Nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames

Nikolay Dubovskoy

I've been stuck trying to remember an old Greek adage. It seems relevant to what I'm feeling and how I want to go about relieving that "pressure", and the other pressures I have and need to vent.

I can't remember the exact phrasing of the line, but it's essence I know, which I'll try to put into action below.

I've noticed that my sketch book has more language bits in it than it does actual literal sketches from life. And so I guess that's where I want to start. This is a collation of language bits from my sketch book. Putting them together makes me happy, though they are mostly entirely unconnected.

7.13.25—10.27.25

Right On, Right Now — King Lear — Nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames! I've always brought these two works together (Powerspace, King Lear). What did Plato have to say about 'dreams'? Future — Actions — Kairos — "faith" — participating in the world — trespass — sin — path — delusion — course. Faith — the sense of Da'ath — participation with a course. Trespass — to no longer be on course. Self-delusion leads us off course. (John Vervaeke - the meaning crisis.) True eloquence is saying all that is needed and only what is needed. (La Rochefoucauld.) Character can be cultivated. Virtue is not an event(...). Human beings are autopoetic (we are self-making). (Vervaeke.) The human eye has a bias towards creating "contrast" and "edges". Focus on yourself and what is meant for you will appear, and you will be able to approach in good faith. "...the basic patterns that keep repeating themselves time after time...repetition begins to show itself in everything. ...Instead of appearances being an obstacle, they help you on your journey. And everything starts speaking with the voice of your own longing." (In the Dark Places of Wisdom.) To never turn around in need. What is the relationship between 'commitment' and 'distraction'? Reminds me of Nietzsche: "What we do should determine what we forgo." — How would someone's life change if they thought of things less in terms of "what they want" and more in terms of "what am I willing to give up?" . (Any step towards "oneself" involves an understanding of their own desires, which is elusive, to say the least.) A true commitment to something inevitably means giving something else up. What do I want? What makes a champion racehorse a champion racehorse? (Of course, on some level, how it's built. And yet how has cloning worked in this realm?) "Intelledynamics" — what does it mean to "achieve goals". — What does it mean to do "cognitive work"? AI forces us to look at ourselves. AI is a disruption at the level of human intelligence. The feeling of seeing someone you love decline without recourse. - "Intentionality" in art. - From a purely symbolic, structural perspective, does 'intentionality' matter? (—The Turing Test.) (What is 'intentionality'?) ('Intentionality' is human?) Will an AI-mediated audience be sensitive to "old" traditional art? (Not necessarily. No. Of course not. We put into things only what we bring to them.) Pining for connection. Extrinsic Intrinsic I have a bad feeling about this. There's so much cool dangerous stuff that we could be doing as a species but we're mired in doing base dangerous stuff — is this necessary? Connoisseurship. To the audience — much connoisseurship does not matter. AI art is not about whether it is 'right' or 'wrong', it's about what can be done, and if the incentives are strong enough, you can be sure that someone out there will be doing it, and that person will gain an advantage in the marketplace. And what's interesting is what does it mean that "it" — whatever 'it' may be, "cognitive work", let's say — what does it mean that it can be automated in the first place, when we have historically viewed it as unique and human.

(FWIW: I really don't want to systematize my punctuation but probably it does seem a little bit crazy, if you're a connoisseur.)