The human face of code
Your weekly dose of fresh poetry #115
If this, then...
of course, I understand.
But if you call it that, I can't help
but humanize and show
them kindness.
Yes, I know. Online bots are only simple bits of code. I use If This Then That, the online bot-creator where you can simply make some rules that execute an action (that) which happens if this occurs. You, if you haven’t written a line of code in your life, may even have created some of these little programs. If the time is 7:00, let my alarm go off. Those kinds of things. Those kinds of inhuman things. But as soon as you stick the label of ‘bot’ on these inanimate lines of code, I start to envision the likes of Wall-E and Baymax. I start humanising them. When that happens, I automatically feel the urge to be kind. Now, me replying on Twitter to bots, of which I know they are only simple actions triggered by other simple actions, lines of code generated by other lines of code, might seem a bit, well, weird. And silly. Now, think about it. What happens when we inverse this idea? What happens when we dehumanize The Other? People who vote for another party than we do, people who risk their lives to build a better future for their children in another country?
I rather am a bit silly and reply to a bot.
The poetics of life
What is our relationship with the natural world around us? And with the animals within it? In this video, we see a man in Ethiopia interact with his friends, animals of the night. Let me know what you think of it:
And now back to generative art. Or AI art. It might seem a bit strange. Or maybe un-arty. But I think it’s rather interesting. Okay, I admit. My creations may not be the best works of art you’ve ever seen. That’s because I do not put an enormous amount of work in them. I come up with a prompt, set some modifiers and press ‘create’. Sometimes I evolve or restart. Other artists I’ve seen work of, they spend a lot more time to come to the result they had envisioned. Painstakingly so. Now imagine what this new technology, this new tool, that is now still in its infancy, can do if we keep nurturing and evolving it. Anyway. For the image at the top of this issue, I used the DALL-E 2 algorithm as it is available on Nightcafe. Learn what DALL-E 2 is in this video:
To finish off this section of the poetics of life, here is a clip of what is one of my favourite arias. To be honest, I was looking for a different version. We once saw a very nice performance and interpretation in the Latvian National Opera, but this one is at least as good. Enjoy this iconic bit of opera:
Poetry elsewhere
Keep questioning the things you do. Are you still doing them for the right reasons? Are you doing good for yourself, for others? This is what Kashiya asks in the poem Have you ever.
Our democracies are fragile. And the yelling at each other drowns out our common ground and blows up any kind of peacefulness. Adora Williams expresses this brilliantly in this poem about letting your vote count. Read Peace:
Rabbits and dogs. And a visit from coyotes (not the same as in the video above, because different country, different continent, different species, but there is a connection, I believe). Amy turns it into lovely poems that can brighten up any day. Cheer yourself up, and reed these poems by Amy:
Thank you for curating this wide collection of postings, I especially enjoyed the African video and poem and the Carmen piece as well as The Creative Catalyst poem.