Stunning ultraviolet images of Mars captured by NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, offering scientists new understanding of the planet's atmosphere by rendering atmospheric ozone, clouds, and hazes in different colors. How far we've come from Étienne Léopold Trouvelot's pioneering 19th-century depictions.
We are cheating ourselves when we run away from the ambiguity of loneliness.
Beautiful animated short film about the wonder and fragility of life. Couple with what happens when we die.
Some artists want assurances that their own work not be used to train the AIs... But.. the algorithms are exposed to 6 billion images with attendant text. If you are not an influential artist, removing your work makes zero difference. A generated picture will look exactly the same with or without your work in the training set. But even if you are an influential artist, removing your images still won't matter. Because your style has affected the work of others—the definition of influence—your influence will remain even if your images are removed. Imagine if we removed all of Van Gogh’s pictures from the training set. The style of Van Gogh would still be embedded in the vast ocean of images created by those who have imitated or been influenced by him.
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What’s more, lines of influence are famously blurred, ephemeral, and imprecise. We are all influenced by everything around us, to degrees we are not aware of and certainly can’t quantify. When we write a memo or snap a picture with our phone, to what extent have we been influenced—directly or indirectly—by Ernest Hemingway or Dorothea Lange? It’s impossible to unravel our influences when we create something. It is likewise impossible to unravel the strands of influence in the AI image universe.
Nested into Kevin Kelly’s excellent Wired essay on creativity in the age of AI image generators is this excellent summation of the paradox of influence, which applies to every realm of creativity far beyond AI.
How they built the wormhole in the lab and what it all means.
Amanita muscaria, poisonous to humans, is edible for reindeer and might have inspired the myth of Santa’s flying sleigh. According to the BBC:
In the past, Sámi shamans took fly agaric in their visionary rituals. They even drank urine from reindeer believed to be under the influence.
HT @ologies
If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area… When you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.
David Bowie on creativity and his advice to artists
Nature is always listening – the fascinating science of mushrooms, music, and how sound waves stimulate mycelial growth.
Listening as a creative act: There are gifted musicians, yes, but there are also gifted listeners – the great composer Aaron Copland (born on this day in 1900) on how to be one.
Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge… It can tell us when we’re being lied to. It provides a mid-course correction to our mistakes.
Carl Sagan, who would have been 88 today, on science as an instrument of democracy.
The Dragon Arum and other stunning 200-year-old illustrations of flowers inspired by Erasmus Darwin’s scandalous scientific poem introducing the sexual reproduction of plants.
I have always felt that a human being could only be saved by another human being. I am aware that we do not save each other very often. But I am also aware that we save each other some of the time.
James Baldwin's lifeline for the hour of despair
1. Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.
Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future… The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.
C.S. Lewis, writing in the middle of a world war, on our task in troubled times.
We all have regrets and most of us know that those regrets, as excruciating as they can be, are the things that help us lead improved lives... They require our attention. You have to do something with them. One way is to seek forgiveness by making what might be called living amends, by using whatever gifts you may have in order to help rehabilitate the world.
The use of music is to remind us how short a time we have a body.
Music and the body – Richard Powers on the power of song.
The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines.
Leonard Cohen, who would have been 88 today, on creativity, work ethic, and when (not) to quit a creative project.