Van Dijck in het Prado, een korte notitie over bloed, de Habsburgse onderkaak en meedogenloosheid

The young Van Dijck

Enige tijd geleden bezocht ik het Prado in Madrid.
Er was een speciale tentoonstelling over Van Dijck, genaamd El Joven Van Dijck – de jonge Van Dijck.

Een ongelooflijke verzameling meesterwerken. De 2 uur die ik tussen andere activiteiten door had, waren veel te kort.

Lamentation Van Dijcke

Mijn winnaar is De Bewening van Christus is mijn winnaar. Bloed druipt van het doek. De weerkaatsing van het licht op de huid.

De Habsburge onderkaak is alom aanwezig.In de schilderijen, in de beeldhouwwerken. Na een tijdje wordt het afgezaagd en grappig. Al die grote keizers met die enorme kinnen drukken een ziekelijke afwezigheid van vreugde en medelijden uit. Als er een emotie is die ze uitdrukken, is het er een van afstandelijkheid en meedogenloosheid.

The Habsburg Jaw

El Greco laat zien dat hij een expressionist avant la lettre is.

Velazquez is ook sterk aanwezig. Zijn monsterlijk grote paarden en mensen met veel te kleine hoofden lijken uit het perspectief van een kind of een dwerg te zijn genomen.

diego-velazquez-horse

12 tomorrows from 2014

I ordered Twelve Tomorrows. I never really liked science fiction (excTwelve Tomorrows 2014eptions like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – not even sure even that would qualify for science fiction). But I wanted re-evaluate my taste.

The twelve futures in summary:

  1. Instead of getting electronic detention, limiting the freedom of movement, persistent criminals are blinded. as a replacement for their natural eyesight they get electronic glasses through which they can only observe a pre-filtered reality. In this augmented reality, criminals are tagged, or branded, and everyone can see these brands as a warning sign.
  2. Biological modification of humans, first under “acupuncture anesthesia”, then in next generations through DNA modification.
  3. Cybercrime 22h century. Electronically (remotely) scanning a person’s digital identity information to get access to a bank account.
  4. Genetically manipulated life forms start leading their own life and thus become a threat to human life.
  5. Modification of human behavior through electronics implants in the human brain, also allowing remote control over a person.
  6. Human life has moved into space, to other planet amongst which Mars and the Moon. Technology like human hibernation made possible.  (A bit of 2001 A Space Odyssee, hmm).
  7. The internet of stuff, a second internet smart devices, unregulated and avoiding dictatorial suppression (already exists).
  8. Cyborg man is synthesized with his intelligent leg and can survive his body. His personality is transferred to another computer by the soul of the leg.
  9. Man cures from a hyperactive damaged brain, chemical drugs (SMOOTH  TM) is surpassed by a nanotechnology that can enter the body through the skin when wearing a medical t-shirt.
  10. Talented, intelligent young girl in Afghan invents a new kind of semiconductor in a repressive Afghan society.
  11. Internet surveillance in hyperconnected world. Secret services can follow everything you see, through your eyes, extract experiences and take over control. Everybody is under this kind of surveillance.
  12. Gene modification aimed at producing fossil gas, turns out to thrive also in the human body. But not for long, people start exploding

I found it difficult to get through the stories. Most of them sketch a dark, unpleasant future. I am trying to understand why that is. Is it because we generally tend to expect the worst of the future? Or is it maybe simply because of the dramatic needs for a story or book. Also, the science factor was not very original, and the writing not very good.

If you like Science Fiction advanced, find the very latest on MIT’s twelve tomorrows web site.

I decided to not touch Science Fiction for some time.
While I got Frank Schatzing’s Limit as a present. More on that later. That’s a 1000+ pages book.

Sei Shonagon – Het hoofdkussenboek

het hoofdkussenboek van sei shonagon

Ik weet niet meer waar ik naar Sei Shonagons Het hoofdkussenboek werd verwezen, maar ik ben er vrij zeker van dat het uit een lijst of boek van Pieter Steinz kwam. Ik vond een tweedehands kopie van Het hoofdkussenboek op Marketplace en kon er binnen een paar dagen mee beginnen, nadat ik het uit een stevige verpakking van tape had geknipt.

Het hoofdkussenboek deed me meteen denken aan de sfeer die Nooteboom schetst in zijn verhalen (Van de lente de dauw) over zijn reizen in Japan en aan de sfeer in de prenten van Hokusai. Shonagon schetst een zeer interessant beeld van het leven van de Japanse adel in de 9e of 10e eeuw. Het is echt een van die boeken die je inspireert om weer met je notitieboekje rond te lopen om de wereld om je heen op te schrijven, omdat die niet zo vanzelfsprekend is als je misschien denkt als je er dagelijks in leeft.

Metamagical Themas reread

Some time ago I wrote I was re-reading  ‘Metamagical Themas‘ from Douglas R. Hofstadter.

The last chapter of the book discusses the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and continues to reason basically how (super)rationalist reasoning would lead to better decisions, and ultimately a better world. Hofstadter applies his ideas to the cold war reality of those days (1980 thru 1984).

The text is wonderfully bright and one can only agree with him, but … as Hofstadter tells us, this is only true in the ‘iterated’ case, meaning consistent rational behavior pays off to everyone in the long term! I strongly believe self-enrichment, egotism, and other human vices, are all non-rational behaviors aiming at short-term satisfaction. Thus standing in the way of Doug’s better world. Anyway, these quality of the essays is outstanding and I found Hofstadter’s idealism still incredibly inspiring.

Kitten Clone and the Engineer’s Lost Soul

Coupland - Kitten Clone

Coupland’s Kitten Clone is written in Coupland’s sort of nonchalant style. Entertaining and ironic, without giving the impression of not being serious. And it has a few typical nerdy typographical jokes like making a paragraph brake with

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This very well written documentary (leave that up to Coupland), is beautifully illustrated with photo’s from Olivia Arthur, a famous Magnum photographer. A piece of art, this book. Coupland documents his thoughts as he travels over the globe, interviewing staff from the company Alcatel-Lucent, one of the few organizations providing the backbone technology for the Internet. Without this technology and maybe without this company our (cyber) lives would look quite different.

With Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine (“the original nerd epic”), I will add ano my earlier post on Kidder’s book here, and Coupland’s own JPod, one of the best books on the soul of engineers.

Kitten Clone is the most analytical and philosophical.

The zeitgeist of the twenty-first century is that we have a lot of zeit but not much geist. I’m appalled I just wrote that sentences, but it’s true;
there’s something emotionally sparse about the present era, and the world just keeps spinning faster and faster. Optical fibres carry forty billion phone calls at once, and soon ten terabits. And I want my Dexter, Season 4, and I want it now, and that’s what’s driving all of this: we want it and we want it now. And on top of that, it sort of feels like we’re all being chased by monsters.

I found the formulation smelling a bit like cultural pessimism, and it feels like every generation has developed this sort of fatigue. However this feeling of this ever increasing speed of need I definitely share, but still I am not convinced this may be a generational gap. And Coupland not just wonders what all this speed is necessary for. This company is mostly invisible to the public, while their product is so fundamentally changing society. It does continue to improve their technology, without seemingly wondering what this technology really enables.

“All of the scientists I spoke with were almost endearingly surprised even to be asked the question of how people will use what they invent.

And while the company does not bother much about the application of their technology, the people using their product create a complete new reality with it.

Right now, half of humanity – the younger half – believes the Internet is the reality.

This lack of apparent self reflection from the this technology company as well as from the people using their stuff, is what Coupland seems to fear most. And with that the conclusion of this documentary story is positive and alarming at the same time. Possibilities of people connecting globally are developing at an increasing speed, but this seems to develop on itself and there is a no grand plan, vision or idea guiding this advancement. Coupland for a moment even longs for religion.