public education, champion those willing to tackle this opportunity, further network, and perhaps most importantly, lend credibility and even coordination for startups or bigger effort through having a respectful disinterested discernment on the basis of science and technology. Maybe even develop standards upon wide-survey reviews of efforts like these from around the world. I think an institute such as I have described could be associated with a university (as comparable organizations has been), a private effort (though this could be difficult to fund given that we don't know if and where the money would come from for what motives), or a government supported organizations. Personally, at this point, I am leaning towards affiliation with a university because as there exists strong tendencies towards rigorous production of facts at the more reputable university, but I don't yet know if this could be the path. I would have to further incubate this idea for a more specific set of specifications. I think New Energy Institute could do much in preparing Alberta for a bright future, in which accessible technologies could be applied to diversify interests in energy production for the foreseeable future. This is something that probably would have arrived later than desirable, much of inertia being the forementioned investment in oil and gas. Recently, the federal government has purchased a pipeline for nearly $5 billion dollars. Surely, there could be money set aside to dedicate to looking forward with a wider scope at what is possible for tomorrow.

      "according to our present conceptions the elementary particles of matter are also, in their essence, nothing else than condensations of the electromagnctic field"

    

Where the ether is a sort of non-substance making up the dimension of space-time, in the dimension's curvature, energy is collected as for such as corresponding to increased density that eventuates into something like condensation.  In that, certain very minute forms have emerged to be elementary particles identifiable as the basis for matter: at this threshold energy which otherwise could propogate through the dimension has become as matter.  [The conversion between energy and matter]  The phenomenon of an attractive force appearing to come from the matter in fact found its source in the curvature.  The significance of the ether seems to be that certain finite unities or finite states, ie. matter or fields, are like particular properties arising from the ether's being the substantial definition of the dimension.

    "But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable inedia, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time."

     (...Matter could be thought of as an outcome resulting from the curvatures of space-time)

 The universe is beautiful. Simply. Scientific accounts only enhance the beauty. From data to observation to hypothesis to tentative fact, in multiples, science brings to the intellect the realities to be beheld. The world is richer in the information and knowledge derived from the scientific process. Reality grew, in one perspective, from a finite world excluding Eden, to many universes and many more worlds. The moon shines light upon us on earth from the star, our sun, in the opposite direction. Perhaps there may be implications from such a simple fact, but behold, starlight is bright even when merely reflected, and is beautiful. Reality grew too, in another perspective, from creatures of God to myriad organisms, some many-celled, composed of information carrying DNA, nerve bundles, eyes, the senses, a brain? The implied (and actual) complexity of star stuff developing into life stuff is beautiful. There is beauty in mystery too. For all that we can be informed, the awareness grows of so much more that is unknown. This is true as a human being, even perhaps especially a specialist, looking at the horizon of what she knows, and as an enterprise, the human civilizations, pondering what is beyond the reach of our present state. If mystery cannot stimulate the aesthetic sense, then one sure is poorer for it. To behold the night sky, the unimaginable distances and unsurmountable time this vision was accrued upon, this is a particular way of imagining our being in the world beyond. Life itself, fleeting as it may be, is a tremendous miracle, perhaps lotteries being won over and over, during the far reaching eons, the improbable became actual.

 I was asked what I see when I look at people doing things, living their lifes, how things are for them. I think sometimes it's forgotten, or brushed aside as irrelevant or for later, the cosmic context in which we live. The simple miracle to be alive, against all possible odds (as physicists like to point out the specificity of conditions that make a universe and every cosmological bodies and their relations possible). And the improbability to be awake in each our own unique creaturely bodies and minds (and some say soul) is rarely discussed directly in theoretical discourse as to make each exposition meaningful. Scientists say life evolved from a single cell out of one bubble (and there were many) that happened to contain materials for DNA and with somehow also a semi-permeable membrane. It all started there. The improbability of a regular bubble attaining these forementioned characteristics - it is against astronomical odds. That biological life prospered into the extreme diversity of creatures is bewildering (which doesn't mean it is not true). The world we live in is, for lack of a better word, Eden itself.  It is paradise on earth - life's many forms have diversified and prospered - it happened here, on earth. Evolution, to nay sayers, seems too simple a mechanism; it is not a mechanism at all. It is a phenomenon of such miraculous outcome. And then there is the human being. Some think human beings are the steward of life, others think humans are meant to rule this world. Still others believe everything here is made with the express purpose to be manifold resources just so the human lives.  The human being indeed began simply, almost like animals, foraging and hunting other living organisms for sustenance ; but somewhere in time, began to differentiate itself from other life forms. The human being made ties with other human beings, for practical purposes and maybe not so practical purposes (when practice has to do with survival). Human beings made art, imprinting onto the world the impressions he or she had of that world. There is something to be said about this, but it may be a digression to the discussion at hand. When societies began to form, human relationships became more complex. The flourishing of social contexts happened and specialization occurred. When we look at our story from this cartoon perspective of what had to have transpired, in many places and many times, and look at ourselves and what we have here now, it becomes obvious that the specific beliefs, the specific activities, the specific outlook, the specific social network, they are in a state of being created and fostered. There is meaning everywhere, meaning fostered and nurtured and developed out of humankind's time on this rare oasis we call earth. The human being is continually open to meaning. Everything a human being does or involves himself or herself in are constructs in history.  What this meaning is in context of the great universe we now know we inhabit perhaps we do not know. (Though Carl Sagan's famous line regarding this question is "We are made of stardust. We are here so that the universe may know itself.")  I think when I look outside myself, I see difference, but this difference is not at the essence of what transpires. That we live in societies is no doubt absolutely true, but the involvement of each person in the multitude of things (now recognized as historical) is the testament of celebration. Perhaps I err earlier in saying the cosmic context is not beheld in regard; certainly, ethics and morality, methods of organization and dissent, theories regarding art and culture, all these and more implies the cosmic context. If this that works imply the cosmic and historical context, then, oh my, wonderment at the miraculous is everywhere. This life, or these lives, we are celebrating our improbable existence in the here and now, full of emotions and awe transformed to every interesting and mundane words said and action taken.

 I've been intrigued by the notion of tabula rasa. It seems to me that a blank slate is an essence to science. Bits of information comes to light from each person in the community from rigorous investigation.  At any time, old bits of information called knowledge could be turned away as false due to new discoveries; at the same time, other old bits that may have missed an audience could re-emerge and strike harmony with new bits to circulate and run wild amongst an audience that are receptive. That these events are commonplace and occur frequently in scientific research means that amongst continuous activities by many people, these activities that produce the bits of information, are always premised upon the open nature of inquiry. A sense of the blank slate does not dismiss what truth value may be discovered and attributed to a proposition; rather, but rather determine the potentiality of any bit produced and circulated in what is the process.toward truth. Effort is made in every case to draw upon what we have accepted as with truth value, ie. the collecting of precedents from everywhere. The nature of precedents being accepted as with truth value and support the current proposition involves gathering knowledge already established as such. Yet, there is a fluidity in the ground determined in each case of seeking a valid proposition, ie. what has been collected to be bases and premises, this ground which is comprised of many bits; and note, as before stated, one or some of such bits collected to support a proposition, they are not a priori of absolute validity.  In managing the support of the desired proposition, or hypothesis, when it comes to supporting the conjecture, there is dynamics in deeper review of the collected bits. Are they truthfully valid, as far as a scientist can know and be satisfied with the outcome.  Relevance is a way to determine whether bits could stand on its own and indeed even support whatever conjecture an scientist is poised to make.  But that negotiation upon bits whose evaluation cam be dynamic, meaning there are literally fields of data concerning each bit, where discordant info could be put aside but not set aside forever by one scientist, yet remains available for uptake by another, or possibly many others. In this sense of these bits, which are technically available to another scientist who will have to make a judgment for himself or herself as to what is the state of bit regarding truth value and relevance. No bit can die a sudden death, because it is not known whether the bit contains matters that could include a legitimate  insight or in some other ways containing points and observations that could be validated within a different context or from a different vantage point. Herein lies the tabula rasa. The blank state does not imply there is no object. Many elements are in play.  Quite to the contrary to the first glance, the blank state regards here a state of mind.whose contents are comprised of many dynamic bits which are of uncertain (or better yet, undetermined) truth value. In each case, knowledge is achieved by consensus over a dynamic but limited review of sources (all those summoned bits) and their harmony with what is generally known. There is subjectivity in the review process.  But what I want to shed light on is that the manner of which science progresses (toward many outcomes that wish to be established as knowledge - the processes and the elements in each case are requiring the sensibilities of a beginning mind.  Not allowing your preconceptions rule the lens through which you see, but always starting over by being without presumption of the truth value of anything. Perhaps this, what I have described her, is an ideal way that is not quite the case in practice. Certainly, the way that science is practiced there has to be some basis for assumption that something is true, for otherwise we could never start. But the potential this social and informationistic arrangement contain an ideal method.  Questioning every bit of information, some already established as knowledge, seems in practice to be very tedious; there needs always be some presupposed ground upon which to conjecture. But that in essence science in its perfect form carries the ideal of tabula rasa; it gives rise to a mode of working that could produce genuine meaning in an always open inquiry.

 But my new life. Where did it began? I remember a continuum in which was interspersed with momentary leaps into the questions. They are like, what am I. What is this world? I guess a moment of clarity during my time at Cornell was reading Heidegger's The The Age of the World Picture. It is a vast sweep by genius. That he wrote this is the age when the purpose is the set forth each own vision or idea or even what we would call today products or networks is amazing. To set forth as individuals can as individuals, or is it as individuals in a society? For me, the insight may sound obvious, but reading that to set forth one's own produced in me a revelatory moment. I wanted to dwell on this thought, which is amazing to me in every way.  After I had read and understood the article, something in me had changed. It's funny how genius can articulate into words thoughts that elude a constructed mind, wipes clean preconceived notions I didn't even know I had. For it is at once a very simple thing and a very complicated thing. Perhaps he had meant as societies become democratic, as capitalism becomes the ruling order of the day, as science reveals en mass minute bits of information that in some grew, while others become obsolete, that in all these conditions and more, the distinction of being an individual and being a member of a community is at once more distinctly drawn and at once becoming more fluid.  Perhaps all these things and even more than I could find in my mind right now. What got me was the simplicity of the structure of his postulation. Who is this individual? To what extent is included as the community? What preconceptions does this individudal have? In what context does the individual set forth? Am I an individual? I am exceedingly ignorant, and this I know, but what else, what other information have I been exposed to, that I never seriously considered and transformed into knowledge. Academic success is a simple thing, though it often becomes a marker of intelligence, of security, of ability, but there are so many way to cheat the system and appear all those things and in truth, I am master of none. It was a continuous information flow, which I absorbed on the short term and put back out as answers to questions on tests and essays to problems. Could I apprehend the meaning - have I allowed the meaning to change me, to transform what I see and understand? These questions then ballooning in my mind, surely, blew my mind, as I find no point of view to rest upon, there were no opportunities to dwell, to transform into meaning in my very own life. That semester I failed to supply a paper to a professor who had been supportive and generous in the years before - I knew, at first reluctantly and then later with conviction, I had nothing for a premise because, I later realized, I was not myself.

 I have left a past behind to start a new life. My new life starts with me. I am tired of starting from other people's expectations, making goals and even achieving them for the accolades and acceptance of those around me. I came to the least likely place to encounter friends and family. My psychological makeup is in such a way I had always presumed other people's responses and their expectations are more valid than mine. I had gone a way along this way, sidelining the things I feel are important to bring to fruits results that neither please me nor displease me, even though I am perfectly guilty to yearn for people's responses. How their opinions would become my life's focus I don't really know. I thought in paving a route to academic success would lead me somewhere in life. My parents, that was all they demanded from me. Going to Cornell, studying architecture, something I have never had an interest in, seemed like the correct path. My parents were immensely pleased. But one more time, I could develop no interest in creating architecture in the way they were teaching it. Although now an actual interest of mine, architecture is, I think I would not find happiness in this way.  Success and happiness are not the same thing; sometimes one is confused with the other. Happiness is starting with myself and slowly and deliberately collect fragments in pieces what interests me and makes me feel elated. It's kinda like love, I boldly conjecture. In your heart you know. At Cornell, I switched out of architecture, though still immersed in friends' projects which I looked upon with admiration and which sometimes called me to be in an honored position as critic. I switched to the School of Arts and Sciences, expecting to explore and find something that empassioned me. Much was interesting, and I carried a full curriculum every semester, sometimes working two jobs, and partied. Partying was an expression of seeking happiness in the other - I was fully aware that it was not to last and may carry detrimental effects. I had not told any of this to my Grandma, but she still insightfully remarked, but you graduated. I didn't realize it was an achievement because my heart was not in it. Beside the partying, which I felt was otherly and so enjoyable to be intoxicated with literal intoxicants but also social freedom. Maybe graduating was an achievement of sorts, but I felt like there are more and more boxes around me, and as I looked into the future, I saw them closing in on me. I don't want my life to be over before it began. Life, being at peace with oneself, doing something that means something to oneself, encountering people before putting up a facade, sincere even if disagreement occur, because it is one's own. There is very little time, yet life is a miracle, an extremely improbable event or phenomenon, so very precious. There is no doubt we live in societies and communities.  There are rules and conventions, but nobody has held a gun to my head and insist on how I should live. I have not been enslaved, but only by my own preconceptions.  Dare to look outside, I tell myself, can I find people who are in pursuit of the life they are seeking, but how many of these people can see beyond what they have constructed around themselves. Are they conventional lifes, repeated across well meaning folks, but have they seen beyond. We live in an informational society here anyway, the lens with which to view the world can vary: which lens are you looking through? Are there ways to see with your own naked eye, and see the universe and your living in this ever grander world in a moment's mind's eye? 

where

 "We really do need structure, so we can see we are nowhere"

John Cage, Lecture on Nothing

truth

 space is limitless. the only limits are those we set with the eons passing by.

Arthur C. Clark

 It is by going into the impossible that we realize the possibilities.

 Persist, and Endure.

 intuition: psychology of grand nature

 As a subject is becoming known, possibilities emerge.

 It is not in the impossibility that we undertake an endeavor; precisely, in the narrow margin of possibility do we find an endeavor viable, even desirable.

 Undefined: the future of human civilization in space

 Via space travel, exploration, and settlement, we will experience the beginning of the next evolutionary jump.  Human beliefs, customs, practices, and understanding of ourselves will change.

 The abundance of civilization has sheltered and protected us from questions of mortality. As we go into space, questions will arise once more, but in a new context by a new civilization.

 Human civilization has been myopic, never knowing from whence it has come. Would it now choose differently, knowing that it comes from one galaxy, amongst billions?  If we were to start over again, what would be our premises?

 O, space, the final frontier.