recently a prof at ubc wrote me asking permission to use some screenshots
from my work. he's writing a book called 'a philosophy of computer art'.
now, that's interesting to me. how would i write such a thing myself?
well, i'm not sure, but what i want to say in this e to you, mike, is that i
would regard it as important in such a book to involve the theory of
computation in some ways. could we say that the big picture of the theory of
computation is about what can be done with/by computers and what can't?
it's richly ironic that the turing machine fell out of turing's main work of
solving the Entscheidungsproblem. he was out to solve a math problem,
mainly, not invent the computer. and the turing machine was invented to show
that there are some tasks no machine can complete. not to do amazing things
with the machine, but to show that there are some things no machine can do.
the greatest machine ever invented was invented to show that there are some
things no machine can ever do. that's poetic.
but we also see that it was invented to plumb the reaches of what is
possible with machines.
what would this have to do with a philosophy of computer art? well, i would
think that a philosophy of computer art should have a firm grasp on the
theoretical nature and limits of computers. the poetics of computer art
should include the theory of computation as one of the erm 'touchstones'.
but it and art are generally worlds apart.
there's so much fear about our relation to machines. similar to the reaction
to darwin's ideas, in his day. just as people felt that it diminishes
humanity to think all living things on earth descend from common forms,
people feel that it diminishes humanity to think that there probably are no
thought processes of which humans are capable and computers are not.
but just as we now see Darwinism in a different light--we don't feel
diminished by it, but are opening our eyes to the wonders it helps
reveal--about ourselves, our history, and all living things on the planet,
and our shared history--so too, i imagine, over time, will we start to
open our eyes to the mysteries and solutions that are raised in the idea
that we are basically machines--amazing machines, but machines
nonetheless.
poetry is partly about who and what we are. poetry that can deal suitably
with the notion that we are machines is needed, just as art and other
expressions that reveal the visions of darwinism was and still is needed. so
that we might be both rational and fully human, see the beauty in what truly
is.
ja
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