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Friedrich Kunath, “Storms Never Last”, 2023

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Ni Ni for L’Officiel China (Oct. 2024)

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@呼葱觅蒜

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Hiroo Isono: Untitled (1982)

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jaggedwolf said: can’t say this and not link/say which one it is

the original “turing test” paper is so beautiful.  more beautiful, i imagine, than most expect going in—he’s got this underlying warm humanism and gentle humor throughout.  (it’s present even in his more technical papers, but it shines here)

and the section that slays me each time is this:

“It will not be possible to apply exactly the same teaching process to the machine as to a normal child. It will not, for instance, be provided with legs, so that it could not be asked to go out and fill the coal scuttle. Possibly it might not have eyes. But however well these deficiencies might be overcome by clever engineering, one could not send the creature to school without the other children making excessive fun of it […]”

like.  this is the original “turing test” paper.  this is the first dude to formally conceptualize the whole “~*~what if computers learn to think, how could we tell~*~” thing.  which, in subsequent SF invocations, is used mostly in spooky or paranoid contexts: the Voigt-Kampff test of Blade Runner, the preemptive rushes to constrain that budding will in I, Robot and others, and in modern worries over AGI.  and i like those stories!  they’re interesting and cool and eerie!

but

but

the original guy was not scared or unsettled or spooked by the prospect of new minds.  this dude’s primary concern, when facing the dawn of artificial intelligence, was instead: “what if we teach computers to think and then the other kids on the playground bully the computer, that would be so mean :(((”

i love that, so much.  i love people so much, sighs into hands

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Sun and Moon by Ernst Steiner

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if somebody you knew for a year said "listen. im just gonna be honest here. i know ive known you too long to not know your name. but i simply do not. i dont know how this happened. im reasonably confident you told me your name at some point. could you remind me please" how would you react

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Little dragons on a park bench for today's sketch. Was imagining them like seagulls, crows, pigeons, etc-checking to see if people left any little snacks behind to clean up

-2798

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That can't be right, can it? the 2000's weren't THAT long ago??

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I always think of Wuyun as the Alfred to Di Feisheng's Batman, so to speak.

the thing that fascinates me most about di feisheng and wuyan is that di feisheng doesn't need a bodyguard. not at present. wuyan's not around him most of the time (he's doing a lot more than a bodyguard does) and di feisheng as we know very well can take care of himself just fine. he also prefers to do as much as he can on his own. given that someone with the rank of bodyguard isn't necessary, he could have given wuyan a different title instead, elevated him to being one of jinyuanmeng's kings alongside the other three. i know di feisheng sees wuyan as equal to the kings' status anyway, but still. the name would carry power.

given how much unspoken trust lies in their dynamic, i cannot imagine di feisheng purposefully left wuyan with his current position out of spite, or a withholding of power. maybe he offered it, and wuyan didn't take it. either way, they seem to stand on equal ground enough in their interactions that wuyan probably willingly chose to stay where he is now, at di feisheng's side.

but where did that position of bodyguard come from? the fact that it exists means that at one point, di feisheng felt he was vulnerable enough to need one, which has me very curious about his past with wuyan. did wuyan protect him when he first escaped the di mansion, and di feisheng later gave him that position as an honorary acknowledgment that he kept? how much of di feisheng's past does wuyan know? (i headcanon that if there's anyone in jianyuanmeng who knows about the di mansion, it's wuyan.) he's also the only person in the alliance who can understand that di feisheng's dream of being 天下第一 is divorced from seeking ruling power over the jianghu, or that wanting to best li xiangyi didn't mean wanting to kill him. where did these two once from and why does di feisheng trust him so unwaveringly. i will be asking this forever

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'Two Birds and the Moon' (Japan, 1799 - 1823) by Shinsai Ryūryūkyo.

Surimono woodblock print.

Museum of New Zealand. Te Papa.

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More of my emails should start “hello pervert.”

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Fairy Bookshop 📚️🧚‍♀️

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We should've already entered the pass by now. I've never seen such a beautiful night sky. The moon inside the pass is so big. The stars are so close to us.

West out of Yumen (2023) - EP 11