70’s Soda Sparkly, Malibu, 2023 (Archival Pigment Print) by Todd Weaver.
My pyramid
December 9th, 2025
Lightness
Music – Honesty – Freedom
Humor – Intuition – Integrity – Love – Humility – Patience
Take another step toward what matters.
They Keep Silencing Me But I’m Trying to Warn Them
November 29th, 2025
You might want to listen to what Geoffrey Hinton is explaining.
Via Wikipedia: "Geoffrey Everest Hinton (born 6 December 1947) is a British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist, and cognitive psychologist known for his work on artificial neural networks, which earned him the title 'the Godfather of AI'.
Hinton is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 2013 to 2023, he divided his time working for Google Brain and the University of Toronto before publicly announcing his departure from Google in May 2023, citing concerns about the many risks of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In 2017, he co-founded and became the chief scientific advisor of the Vector Institute in Toronto.
With David Rumelhart and Ronald J. Williams, Hinton was co-author of a highly cited paper published in 1986 that popularised the backpropagation algorithm for training multi-layer neural networks, although they were not the first to propose the approach. Hinton is viewed as a leading figure in the deep learning community. The image-recognition milestone of the AlexNet designed in collaboration with his students Alex Krizhevsky and Ilya Sutskever for the ImageNet challenge 2012 was a breakthrough in the field of computer vision.
Hinton received the 2018 Turing Award, together with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun for their work on deep learning. They are sometimes referred to as the 'Godfathers of Deep Learning' and have continued to give public talks together. He was also awarded, along with John Hopfield, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for 'foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks'.
In May 2023, Hinton announced his resignation from Google to be able to 'freely speak out about the risks of A.I.' He has voiced concerns about deliberate misuse by malicious actors, technological unemployment, and existential risk from artificial general intelligence. He noted that establishing safety guidelines will require cooperation among those competing in use of AI in order to avoid the worst outcomes. After receiving the Nobel Prize, he called for urgent research into AI safety to figure out how to control AI systems smarter than humans."
Via YouTube: "Geoffrey Hinton is a leading computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, widely recognised as the Godfather of AI for his pioneering work on neural networks and deep learning. He received the 2018 Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing. In 2023, he left Google to warn people about the rising dangers of AI."
"Heaven" is a song by the American new wave band Talking Heads, released on their 1979 album "Fear of Music".
Talking Heads, Fear of Music, 1979
August 28th, 2025
Via Wikipedia: "Cover versions:
In 1995 the song was covered by Iva Davies and Icehouse on The Berlin Tapes, the soundtrack album accompanying the ballet Berlin, for which Icehouse performed live on stage.
In 1996, the song was covered by Jimmy Scott on his album of the same name.
The song was covered by Eric Burdon on his 2004 album My Secret Life and in 1985 by Simply Red for their album Picture Book.
A German-language cover of the song, Der Weg in die Ferne, was recorded by Joachim Witt for his 1980 album Silberblick.
In 1986, Thomas Di Leva made a Swedish-language adaptation of the song, named Himlen. It was recorded for his album Pussel, and was also the B-Side of his single Snurra bakåt!.
Singer Q Lazzarus covered Heaven for the 1993 film Philadelphia (directed by Jonathan Demme, who had filmed Stop Making Sense). Her version was not available in its complete form until the release of the soundtrack from the documentary Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus in 2025.
k.d. lang covered Heaven for her 2011 album Sing It Loud.
The National contributed a cover of Heaven to the 2024 Talking Heads tribute album Everybody's Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense."
Typeface Transito (1931) designed by Jan Tschichold.
Wear life like a loose garment
June 3rd, 2025
Via ChatGPT: "The phrase wear life like a loose garment is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, reflecting his teachings on detachment and humility. However, the exact origin of this saying is unclear, and it may not be directly traceable to his writings. Some sources suggest it encapsulates his philosophy of living lightly and without attachment to worldly possessions.
In the realm of spiritual teachings, a similar sentiment is expressed by Gautama Buddha, who is quoted as saying, 'Wear your ego like a loose fitting garment.' This advice encourages individuals to approach life with humility and flexibility, avoiding rigid attachments to one's sense of self.
The phrase has also been embraced in various contexts, including Twelve-Step recovery programs, where it is used to promote emotional resilience and detachment from material concerns. In this setting, it serves as a metaphor for not allowing the world to bind or define one's sense of self.
In summary, while wear life like a loose garment is often linked to St. Francis of Assisi, its precise origins remain uncertain. The concept resonates across different spiritual traditions, emphasizing the value of living with openness, humility, and a light touch."
Constructing Onkalo (Finnish for "hiding place")
May 25th, 2025
Via Wikipedia: "Into Eternity is a 2010 Danish documentary film directed by Michael Madsen, released in 2010. It follows the construction of the Onkalo waste repository at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland. Director Michael Madsen questions Onkalo's intended eternal existence, addressing an audience in the remote future."
Via The Guardian: "'I'm interested in what this topic tells us about the world we live in," says Madsen. 'This timespan – 100,000 years. What does it mean? It is so incomprehensible that you have to film something different to create an experience in which people can relate to it.'"
Via The New York Times: "There is something apocalyptically awful about Onkalo, to be sure, but the impulse behind it is noble, and the installation itself has an undeniable grandeur. That theologians, engineers, ethicists and bureaucrats spend so much time and effort trying to protect the distant future from the consequences of present folly speaks rather well of our current civilization, or at least that sector of it devoted to clear thinking and rational problem solving.
But the fact of Onkalo points in the direction of mystery and paradox. If it lasts as long as it is supposed to — and every precaution is being taken to fortify it against earthquakes, political chaos and the ice age predicted in 60 millenniums or so — this enormous feat of engineering may well be the only thing that survives us. It may, in other words, constitute the whole of the human legacy for a long, post-human time to come. And this will be especially true, and especially fitting, if the place is forgotten and never found."
Consider watching Into Eternity as a double feature with Cave of forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog.
Howl (2022) by Mel Bochner. Oil on velvet, 32 x 18 7/8 inches [81.3 x 47.9 cm], unique.
Tier-list
February 16th, 2025
Read the My Favorite Argument for the Existence of God article by Ross Douthat in The New York Times, stumbled across these lines, "But do I have a favorite argument within this larger run of converging claims? I was thinking about this while reading the effort by the prolific and precocious (he’s apparently still an undergraduate) essayist who writes under the name Bentham’s Bulldog to rank or grade a long list of arguments for God’s existence." and had to follow the link down the rabbit hole:
Via Bentham's Newsletter: "Tier lists on arguments for God are all the rage! Tier lists rank arguments for God on a scale from F to S, where F is the worst, S is the best, and the rest follow a traditional letter grade—A better than B, B better than C, and so on. [...]
Fine-tuning (S)
The fine-tuning argument is widely seen as the best argument for God. But crucially, there are actually three kinds of fine-tuning, and two of them dodge most of the standard objections (for more on the argument, see my very long post about it):
1. A priori fine-tuning: this kind isn’t about the specific laws. Instead, it’s about the more general point that most ways the world could be wouldn’t produce anything interesting. If the laws are very simple, then probably they’d just result in a basic pattern—too basic to produce anything. For instance, the ultimate laws could have just involved particles aimlessly bouncing around, or moving in a circle, or disappearing after a second, or moving in a line. If the laws aren’t simple, then they’d be almost guaranteed to produce random chaos. This kind of fine-tuning is probably the most convincing, and isn’t threatened by findings from physics.
2. Anthropic fine-tuning from physics: this kind proceeds from the striking observations that the constants of physics—the values that are plugged into the laws—fall into an incredibly narrow range needed to give rise to life. For example, if the cosmological constant weren’t in a tiny range, on the order of one part in 10^120 of its possible values, no life or complex structures of any sort would arise.
3. Fine-tuning for discoverability: this builds on work mostly from Robin Collins. What Collins argues is that some of the constants are precisely set in a way ideal for scientific discovery. For instance, he claims that the masses of many of the particles in particle physics happen to be an ideal quantity for us to measure them. This is expected if God set the constants in ways ideal for us to do science, but unexpected if they took their values by chance.
Taking into account all three kinds of fine-tuning, this argument is utterly devastating. Maybe an atheist can explain the second kind by a multiverse—though, as I’ve explored, a multiverse has various problems—but certainly they can’t use a multiverse to explain the first and third kind.
The problem for the atheist is that the improbability is so vast—it’s so wildly unlikely that we’d get a fine-tuned universe by chance—that they must, for their view to be plausible, have some explanation of fine-tuning. But the explanations of the first kind of fine-tuning just transfer the fine-tuning back a level—if the atheist invokes a multiverse, for instance, the multiverse itself is just a physical system that generates universes. But to generate the right kinds of universes—and universes at all, rather than producing nothing—it needs fine-tuning. Thus, even the multiverse just transfers things back a level.
While there are some mild ways to criticize the likelihood of fine-tuning on theism, the atheistic replies are not enough to overcome the vanishingly low probability of fine-tuning on theism. Atheism predicts a barren wasteland—the fact that isn’t what we observe strongly undermines it."
The Party is Over by Charles Xelot.
December 31st, 2024
I am grateful for...
Aging My GP recommended Outlive by Peter Attia, saying it covers all the key recent research on healthy aging. I’ve studied it and now use it regularly—it’s an excellent resource.
Art My lovely and witty friend Sarah Szczesny has spent several months this year away on residencies. I missed her and decided to visit her at CCA Andratx. For the first time ever, I chose to buy a piece of art because it felt deeply important to have a part of her work in my home.
Concerts Felt so blessed to see many amazing concerts in 2024. My top three were: Nick Cave, for his depth, uplifting energy, and the breathtaking brilliance of the musicians; Mary Jane Leach, for her soulful performance on the St. Peter’s Church organ in Cologne, where she recorded this very piece in 1989; and Róisín Murphy, for her incredible style and fabulous leadership.
Book Couldn’t stop once I started reading All Four by Miranda July. It’s both highly entertaining and a precise observation of the journey and catharsis during the climacteric period. She masterfully captures all those manic feelings, thoughts, and sensations many of us experience. Thank you, Carina Mergens, for putting it into my hands!
Exhibition In the mid-80s, I had the great privilege of studying with Anna Oppermann (1940–1993) at the University of Wuppertal. She coined the term ensemble – process-based spatial collages that encompass both the installed work and the underlying method. This year, Susanne Kleine and Anna Schäffler curated an enormous, precise, and affectionate exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. It was overwhelming and breathtaking.
Film Last and First Men is a science fiction film directed by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Olaf Stapledon. The 16mm black-and-white film predominantly features memorial sculptures erected in the former Republic of Yugoslavia beautifully photographed by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen. The story is narrated by Tilda Swinton. This might sound boring, as it did to me, but it is mind-blowing. Do not miss it.
Nerdom Stanley Kubrick’s films feel like an almost infinite source of reference and thus inspiration to me. I deeply admire the complexity, effort, and time that went into creating them. Here is a shot-by-shot analysis of my favorite of his films, Eyes Wide Shut. I adore this website and it so proves my point.
Routine Paradoxically, I find my routines fundamental to my sense of freedom. One of them is my yoga practice. This year, I discovered the location of my basic trust—it seems to reside between my shoulder blades, where it supports and lifts my heart.
Party Went to the 40-year reunion of my class of 1984. Almost a lifetime ago. It was overwhelming to meet so many of my former schoolmates and to see pictures of us from the '80s projected on the walls. An intense, confusing, and extremly rewarding experience.
Past Just learned that my great-aunt, my favorite childhood relative, didn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve either. This year, I started reading the same books she used to read to me to an 8-year-old close to me. Memories resurfaced, and I spent time reflecting on the influence she had on me. She passed on when I was 12, and this year I realized that I never truly grieved. So I finally did.
Tool Learning to use my phone as a tool in my daily practice wasn’t easy. It taught me how to share; through sharing, I’ve found connection, and that connection makes me feel whole, being of integrity. One day at a time. Thanks to all the wonderful people I’ve talked to and listened to, cried with and laughed with—you know who you are.
So, here we are... And what is next?
From the series They Cometh! paintings by Steve Seeley. The body of work is an homage the comic master Jack Kirby and his insane ability to capture and portray emotion thru simple line work and expression.
Can reliably detect AI-generated faces, while typical observers cannot
November 29th, 2024
Via PsyArXiv: "AI-generated faces have become virtually indistinguishable from real human faces. In this study, we demonstrate that super-recognisers—individuals with exceptional face recognition abilities—can reliably detect AI-generated faces, while typical observers cannot. Super-recognisers (N=36) and typical observers (N=89) were shown images of real and AI-generated faces and classified each as real or fake. Super-recognisers performed significantly above chance, with decision confidence positively correlated with accuracy, indicating metacognitive insight. In contrast, typical observers performed at chance level, with no insight into their accuracy. Aggregating responses using a wisdom-of-crowds approach improved super-recogniser accuracy substantially but did not affect typical observer accuracy. To understand the basis of super-recognisers’ enhanced sensitivity to real faces, we examined the facial cues used by each group. Super-recognisers and typical observers showed qualitative differences, with super-recognisers relying less on perceived familiarity and memorability—cues that have previously misled typical observers when assessing face authenticity. These findings suggest that understanding individual differences in face-processing ability may help mitigate risks associated with hyper-realistic AI faces."
“You maniacs, you blew it up!”
Neuroplasticity
November 6th, 2024
Via Sequencer Magazine: "We don’t understand color vision as well as you’d think from decades of academic study. We have classic theories of how red, green, blue, yellow, bright, and dark encode in the brain. […] 'That’s still the theory you get in textbooks. But it’s a very naive theory,' he said. 'There’s a whole mystery of how the brain really represents color.' […] In a pivotal study from 2009, their team at the University of Washington cured color blindness in monkeys […] Most color deficiencies come from anomalies in the cones, but one form called “dichromatism” is a genetic condition where one cone is entirely missing. The Neitzes treated dichromat monkeys with this categorically severe version of color blindness. And not only did they replace the missing type of cone with a first-of-its-kind gene therapy, they did this in adult monkeys, raising entirely new questions about sensory plasticity. I’m not getting this treatment anytime soon. The therapy is far from approval and, more importantly, I’m not so deficient that I want an eye injection that temporarily detaches the retina.
Cycles of sixty years: A celebration of re-born
August 8th, 2024
Via Wikipedia: "The traditional lunisolar calendars in the Sinosphere (Chinese calendar, Japanese calendar, Korean calendar) observe sexagenary cycles: cycles of sixty years. Thus, living sixty years had special significance as one completed a full cycle. Some saw it as the start of a second lifetime, and thus as an opportunity to give up some responsibility and return to enjoying life as children do."
Via Iromegane: "60th birthday is one of the biggest birthdays in Japan and is called Kanreki (還暦) in Japanese. This kanji, 還 (kan) means circulate and 暦 (reki) is a calendar and we can understand it as years. So kanreki literary means, your years completed a circle, in other word, you come back to the same year as when you were born.
Still puzzled? This comes from the way ancient Japanese people counted the years. They didn´t use the Gregorian calendar but the lunar calendar and each year was counted with 12 different animals, which is called Junishi (十二支) ; Ne (子/ mouse), Ushi (牛/ cow), Tora (寅/ tiger), U (卯/ rabbit), Tatsu (辰/ dragon), Mi (巳/ snake), Uma (馬/ horse), Hitsuji (未/ sheep), Saru (申/ monkey), Tori (酉/ chicken), Inu (戌/ dog), I (亥/ hog). This is still kept in the modern Japanese life. By the way, this year, 2015 is a year of sheep and the next year 2016 is a year of monkey.
Wait, if there are 12 animals, when it circulate completely, it only takes 12 years and you should be 12 but not 60. Mathematically incorrect. Each year is combined with one of Jikkan (十干), which indicate time and space and there are, Kinoe (甲), Kinoto (乙), Hinoe (丙), Hinoto (丁), Tuchinoe (戊), Tsuchinoto (己), Kanoe (庚), Kanoto (辛), Mizunoe (壬), Mizunoto (癸). For example, this year is a year of sheep and with jikkan, it´s Kinoto Hitsuji (乙未).
The combinations are 60 in total and that is why kanreki makes sense as one circle. As the person completes whole 60 combinations, the 60th birthday is also a celebration of re-born. The person will start a new circle of life."