Future Synthesis

Film • Cybernetics and Game Theory • Aesthetic theories and criticism • Raw Thoughts • Ancient History and Classical Civilisation • The Longinian Sublime • Esoteric practice Worcestershire, England.

[owlmylove]

‪me, reading about women in Ancient Greece who could devote their entire lives to being a virgin priestess of hallucinogenic honey: god I wish that was me ‬

[edwardguyatt-blog]

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous

Napoleon, 1812, remarking to the Polish ambassador when retreating after Moscow[1] (via edwardguyatt)

Get Shorty (1995) illustrates this[2] to hilarious effect in the scene where self-aggrandizing actor Martin Weir tries to teach mobster Chili Palmer how to talk like a mobster. In the shots that introduce the man's living room, we are treated to three absurdly narcissistic representations of him: a fresco (coloured plaster, basically) in the style of the Baroque-influenced 'decorative' history painting found in 18th century aristocratic country houses with him clothed in an Italian robe thinking pensievely in a way that reminds me of Macchiavelli; a bust in the classical style, where he wears a wreath and generally looks like a Roman emperor; and a classical sculpture transforming the podgy, middle-aged Fat Tony into a paragon of athletic virtue. Much like the guy's conversation, these artworks have the majestic elements of the sublime and the charming and like those clever archers of old aim for the stars so as to hit the target, and yet... somewhat miss the mark[3]. But I find it endearing.

It's great fun to watch Martin do this dance on the precipice between social apotheosis and damnation, as Chili plays with him, puts his belief he can get into the heads of gangsters by grasping their patois, and Karen cringes. The game of self-aggrandizement is played to the point we can recognise how it might just work, and just enough exceptions pop up that the program fails comedically, but not catastrophically. The dance between chaos and order, to comic effect. We emphathise with Martin muddling through and failing even as we laugh at him; and by contrast the confidence of the perfectly calibrated, smooth hero Chili becomes the sublime mobster virtue.

And, in reblogging myself to harp on about the sublime, perhaps I have fallen from that very same precipice, and damned myself with hubris.

[1] British Journal of Aesthetics, Aesthetics (1964) 4 (3), Harold Osborne, p. 284-5, [8]

[2] Get Shorty dir. by Barry Sonnenfield (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor 1995) <https://www.netflix.com/watch/539433> 51:22

[3] Niccolo Macchiavelli, The Prince, trans. by W. K. Marriot (Urbana, Illionois, Project Gutenberg 2006) <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232> [accessed 17 February 2019]

[edwardguyatt-blog]

Turns out, listening to Hotel California on YouTube of a all places, that reverb CAN be turned up too high... or whatever it was... reverb, excessive treble, that kind of wank-pottery. Oh, and isn't all this talk hip hop hipsters and high pop cultured people talk about bass a load of social signalling?

[edwardguyatt-blog]

Thief (1981)

spoile warning

Just watched Thief. Wow! The hero, he... is this individualistic, high-commitment, conscientious, vengeful, take-no-fucking-prisoners type, in a criminal world of careless, disorderly psychopaths. And he fucking WINS! Oh yes... aaahhh, justice, at last!

[nekrosmagos]

Painting on the main building almost done. Following the interior furnitures and props… I put some older buildings to compare size and colors… I hope one day I could build a small town with all these buildings and play dnd in that town.

[symbiotic-science]

Change of teeth causes yo-yo effect in elephants' weight

The weight of elephants living in zoos fluctuates over the course of their adult lives in cycles lasting around a hundred months, researchers at the University of Zurich have found. The fluctuation is linked to the particular pattern of tooth change in elephants, which results in them having more or less chewing surface available.

The weight of elephants living in zoos fluctuates over the course of their adult lives in cycles lasting around a hundred months, researchers at the University of Zurich have found. The fluctuation is linked to the particular pattern of tooth change in elephants, which results in them having more or less chewing surface available.

The teeth of most mammals, including humans, are only replaced once in a lifetime, when the milk teeth give way to the permanent teeth. This one change is enough to adapt to the increasing size of the jaw. But elephants increase greatly in size and weight over the course of their lives – from a starting weight of 100 kilograms to several tons in adulthood. One single change of teeth would not be enough for the enormous growth of the jaw.

Elephants’ teeth change five times

That’s why the teeth of elephants are replaced a total of five times over their lifespan. On each side of the jaw they have only one single tooth in use at a time which is slowly pushed forwards by a new bigger tooth out of the mouth, breaking off in pieces. If you look inside an elephant’s mouth you will see either only one single tooth or pieces of the old tooth behind which part of the new tooth is pushing through, a process that is called molar progression.

As a result of this process, the elephants’ chewing surface gets bigger when two teeth are present on one side at the same time, and then smaller again when there is only one tooth on each side. For that reason there are times when it is easier for the animals to eat more or chew the same amount more finely, and hence increase the intake of digestible food.

[catilinas]

me: uses a copy of the iliad to keep my place in the aeneid

me: intertextuality,

[edwardguyatt-blog]

Streaming Hereford & Worcester is a charming way to remind yourself there's a physical world outside.

[thewriterkb]

1 Million Seconds: 16,667 Minutes, 277.8 Hours, 11.6 Days.⠀ 1 Billion Seconds: 16,666,667 Minutes, 277,777.8 Hours, 11,574.1 Days, 31.5 Years.

[entelequia-abstracta]

Classic is good🌻🌎

[edwardguyatt-blog]

Is this a Winnebago? I heard about those in a Jeffrey Deaver novel, Shallow Graves. They sound like fun!

[moonglowlily]

i want to be a good person with a pure and clear mind i want to be safe from the world outside and inside

[edwardguyatt-blog]

The first problems for me to solve are practical personal ones. Politics is a distraction from this.

[edwardguyatt-blog]

I can't believe how much social dominance oriented bullshit I've allowed to enter my head as a kind of perverted revenge.

[edwardguyatt-blog]

TL;DR: Here are the principles by which the police in Britain have operated since they were founded that have made them the kind of iompartial professional organisation everyone's more than happy to get along with. And here's how it's all devolving into tyranny.

[edwardguyatt-blog]

I'm against transphobia and 'gender critical' but it's NOT the place of the state to police language. If you think this is just some 'right-wing dog whistle', watch the video and grok the particulars. And then tell me that this is not totalitarian.

[edwardguyatt-blog]

Lu Feng: What kind of little evil spirit are you?

Jin Mi: I'm not an evil spirit. I'm just a little fruit elf who needs to cultivate and practice hard.

[the-dao-of-the-zerg]

A stranger comes to you, and makes you an offer: “We’ll flip this fair coin. I’ll pay you $10 for every “heads” flip, but you pay me $10 every time the coin comes up “tails”.” You take the deal, and after ten flips, you owe him $100. What is the chance the next flip comes up “heads”?

I find it interesting that so many people get it wrong and say it’s still 50/50. Inspired by this post talking about how the trolley problem trains you to ignore most of what’s actually important about morality (situational awareness, trying to find win-wins, etc.)

[shlevy]

You Can Load a Die, But You Can’t Bias a Coin

[jadagul]

You can’t bias a coin, but you can give it two tails.

[edwardguyatt-blog]

10/2 * 10 = 50, + 50 that’s 100 quick Maths Every day man’s on the block. Scam twerps. I see your coin in the park. That coin is a uckers. The ting go quip quip quip. Them man was losing.

I tell her coin’s not rigged. I tell her coin’s not rigged. The girl tell me don’t be a loser. I said babes, coin’s not rigged. (never rigged)

Da ting goes skyyip! Flip flip flip flip flip. Skiddy plip dip dip. And a Clack clack paddleack tap. Skyip. Tip tip quip quip dip dip. Plip plip. You dun know!

Acknowledgements:

adapted from Michael Dappah, Man’s Not Hot, online video recording, Youtube, 25 October 2017 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M_5oYU-IsU> [accessed 13 February 2019]