Evolutionary Aesthetics

81. I’m a really, really bad vegetarian: I basically hate vegetables. If boca burgers didn’t exst, I think I’d've died by now.

On the realm of loving to think, this occurred to me a few weeks ago when I was in Arizona for a photography blah-blah. ¹

Aesthetics is an evolutionary by-product. The thought popped into my head while looking at a (very beautiful) picture of a cup. I thought: why does this black and white cup just draw me in so much? Why do I keep staring at it? Then I thought, “I could make an image like this” and I looked down at the front entrance where beams of light streamed though the windows. I positioned myself in the exact space where the light was most beautiful and took a mental image. Then I thought:

Why is this exact position so much more appealing than any other angle?

Then, I realized that as I kept staring, my gaze would wander or I’d move my head just slightly to change the angle. And it struck me:

This isn’t the most beautiful angle, it’s the most appealing and attractive angle!

Big difference.

See, my brain saw the beams of light hit the floor and wall and instantly saw it as important. It thought:

this is different. This might be useful, or it might be threatening, either way it is novel and I should pay attention to it. I should look at it from a different angle.

And that is why I kept looking at it. I kept staring to see if it would change and when it didn’t, I tried to change how I was looking at it.

Recall the earlier photograph of a cup (or shovel, whatever). My mind stared at it and became enthralled over the possibility that such a phenomenon could exist in the world. It was captivated by it because it wanted to analyze it more closely or differently - - - but I couldn’t!

More broadly speaking, the reason we are attracted to certain things² is because our unconscious mind is trying to understand the objects (be they photos, sculptures, or paintings), but is limited in its appraisal process (by the frame or scope or whatnot). This makes it get stuck in a loop where it becomes extremely interested in something, it gets frustrated in the endeavor, and becomes drawn to it that much more.

Thus, the goal of a person seeking to make truly brilliant creative endeavors is to create something precisely limited in scope, but limited in the exact way that would unconsciously attract a person to it. Something is ‘good’ art to the extent that it does that effectively, bad art if it does not.

I’m probably really wrong about this,³ but my interest in aesthetics is only fleeting, so it doesn’t bother me if I’m wrong.

(This post was written with my eyes closed. Let’s see you do tht and not make a typo!)

1. Photos included for illustrative purposes, not because they were the ones that inspired me.[↩]
2. according to me[↩]
3. If only because I reduce a subjective experience to it’s evolutionary past.[↩]

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Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts [part 1 of 2 of (part 2 of 2)]

80. My circle of friends hasn’t really changed since middle school. This alone makes me want to leave New Mexico.

This is Daniel’s long awaited response,

In a recent conversation, Pixel and I argued whether or not “streets-smarts” was anything beyond a made-up term that stupid people used to make fun of the smart. My friend doesn’t think that street-smarts exist, and originally I might have agreed, until my friend “the walking dictionary” decided to start researching the different types of “smarts.”

I’ll play devil’s advocate; this is my defense for the existence of street-smarts. The problem with street-smarts is that it remains nearly impossible to define with any clarity. Furthermore, the examples about the nature of street-smarts create a sliding slope of puzzling interpretations. The difficultly with language and terms is nothing new. The nature of words have always created serious problems for those who study their logical forms. Take the word “chair” for example. The word chair can be easily misunderstood with the simplest of alterations to its form. A chair is something a person can sit on, it often has four legs, and supports the human figure. Yet when does a chair become a seat, bench, stool, place, or settlement? If the legs were removed would it still be a chair? Does a chair need to be made from wood or metal? The truth is that words can become very complex things, but this is nothing we didn’t already know before.

There have been several objections to language and the troubles their terms create, yet language remains one of the most important developments ever made. My friend Pixel doesn’t believe street-smarts exist, I might have agreed before, but I don’t now. Neither does the chair. The importance of words should not be restricted to rigid definitions, because this would make discussions impossible. A chair is nothing more than a word. Like ’street-smarts,’ what matters is what the connection implies. When I tell my brother that my friend Carlos can’t do anything without the direction of a book, this criticism will never appear in the dictionary, but my implication suggest some element the two of us can relate. The term street-smarts only exists because it contains something people can use to relate the implications, these words offer the means to meaning, and are only instruments of our ability to share.

Thus, unless Pixel is willing to toss out the rest of the dictionary, street smarts must stay.

(Editor’s note: Part One can be found here.)

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Blindness

79. I’ve needed glasses since I was in fifth grade, but I didn’t get them for eight months because my mom couldn’t believe that her darling son didn’t have perfect vision. How F’ed up is that?

I start a lot of projects without finishing them. Sometimes I start them never intending to finish them. One of my oldest projects (so old, in fact, that I don’t have a link to when I started it) is to read all of the books that have won a Nobel Prize, or have had any major impact in the literary scene. Ashley just posted about something similar.

Well, now I’m sort of getting back onto that project. I’ve been a lame-o this year and have only read The Three Musketeers for my ‘read your weight in books’ project, but I’m finally getting back into that into the project by reading the Nobel Literature Winning Novel “Un Ensayo Sobre la Seguera.” This doubles its impact because it also helps me with my other project: that of ‘making my Spanish not suck so bad.’

It’s a good book.  If you doubt it, just check out the trailer for the movie they’re making out of it.  I, personally, can’t wait.

Last Year: I'm such a jerk to myself
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nabµf #13 of 29

78.  I twice had long(ish) hair.  I claim I’ve had red, yellow, and pink hair, but most of the time I’m exaggerating.  (We had no idea what we were doing at the time.)

Pixel was invited to his younger cousin’s graduation.  She talked to him about high school and he reminisced about the crazy things he did in his youth.

“Like when you painted your hair blue?”  his cousin asked.  Pixel had never dyed his hair blue, but he did pose in a blue wig for a photograph once.  He kept this photo in his wallet as proof that he did crazy things in his youth.  He didn’t show it to anyone, because he didn’t want them to think he was crazy.  But he did mention it constantly, though. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to see that,” his cousin continued.

“Yeah, I did crazy things back then,” Pixel lied vociferously.  “I should do it again for your graduation.”

So Pixel decided to dye his hair blue despite his cousin’s objections that she was joking.

Pixel bought some hair dye and bleaching products so that his friend’s girlfriend could do the unmentionable thing to his hair.  First, they bleached it and Pixel’s hair turned a magnificent shade of yellow.  But, since it was blue they were after, they had to bleach it again.

They did not realize the first bleach had washed out all of his scalp’s natural oils.  Pixel, not having bleached his hair twice in a row before, was not expecting the feeling of 10,000 red ants biting his scalp as the peroxide ate at his skull.  He also was not expecting the toxic fumes his head was emitting to be deadly.

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Enter now, supplies are limited, entry is not

77. My parents immigrated to the United States in 1987. As a direct result, I sort of want to thwack people whenever they talk about immigration (illegal or otherwise). Frankly, there are very few people I consider qualified to talk about the subject in any in-depth way.

I’m doing it. I’m going to have a contest. Hey, I might as well, right? You guys are like, fans and stuff.

This particular contest begins as an offshoot of this contest. I’ve entered several identical contests since then, but haven’t received anything yet (despite winning one a few weeks back). So I’ve decided to hold my contest now rather than later because I’m impatient like that.

This contest is a Pay-It-Forward-style giveaway. I send a care package¹ to three of the people that comment on this post.  Each of those people then holds a similar contest online and sends a similar package to three other people.

In my particular version of this contest,² two names will be chosen at random from whomever comments and one will be chosen based on their ability to stump me. All you have to do is think of a general knowledge question that I cannot answer. (No Google.) You can ask as many questions as you want, but the winning question will be be something I should know but currently don’t.

Ask me anything you want, I’ll answer what I can and keep you updated on who is winning.

The contest ends on Saturday. Comment now, comment often, and let’s see if you can Stump Pixel. Good luck!

1. with notebooks, pens, stickers, maybe a plush bunny of some sort[↩]
2. It’s been well-documented (Here, here, here) that I’m really bad at following memes without introducing my own personal mutation.[↩]

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