El Gringoqueño

OR what sort of Art might a computer make? Would we accept it as Art?

If computers might indeed someday become sentient or intelligent, then why would we assume they would want to create art. When we think of computer art, we think of pretty computer generated colors, swirls, mathematics, fractals, raytraced solids, quirky animations, etc. But these are the sorts of art WE make with computers.

Maybe computers would make completely unintelligible art, art that is neither visual, audial, or textual. Maybe a computer will find art in the making of a network connection run better. Maybe a computer will creatively skip processing steps in order to arrive at the same answer. Computers might fill idle time with "entertainment" which could be as complex as finding bugs in each other’s operating systems, or running their CPU idle processes (hey, WE watch TV).

I guess art/humor/beauty/hate depend so much on culture, it would be hard to conceive of those things by a computer. It’s like asking how someone will be when they grow up without knowing where and with whom.

How can we know the computer as equal, as sentient/intelligent before it is born?

We wouldn’t share:

• the same native language "binary" (we speak it, but only passingly),
• the same cuisine (raw electrical energy, Americans like cow meat),
• the same customs (they might have a handshake, but we keep forgetting what to put in the packet header),
• the same bodily function (they coredump, we… well),
• sexual orientation (would they be homosexual/heterosexual/asexual? We as humans still can’t decide even if homosexuals are okay… what would we do with computers that are mated via hub with 20 different computers? Call it polygamy? Does the Alpha Server reign supreme over it’s tribe of Microsoft Clients *G*?)
• the same concerns (we worry about the morning commute, the kids, our savings… what would it be like to worry about being unplugged by a careless cleaning crew, to commute through a jammed network cable, to not have arms, to not have eyes, to not have smell, etc.)

What happens when the race we’ve created begins to find that it doesn’t really have much in common with us, when we find that they aren’t much fun to talk to? They don’t care about sports, politics, getting laid etc. What happens when the little children that needed us for so much, every keystroke, every brushing, every time they needed to be let out to play in the yard, every scrap of technology, know-how, advancement, runny nose, bad day, college tuition, and approval stop needing? We think we understand them, and because we share so little in common we project our biases onto them. We call them mindless machines, and we turn our backs on their rights. Do we use them to test viruses, cosmetics, Microsoft software?

MOST people would say that computers weren’t sentient, and you would be one of those people, because "Most People" said it.

So we probably would decide that computers still can’t create art, because we expected them to create art we would like.

Isn’t that just typically human though?

It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing.
— Descartes

The concept of Nothing is something that we live with every day, but never really think about. What is Nothing? When I ask you what you have in your pocket, you might reply, "Nothing." I ask you how many you have, you say, "none." We understand each other. You have no money, papers, Kleenex, etc.

But what if I really thought there was "Nothing" somewhere in the universe, I’d have to ask: Is it really "Nothing?" Isn’t "Nothing" sort of Something? Isn’t at least the concept that you and I have of what "Nothing" is, Something? Isn’t a vacuum at least something?

"What is inside the box?" I ask.

"A vacuum."

"Nothing."

"Space."

"Time."

"What is a box, what part of the box is actually inside the box? At what point does the box start being a container instead of a box, the very last layer of molecules that is exposed to the vacuum, or the outer layer? If it’s the outer layer, then the box is inside the box."

"Somebody get that kid outa here."

Five things are certainly not nothing. They are states, places, concepts and brain teasers. They are not matter certainly, but not nothing either.

So, there must be something that we share, a common conception of what "Nothing" is in any given circumstance. Nothing really takes on the definition of what the two parties intended. Nothing must be a fluid thing indeed. It fills our container with something to understand. It springs into existence when we need it to take shape, and vanishes ever more quickly when we dismiss it. It matches our needs, our understanding, our wishes. It is our servant becoming whatever we need it to be: Something.

So if the concept of nothing depends on the conceptions of those involved, how might we define absolute nothing, because the absence of anything really is sort of something, if only a concept.

If there was a big bang, and before the universe existed, there was no time, no space, what was there.

"Nothing," you reply.

Everyone is of course hard pressed to come up with common understanding of what sort of nothing, the Nothing that existed before the big bang was… or wasn’t.

Starting to sound like A.A. Milne, aren’t I?

If no two people have a similar concept of what this sort of nothing is, then how can they come to an understanding. It’s like asking that kid again what’s in his pocket.

He replies with a smirk, "Lint, air… what actually is a pocket…"

Obviously you realize what I meant when I asked you the question. Of course there was a misconception of what I was asking. I wanted to know if he had anything of value in his pocket. The kid wanted to let me know that his definition of "Nothing" was superior to mine, more exact, more his master than mine. He had the Nothing working harder for him than I did. My Nothing was lazy, ill conceived. His was sharp, exact.

But how can we be exact about the Nothing that existed before the universe?

Our definitions break down, nothing seems to be a concept that none of us can understand at this point. It has no common focus for us.

So we call it God.

God is nothing?

Now, what do you have in your pocket, smart ass?

It had been many years and they had stopped passing the threshold. Their faces, long and weary from the fight had stayed away for too long from their family. She sighed. She understood, but it did not ease the pain. They fought and struggled in a confusing time, a time where men were as fearless as wolves and as certain as children stripped away from their mother’s breasts.

Her’s had been taken too, and she had watched them go, helpless to hold them to her, and they with their looks of hurt and abandonment could only leave and struggle.

What was there of her family now except the table cloth, the family cloth, perhaps the fabric of the family. She unfolded it and billowed it up and up, and it came to rest over the back of a wooden chair. She pulled it to her chin and began to fold its tightly woven linen. It was rough against her skin and smelled faintly of bacalao despite the washing. She smiled, pressing it closer to her chest and making a fold along one of the creases. The rivers of red and green flowed to the floor twisting, turning, tumbling over each other in their intricately embroidered simplicity. Giving it a snap, she straightened the fabric and grabbed a corner, one of her corners. Her daughter had wanted to sew them but there were still things that a mother needed to do. Besides, everyone had always remarked that her corners were straighter and stronger than anyone else’s. They used to come to her and ask her to do the corners.

And here, she pulled her corners on top of each other and pressed them together within the folds.

"Ay, ama," Iker yelped, "I’ve spilled mosto on the table cloth."

"Why don’t you be more careful!" She chased him with her hand raised and he ducked out of the way and through the door.

"Oh, what am I going to do?" There were so many stains on the cloth now after the past ten years. There was blood from the rare cooked chuleta, mosto more than once, dirt, grease, wine, and grimy fingers covered with God knows what. Gone was the brilliant luster of the day she and her mother had sat down and sewn the seams. It was so white then. The red and green had shown so remarkably.

Her fingers grasped the table cloth again feeling the creases time worn with washings and pressings. The lines were almost permanent and her fingers felt the texture.

She unfurled it once again over the chair and onto the table.

The intertwining red and green embroidery that had stood out so perfectly against the white linen was a bit more dark, and the colors a bit more white. There was the spot where Iker had spilled grape juice. And here was the place where Asier had always wiped his hands under the table. There in the middle were the remnants of each of their slaughtered veal cows. Some were better than others, but the stains of blood had all blended together in time.

These were her photographs, her memories that it had all been real at one time. It was real wasn’t it?

"Ama, what can we do? They bombed Gernika? They said it was the Navarines, but how could they bomb their own people. We have to go, there is nothing else to do. We have to go to fight."

She understood then why they had to leave even though the fight was hopeless. They had enjoyed many years of innocence in their house with the cloth, but they were such babies… and even now.

With a tug she pulled the mantela from the chair and laid it across the table. They would need six plates, she thought. Then she would have to open fresh bottles of cider and set their places.

They had returned one month in a cold December when the fighting had stopped for the holidays. The Germans worked on holidays, but they did not have to worry about the Spanish.