A little bit of this, a little bit of that
#45 A short issue for a short month
Sorry for the delay, I’ve been sick this weekend. Luckily, this will arrive in your inbox the first day of the work week (Tuesday) — at least for those of you in the US. (President’s Day if you were wondering).
The first thing I saved to my draft this week was “Panopticon design is a deep rabbit hole to fall down.” Fitting for this issue coming out after an American holiday since the US loves prisons... How’d I get here?
Oh, right. I first came across a music group called panopticon and having forgotten what the word meant, looked it up and was reminded of the prison design. It’s a very deep rabbit hole that I tried to avoid falling into. Though the wikipedia page was pretty interesting itself.
In short, it’s an uncertainty based prisoning system that encourages behavior because the inability to know when you are being watched, but the likelihood of you being watched existing. This not only applies to the prisoners, but the guards as well, enforcing prisoners aren’t subjected to maltreatment a la Philip Zimbardo. In theory, a way to make sure everyone self-regulates.
There are lots of cool drawings & plans if you go looking. I like this one a lot.
Are you sick of hearing about Chat GPT?
I’m not. I actually got Chat GPT premium and ran some experiments. I’m sure we’ll all find some unique uses.
First, I fed it my health for shopping lists and imaginary meal prep and work out plans. Then I got to work on finding thematically related visual artists and authors. I found the artist Edward Gorey for example, who I’ll want to check out more of. (Below, War of the Worlds scene)
I wasn’t sure it would work but it I was pleased to see that based on the books I said I liked, it was able to tell me visual artists who address similar themes. Many of those suggested were already particularly favorite artists of mine.
It’s very similar to the Taste idea I‘ve had for years, which was meant to connect disparate ideas by finding recurring themes that were related. At an extreme, perhaps because you like hiking in cloudy weather by yourself to think, you might also like some Edgar Allen Poe. It’s a fictional example but you catch my drift.
Also as mentioned last week, I want to explore more those creative folk who have been able to articulate their reasoning. With the help of my new assistant, I was introduced to Le Corbusier. You can see a bit here: Le Corbusier - 15 Best Projects
Album of the Week
Not out this week, just listening.
A fun exploration into “The Law”
Some background music to work to
I told you this week was short. Take some time and click the links and see what journey that kicks off for you -- that’s what it’s all about. Better to explore some well thought out ideas, established philosophies, or the work of artists than to read my drivel.
Stay curious.