1st Reading Review - Computational Art Introductions
“Review the text ‘a fish can’t judge the water’ written by Femke Snelting.”
Starting purely off the analogy created in the opening title, one can assume that fish never leave water for their entire lives and also being made up of approx. 70% H20 fish are the least bit qualified to make an imparcial comment to its own environment. However my reasoning behind this topic is purely based on how I understand humans to have evolved to this point in time, and thereby why it will continue in a similar trajectory; good OR bad!?
In the 90s the sexy job was banking, in the 00s it was entrepreneurialism, & well in the 2010s it’s definitely become programming! Software along with the advancements in hardware technologies has continually been creeping into our everyday culture increasingly solving problems (such as seamless communication, increased work productivity, open access to information, a democratising society) however in other aspects has created new problems that are still not being socially accepted as that (mobile addiction, repetitive click syndrome, isolation, cyber bullying, seamless access to pornography, suicide). In evolutionary terms humans have the largest brains in proportion to their bodies. Human’s largest growth in brain power has been in the ‘association cortex’ which strongly influences sophisticated cognitive functions such as language & problem solving. Quite naturally my perspective would suggest that software is the most organic embodiment of human existence, an evolution that has just continued since the populations of Homo erectus that had left Africa around 2 million years ago. An evolution that has constantly had to battle against death, starvation, sexually transmitted diseases as well as war!! It is only logical for humans to keep fighting to win on all costs! Since Martin Luther started the protestant movement in the 16th century, northern europe has been sucked out of the dark ages where religion used to persecute scientific visionairs for heresy and instead allow logical thinking to push forward. With WW1 & WW2 human technology due in most part to necessity sped forward breeding the beginnings of the original modern ecosystem we see today. Recently computing has given humans the freedom to flip humanity as we knew it where the future will quite possibly allow manual labour to be a tale only written in history books as home delivery by drones, roboticized farming takes hold, and algorithms take the thinking out of day to day life; allowing for a possible eutopia of kinds to develop a new world which priests, monks, prophets, and spiritual figures would have warned us against!
Culture in many ways can be defined as a set of particular habits, habits that have lead to human survival which has breed tools, medicine, & mathematics to name a few of our creations. This has seen homosapians triumph over nature creating the conditions for an exponential jump in population, which in many ways breeds yet further need to organise and manage such a colossus network of humans. In our quest for more we have developed a society which actually benefits from a furrer organisation system, that being software. Just as one solo bee is doomed to die on it’s own, the same analogy can be concluded for humans. Therefore on the contrary a bee colony as a whole is a very effective entity which can grow anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 in size, pollinate whole fields (for food for us humans), collect nectar as well as constantly maintaining it’s home. The same analogy can be aligned to humans; we are the cumulative sum of each human being creating on overall force to be reckoned with. In the west the ego has ample space to take over this notion of humanity but in the east the spirit takes pride of place so that we can work for our world’s betterment! Everything in the world is in symbiosis and to have open source is quite a natural continuation of these philosophies where people can learn from each other and work together no matter where one is based in the world via the power of the internet. This is in contrary to the egocentric philosophy that focuses on intellectual property rights and by extension ‘moneys’, where in human history it is clear when money holds pride of place then many decisions lack judgement.
As stated in Moore’s Law the overall processing power for computers will double every two years. Every respected mini technological revolution & mass adoption therefore breeds yet further advancements where due to this incredible speed we in fact must keep up and collaborate to further push the boundaries of science. Furthermore creativity is increasingly be democratised, with web applications, software & code available to all, which leave’s those who remain most hungry, naturally talented and motivated to carry on expressing themselves & inventing for mankind into the future be that software, hardware or hitting up a delicious vegan sunday roast.
References:
A fish can’t judge water: http://www.constantvzw.org/verlag/spip.php?page=article&id_article=72&mot_filtre=9&id_lang=0#
Moore’s Law: http://www.mooreslaw.org/