The Curse of Casual Curiosity

Again we need to start with a trip in the WayBack machine. Dates: 1955 - 1958.  Location: The ABC television network. Target: The Mickey Mouse Club TV show.  Specific Target: The Encyclopedia - Curiosity Song.  And here we go! Wheeeeeee!

Well, for those of you for whom this is a familiar landscape, you get in free with your AARP membership cards. For the rest of you this is where the familiar Mouse got his major introduction to kids all over America. His international fame was still only a gleam in Walt's eye.  The MM Club show was "must see TV" for kids back in the day. It had different themes for each day of the week:

• Monday – Fun with Music Day
• Tuesday – Guest Star Day
• Wednesday – Anything Can Happen Day
• Thursday – Circus Day
• Friday – Talent Round-up Day

And there were some repeating "teaching" tunes, which is where we are heading - to The Encyclopedia Song, sung by Jiminy Cricket:

https://youtu.be/cy2jWJtO3lE

I worry about the current state of curiosity in today's world. Oh, there is still curiosity - that is not the problem. Rather, I worry about how easy it is to find answers that previously required days, months, years of dedication and research. Let's not even think about how the various screens on which you may be reading this post came about. Instead let us consider the lowly light bulb that is probably burning somewhere in the area.

So, let us imagine the world before lightbulbs. The world of Thomas Alva Edison in the late 1870s. Electricity was already around, and would become the center of "the current wars" where Edison [who favored "direct current" DC] and Nicola Tesla [who favored "alternating current" AC] contested for dominance in the emerging technology. Tesla, who had previously worked for Edison, won.

The problem facing Edison was that the light bulbs of the time would only last a few short hours before the filament would burn out. So Edison set about testing hundreds of different materials including platinum and beard hair. Eventually, Edison and his team found that a carbonized cotton thread filament, perfected in October 1879, lasted for 13.5 hours - way beyond the life span of the other extant filaments. Problem solved.

The problem facing Tesla was that the existing DC power systems were unable to send current over long distances and so to expand electricity to neighborhoods would require a power plant on every corner. Eventually Tesla developed a polyphase AC system (motors, generators, transformers) allowing efficient long-distance power transmission, greatly reducing number of power plants necessary to bring electricity to entire cities. Eventually AC became the global standard, and the one that led to the ubiquitous lightbulbs and the incredibly complex systems that allows them to perch so quietly in our lives, waiting for us to flick them on, pushing back night and allowing our 24/7 world to become possible.

The point is that both men invested thousands of hours in researching the answers for the questions prompted by - yup - their curiosity. And the same is true of all those curious minds we used to study in history class: Ford and his Model T, Curie and her work in radiology, Carver and his work with sweet potatoes and peanuts. All were shining examples of Edison's contention that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." And, I would contend, is motivated by a driving curiosity.

Satisfying curiosity was hard work. It took time, dedication, the ability to work through repeated failure, and yes, that perspiration.

How do we deal with curiosity in today's world? When we wonder about something? When we are confronted with a problem we need to solve? Well, duh! We casually "google" it - a strange verb that we all understand. We go online where the greatest challenge to our creativity is deciding which search engine to use and how we construct our search terms.

Mind you, I'm not knocking it. I'm as guilty as the next guy when it comes to pulling out my phone to settle dinner table debates. But I'm an old guy. For cryin' out loud, I watched The Mickey Mouse Club when it was new! I am not at the point in my life where I am looking to invest a few decades in calming my curiosity. But besides - and this is really important - I'm not ready to assume that what I read online, what may be constructed by AI, is true.

Everything that appears on our screens is created by someone - or, increasingly these days, something. The President's "Truth Social" is his truth - not some incontrovertible "truth" writ large. It presents "truth" as he sees it - at that moment. Subject to his uniquely swiftly shifting perspective and mood.

This post - all of Schrag Wall - is my truth. Based on my perspective and mood. You need to consider it's truth as closely as you would Truth Social. And that is true of the entire online world. What was it that President Reagan said? "Trust, then verify."

These days when considering the internet we might invert that, "verify before trusting," the old "sez who!?" test. But that is not the major problem. The concern I have is for the generations who have always had the internet. Who seem inclined to casually trust it, not only with their personal lives, but also with the answers it provides in response to their curiosity:

"Hmmm. I wonder if there is a ninth planet out beyond Neptune? If so, will its orbit eventually destroy earth? I guess I'll go online and see. Wow! A lot of different "truths" out here. Maybe I'll choose one. Or maybe instead I'll just check my Facebook page. See what's happening with my BFFs."

No. Maybe one ought to spend a decade or two studying astronomy, telescopes, optical, digital, radio, terrestrial, space-based, maybe on Mars? Interpretation of resultant data, and come up with a system that better addresses that curiosity.

We have obviously progressed far beyond Jiminy Cricket's encyclopedia, but hopefully the cat is as curious as ever. And just as hopefully, those young internet-savvy curious cats out there will distill methods that allow them to peer through the increasingly dense thicket of varying online perspectives. And, in doing so, provide us with better science, better medicine, better art and literature, better politics, better truth - better lives. 

This Land is Your Land

 This land is my land . . . . .

And when traveling to South Dakota, as I have done many many times over the last 70 years or so it certainly did seem that this wind-swept prairie was my land. Especially after another recent community gathering put together by hundreds of volunteers from the community including many of my family still living here.

This year we had gathered to celebrate Schmeckfest - literally a "tasting festival" - a yearly event to raise funds for the Freeman Academy/Junior College where many of our clan had attended, graduated, taught. This year it was a bittersweet celebration as it was - in all likelihood - going to be the last Schmeckfest. Declining enrollment, necessary increases in tuition, and competition with the local public schools, had forced the closing of the school.

But in the past we would go visit our cousins, city kids pretending to belong - if only for a little while - on the farm.  We continued affirming that notion of belonging as we reconnected with family still living on the land. And affirming that connection just as strongly, if not moreso, when visiting the cemetery in Freeman, SD, paying our respects to people literally in the land. My grandparents are buried there:

And a tree is dedicated to my parents in a nearby arboretum:

And furthermore to honor the more than 100 other Schrags are listed in the cemetery directory.

So in a very real way this is my land.

But Woody Guthrie went on to say "From California to the New York Island." And as I looked around me at the various Schrags who had gathered for this event I realized that this line was more descriptive of the current state of our family. We currently reside in all corners of America - Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, Southeast, and in the Midlands.

Maybe this, in part, explains why I, strangely, no longer feel "at home" in the places that used to "be home," used to "feel like home" to me. The memories are still there. I still feel a pull in my heart when I stand in the spaces that crafted those memories. But nowhere really feels like home. Now, before you say "how terrible!" Let me clarify.

It is no longer the land that defines home for me - it is the people in and on and somewhere about the land that shapes my definition of home. Maybe it was in the 1800s and 1900s when people "stayed put" that home and place became intertwined.  Moving "to town" or "to the city" became issues of significance because you were leaving "the land" breaking ties with kith and kin.

In this millennium we carry our family around in our purses and pockets. That outsized anxiety we feel when we misplace our phone or tablet is not the fear of losing a chunk of silicon and plastic - it is the fear of losing touch with family, with friends, with work mates - a fear of being alone in the world. 

These digital connections - these surrogates for a physical home - are strange and complex entities. There is certainly comfort in the avatars of loved ones that snuggle inside our technology. They allow for those quasi-personal interactions that often get stretched and fragmented when we gather "for real" in treasured celebrations, reunions, and holidays. But the avatars are not "real." The glance, the touch, the hug, the fleeting expression - a smile, a frown - are at risk. And digital interactions are "glitchy." These Wall posts go out to you as anonymous posts. You never know who else is "on The Wall." And I never know who reads the posts unless you comment. I structure The Wall that way because it is not my prerogative to intrude.

Maybe Virtual Reality will eventually do a bit to restore the commonality of land and place to the notion of "This land is your land." Goggles on everyone!

But for now I think I will stick with the idea of a family across "the land" digitally linked by caring, community and love. Linked strangely by the cellphones and tablets in our hands - that land is our land.

BAPAKYAL

To understand BAPAKYAL, we need to take another brief trip into the WayBack machine here - actually a couple. But let us start by jumping back to the turn of the millennium around 2000. Won't be the favorite chuck of time for me were I ever to write my memoir - tiny chapter. Marriage falling apart, teaching primarily online generating money for the department, but losing face time with students and gaining no recognition from my colleagues who were unaware of the real benefits they were reaping from my distance learning endeavors. Pretty blah all around.

Throughout, I had been talking with a friend over in media services. Those are the people who functioned as sort of a TV station for the university, so with my tech-heavy involvement I had come to know them pretty well. Anyhow this woman seemed pretty well grounded in life in general - her own solid relationship argued for that. So we chatted back and forth, largely online as Media Services was over on another part of campus. Well, one day she signed her email BAPAKYAL. And, no, I had no idea what it meant.  So I wisely responded: "Huh?" She explained that it meant "BeAtPeaceAndKnowYouAreLoved - BAPAKYAL." Well, obviously, So, this was her way of telling me "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. There are people who care about you. Move on." It was very helpful in my doing just that.

I think about that sig a lot these days when the would seems to be so devoid of love. And here we have to hop back into the WayBack machine. Here we go:

Settings: Fall of 1968.

Location: Kalamazoo College. Dr.Poggi's classroom; Greek 1.

Topic: Love.

So here we have a classroom full of college students and the topic is going to be love. The hormones are cranked on high, until Dr. Poggi begins:

"Today we are going to talk about the two forms of love discussed in the plays you will be translating: Eros and agape. [a few snickers from the class].

Poggi continues: "Eros and Agape are two distinct types of love in Greek philosophy and theology. Eros is passionate, romantic, or sexual love, often characterized by desire and possession. [A few more snickers.] Agape is selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love, frequently identified as the highest, spiritual form of love and associated with God's love for humanity. 

So let us step outside the WayBack machine and look around at today's reality. I cannot recall a time in my life when THE WORLD is seeming to spiral so out of control. The post on The Decade of Dementia laid out the primary reasons I can no longer look to my country as a voice of reason on the global stage - sadly quite the opposite. "Bombing anyone back to the stone age!" used to be a phrase from sci-fi films coming out of the mouths on maniacal villains, before the hero stepped in to save the world. 

But craziness is not a local issue. The World Population Review lists these countries as being currently at war - the list is a bit dated. [The broken images are the flags of the various countries - sorry about that glitch]

	Iraq	Terrorist Insurgency/Political Unrest
	Nigeria	Terrorist Insurgency
	Bangladesh	Terrorist Insurgency
	DR Congo	Terrorist Insurgency
	Iran	Terrorist Insurgency
	Tanzania	Terrorist Insurgency
	Thailand	Terrorist Insurgency
	Uganda	Terrorist Insurgency
	Algeria	Terrorist Insurgency
	Angola	Terrorist Insurgency
	Morocco	Terrorist Insurgency
	Ivory Coast	Terrorist Insurgency
	Cameroon	Terrorist Insurgency
	Niger	Terrorist Insurgency
	Mali	Terrorist Insurgency
	Burkina Faso	Terrorist Insurgency
	Chad	Terrorist Insurgency
	Benin	Terrorist Insurgency
	Rwanda	Terrorist Insurgency
	Tunisia	Terrorist Insurgency
	Togo	Terrorist Insurgency
	Libya	Terrorist Insurgency
	Russia	Russo-Ukrainian War
	Ukraine	Russo-Ukrainian War
	Israel	Israel-Palestine War
	Palestine	Israel-Palestine War
	South Sudan	Ethnic violence
	Mexico	Drug War
	Afghanistan	Civil War/Terrorist Insurgency
	Haiti	Civil War/Gang War
	Colombia	Civil War/Drug War
	Ecuador	Civil War/Drug War
	Ethiopia	Civil War
	Myanmar	Civil War
	Sudan	Civil War
	Yemen	Civil War
	Mozambique	Civil War
	Somalia	Civil War
	Central African Republic	Civil War
	Pakistan	Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Conflict

You may be as surprised as I to not see the US on that list, but then I remembered that according to President Trump we are not at war , still . . . if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, swims like a duck ... well, you know the answer to that.

So I began to think about that old email sig: BAPAKYAL, and how it might help one cope with the current depressing view of a world in ashes. And that of course made me think of Willie Nelson, and his version of the song "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam, written by Eddie Vedder. Part of the lyric goes like this:

Oh, I'm a lucky man

To count on both hands

The ones I love.

Also sort of reminded me of "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. There are people who care about you. Move on." 

Which prompted me to sort of narrow my focus, pull away from the news and the wars of the world and realize that "I'm a lucky man." They are not legion, but I can count them on both hands - adding in a few toes depending on your definition.

And having lowered my blood pressure a bit with that reflection, I let my focus expand a bit.  I thought of my dear, sadly departed, Uncle Calvin, who taught philosophy at Purdue University into his 90s. A quick internet search reveals that he authored 21 books. I particularly remember Existence and Freedom - which he gave to me on my 13th birthday. I put off actually reading it for a number of years.

But I more strongly remember a conversation we had a year or two before his death. In that talk - I'm not sure where - maybe a family reunion? - he shared that he had reached the conclusion that of all human reflections, beliefs, and emotions, love was paramount.

It is a conclusion that places him among the great philosophers and theologians of history. I can only hope that those in positions of power in the world today can finally stumble upon that conclusion and realize that war is not the answer.

In the meantime - BAPAKYAL

ARTificial Intelligence

 Unless you have been hunkering down in a remote cabin in Idaho, or maybe in the rain forests of Southeast Asia you have been hearing about the coming tsunami of AI - aka - artificial intelligence - and how it is going to change the world while unfortunately eliminating millions of blue collar and entry level  jobs. Could be. Who knows? But I thought we were all supposed to have flying cars and teleportation pods by now. I guess we will all just have to wait and see.

My concern is with the supposed impact on the creativity sector, you know, "the arts." Perfect prose, perfect sculpture with 3D printing, perfect images with filters and CG. Everything we now struggle through with tools, and physical processes, and physical effort will all be handled with AI. Al-lelujah!

I don't think so. 

There is this wonderful book; Almost Lost Arts: Traditional Crafts and the Artisans Keeping Them Alive by Emily Freidenrich and Margaret Shepard that chronicles the activities of a variety of artisans from potters to weavers, to folks making world globes - all without the "help" of AI.

I cannot speak to those crafts, I have no experience with them, but I will share some thoughts on image creation - an area that I do spend a significant amount of time with. It is a bit more nuanced. 

First let us consider the value of "the hand of the master." Right now here in Chicago there is a bubbling controversy as to whether the Rembrandt painting Man with a Golden Chain on display at the Art Institute of Chicago is an original Rembrandt or a copy - or perhaps even a copy that was also painted by Rembrandt. And each version would make a huge difference. Bottom line, in the world of fine art a work created directly by "the hand of the master" can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while a copy - perhaps even an exact replica created by AI - would be worth maybe a few hundred. So for the marketplace anyhow, AI would have a hard time replacing, in terms of value, works from "the hand of the master."

In that creation of images I need to fall back on my own experiences. I spent much of my career exposing students to the creative potential of various tools, film cameras, still cameras and video, so naturally when the current spate of digital tools came on the scene I played with therm as well.

For me the result has been three categories of works:

Pure drawing. These are works that are basic "hand to paper" pieces. No tech involved at all. A good example is a series of images I did back during the first round of covid when nobody really knew much about the disease. So I drew these images to "put a face on it." The first is one of the faces. The second is the virus itself.

And then there is portraiture in "pure drawing":

Untitled

Significantly augmented images. These are works that made significant use of image technology - primarily Photoshop. A couple of examples. In this image that I call The Ghost of Anne Boleyn, the background is painted completely in Photoshop, while Anne's head is clipped from a "pure drawing" piece called Girl on My Shoulder, [below the larger image of Anne] and feathered in Photoshop. The bottles are from a separate "pure drawing" created specifically as a "framing" image for this piece and saved as a separate layer. Then the three layers, background, head and bottles were all merged into a single image and printed commercially, a print that I then framed.

Images with Augmented Elements. These are images in which elements from my photographs or "pure drawings" are placed in a digital "page" that I then have commercially printed on heavy grade white paper. From that point on the process is pure drawings. The most recent examples are the Venice Grand Canal image [just below] in Not Crazy After All these Years post from December of last year and the Carriage Ride [below Canal] post from February 18th. The Grand Canal image was based on a photograph from our hotel window, while carriage ride comes from a photograph of a model carriage that lives in our living room. The photo based images are visually important, yet, everything else in those images is "hand to paper", and equally important.

Gently Touched Images. This is a flexible category since the image I will discuss in the rest of the post could actually fit in Images with Augmented Elements just as Carriage Ride could possibly fit here. I think it is a question of degree. In both Carriage Ride and this current image, which I am tentatively calling Lighting the Loggias, creating the augmented elements and getting them printed onto the drawing paper was the work of an hour or two. Drawing the additional elements in Carriage Ride literally took a couple of months. I am a few weeks into Loggias. [To clarify, I don't draw for more than a couple of hours a day. My hands begin to give out after that. I have discovered tho' as we are puppy sitting without the normal distractions of home, that I can get two sessions in during a day! :-)]

I'm going to show you Loggias in process so I can touch the AI issue with you. Here it is:

Let's first talk about the loggias and the lampposts first. Those are "cut and pastes" from two photographs. The lampposts are from a photograph I took on the bridge that separates old Buda and old Pest in Budapest. The loggias are photographs, as I believe I have already mentioned, of a maybe 15x8x6 inch architectural model. I duplicated and flipped image horizontally to create the central focus of the image. Then drew and colored the designs within the loggias and the lampposts.

Now about the black squares and circles and other little unfinished elements. Yes, I draw each one, and yes, they are taking a long time. And yes, there is an easier way to do it. Back it the 0-somethings I did a drawing called Through Every Window. I'll stick it in here if I can find it. The image featured brick walls, and rather than drawing each brick I created a cluster of four bricks, copied them, and then created a new layer copied the bricks into the new layer and dragged them into the appropriate place on the wall. A new layer for each cluster of four bricks and then merged them all.  Ah, here is Through Every Window. I've already mentioned the bricks. The strange flowers in the foreground windows are "pure drawings" drawn separately and pasted in the windows. The windows in the background buildings are filled with my photographs.

Back to Loggias, I'm sure that AI would allow me "insert squares in designated space, adapt as necessary. Mimic style of provided sample." And there it would be, neat, clean, but definitively not from "the hand of the master," or my hand for that matter. But getting a slew of clean precise design elements isn't the point.

You see, I like drawing those elements. I can shift direction on a whim. I can shoot out a line of blocks to wherever I feel the light from the moon might go. Heck, I even decided to add another little moon. Same with the lampposts. And there is something very zen about drawing the little boxes while listening to a whole variety of music - again, faces and places accompany me. 

There is an acronym - HUMINT. For those of us not actually involved in international espionage we encounter it mostly in novels and video, though I have learned it is actually used out there in the "real world." It stands for "human intelligence." We usually hear it dialogue:

Head protagonist: "Dammit! We're sending people in blind! We need HUMINT, boots on the ground. Don't we have anyone in there?!" 

Other person: "I'll check on it!"

Perhaps we should take heed of that admonition. When it comes to art we can really do well without turning the creative process over to artificial intelligence. There is still something valuable, unique and fulfilling about HUMINT, not so much boots on the ground as hands on the brushes putting color on the paper, the canvas, tools and fingers in the clay, pressing on the frets, chisels to stone, tickling the ivories, breath through the reeds, all of it - human intelligence.