(we are off to the cottage this weekend, so this is being written Saturday morning and tomorrow’s blog will be written when I get back)
I do not believe in God, yet this post is about God. I capitalize the word both out of respect for those who do believe and literary tradition. I think of God as a human construct, real only in the sense that Zeus and Odin are real -they are real within their stories and at one time and place were thought of as as real as the current deity.
But, since human beings of all cultures have believed in in God or in gods, it could be that it is an essential part of the human experience – in fact, a sign of intelligence. When ancient man looked up at the stars, and noted the changing of the seasons, and the lightning and the suddenness of storms at sea, they came up with stories to explain these things, which was the beginning of religion, but also the beginning of science. Before you can test a hypothesis, you have to have a hypothesis.
A friend of mine just posted on facebook a painting by Joan Miro, but it’s not really by Joan Miro, it’s by Deep Dream. I’ve got to look into this Deep Dream thing, I’m not clear yet on how it works, but basically it is the internet interpreting things on its own. Some are saying it’s AI, I’m not convinced of that, but its interpretation of Miro gives credence to the position.
See, while most other artists, or topics, fed into Deep Dream, come out as a weird amalgam of animal body parts and other random images, Miro comes out as Miro. Maybe Miro+, but very recognizable.
The internet is treating Miro differently than everything else. Therefore, (just as God spelled backwards is dog, but Bob spelled backwards is Bob, therefore Bob is God) perhaps Joan Miro is who the internet sees as God.
Even though he’s not my very favorite artist, I can see how that could be interpreted as a sign of intelligence.
www.gurukalehuru.com 