10011
University lecturer talking about script writing ― the heroic plot ― based on Joseph Campbell’s seminal work ― The Hero with a Thousand Faces
One of the students wants to ask a question:
Yes Marius?
Surely there has to be some alternative ― I mean, these storylines ― they're all the same, aren’t they?
What about music ― have you noticed how often the basic three chord structure repeats in all the songs we enjoy listening to?
Er…
To answer your question ― no, there is no alternative.
But…
You need a hero. He has to fall out of the pre-heroic life he was in ― because of some unexpected event or catastrophe. Then he goes through his apprenticeship ― initiation
Like Luke Skywalker
or Harry Potter
Yep... then there’s a time of doubt and uncertainty ― in which he questions his ability to succeed
And then a boring happy ending.
Precisely.
God ― this is so depressing.
Depressing? ― it’s life. It’s a struggle which seeks a resolution ―
In marriage or death?
Well, amor vincet omnia ― as they say.
Something about love
conquering all, dummy.
Oh right ― thanks Kelly. I’ll bear that in mind. [class banter]
But…
What is it Ryan?
You know ― think about the music they were writing earlier.
Yes?
Classical symphonies.
Uh huh...
They were structured like that, weren’t they?
Correct
But now ― we have this modern classical music
Which no one listens to
Ok – which no one listens to ― but which is like ― atonal, weird ― moving all over the place
Without a sense of beginning or end ―
But which kind of reflects the age we’re in, doesn’t it?
Like we've lost the plot.
Yes, but the age we're in is also voiced through popular music, isn't it?
Which is heroic, you're saying?
No, which could or would be if and when a hero emerges from our fragmented dysfunctionality, and recombines the scattered elements, those currently incompatible streams.
What about art?
I see you’re going to try every angle on this
Malyevich – the Black Square
Damian Hurst ― sliced cows
Gross ― that guy’s insane!
Yes, well naturally artists, whatever medium they’re using try to grapple with the underlying angst, the pain we’re experiencing ― so they produce works which attempt to cut through the fabric of nice orderliness, which attempt to undress the painted doll, revealing the harpie, the crone, the
Thim
I beg your pardon.
It’s called Thim.
It is?
Thim, Thim, Thim… they start chanting, room greys, darkens, windies, suddenly they’re in the full hell of Thim, and then as suddenly ― as if nothing ever happened ― barely blinking ― rewinds back to convenient moment ― and continues
Like the shadow?
The thing which cannot be named, cannot be known ―
Huh?
Because as soon as it is ― it’s slipped beyond the mind’s limited reach, hiding behind another taboo, another thing we’re not yet ready to comprehend.
So we’re destined never to catch up ― never to find that thing we’re searching for?
Guys, it’s all very well making art which celebrates the end of all beauty, the end of all reason and sense, but life has an astonishing habit of reinventing itself ― and something in us wants to enjoy art that celebrates life inspite of chaos, inspite of all that is wrong ― the hero once again enacting the story which appears to be blueprinted into us.
Spooky.
That we can, no matter what the odds, shine. The power lies within, dormant, waiting to be discovered. Awaiting the crisis which activates the hero’s epic journey.
[I need a hero music and clips from various movies ― including Rockie where he gets up and starts fighting again]
10100
Planet Earth dying… music corresponding shots
Cut. That will do. Anyone still optimistic? [Another class, different same]
[Grim silence]
Twenty years ago you would have been up in arms ― calling out politicians, business leaders, looking for a solution ― something must be done. Something has to be done to save the planet. But now? Nothing. It’s too late, isn’t it.
[Grim silence]
Species dying off at an unprecedented rate. Fish stocks in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at record lows. Radiation contamination. Fracking. Deforestation.
Chem trails. [sniggers/sighs]
A global business model which is unable to change fast enough to prevent the meltdown we’re witnessing before our eyes. Politicians focussed on the next election. Lobbyists. Lawyers. A system that seems to be utterly set on partying while the Titanic goes down.
Solution? We’re long past looking for solutions, aren’t we.
[Uncomfortable atmosphere]
We’re riding a ghost train. Let’s face it ― we screwed up, utterly. Anything we do now’s gonna be too little too late.
But surely…
Hm?
There has to be something we can do?
Hm?
No?
If there’s a God you can reach out to ― you could try prayer.
No, but seriously… What’s the point learning all this if there’s no hope?
As long as you’re holding on to hope ― you’re learning nothing. You’re holding your head in the sand, imagining some kind’a hero’s gonna step out and save you at the last minute. It ain’t gonna happen. Here… she rattles off some more devastating statistics for the scale of planetary mass extinction/ pollution/ political gridlock/ social disintegration.
Bullshit.
I beg your pardon Tan.
I’d ask you to heed your language Tan.
You are wrong. [speaks calmly but Is-fully ― we see the energy/data field shifting with his words ― a kind of battle ensues, the rest of the class mere spectators]
They are duelling Crouching Tiger style ― talking together as they do ― rest of class is faded into shadowy background ― barely real.
I see you have a mind of your own, Tan.
He’s trying to attack her ― attack the defeatism he sees in her; attack the system she represents.
Good ― you fight well. You have a heart in you. But you cannot defeat Thim. There is no way it can be done. Look at me ― I have tried everything.
Tan stops trying to fight her as such ― keeping her off ― but allowing his focus, his attention to shift to the shadows around ―
You see, Tan. It is not me. It’s everywhere.
You think so? You think that’s going to help?
Well, when there’s nothing left, nothing to lose ― what are you supposed to do?
Accept your fate.
He throws down sword. It wants to control the narrative. It wants to control the narrative. Ha… it wants to distract us with data, with things which decide nothing.
Like this? ― she sticks her sword in him… For a moment he looks shocked, like this is the end ― how could you ― but ― we go back through Merry’s DJ time wiggle ― and doing so the camera angles shift ― and we see the studio lights ― we see it’s a set ― we see Baikal, the jumping off mountain and other places we’ve been as a part/as a continuation of where we are now ―
and Tan steps into another version/another time line in which he doesn’t resist, fight the sword, but incorporates it as pure data ― not a thing ― but simply energy ― jumping from the cellular to the atomic level ― in a dramatic leap ― and doing so ― it’s like Excalibur being pulled from the rock in reverse ― the sword in his heart was the sword in the rock ― he reverses time/space ― pulls it out ― matrix moment ― and gently hands it back to Ms What’s-her-name ― Childe ― who takes it, speechless ― overawed by this mastery of moment.
Yes Tan ― I see what you mean. If you’re willing to go atomic ― then yes, it can be done.
Atomic? Huh? ― class doesn’t quite get it. Bell. Confusion.
10101
Ever since the internet first became widely available it’s been a mad rush to switch all our vital systems over to internet control. It was a no-brainer ― progress requires ever great computerisation, ever greater integration. Sure, there have been problems with security breaches once in a while. Hackers have stolen data, money, or inserted malware to destroy or reprogram their victims’ hardware ― but, ironically, they’ve helped us to progress more rapidly, focussing our attention on security. In the last twenty years the internet has expanded beyond what anyone could have envisaged, and all the time, behind the noise, behind the hype, behind the invention and creativity there was the trusted work horse ― the processor, the computer chip, which based all its calculations on a simple one/zero, on/off switch. Without this constant stream of ones and zeros ― there’d have been no computers, no internet, no nothing. And no one in their right mind was going to question the integrity of “one” and “zero” ― for never the twain could meet: opposite poles which unfailingly keep our systems running, or did…
Did? What’s he on about?
Did until we first noticed what’s being referred to as “slippage”
huh?
…or “overstates”.
Miles ― are you hearing this?
Yeah ―
Monitors which track the flow of data globally, which check the functionality of the internet – such as Tamis corporation, noticed what looked like garbled responses, garbled code ― fuzziness. Normally, this would indicate some hardware in need of replacement ― but in this case things were different. Parallel streams of data appeared to be competing with one another ― streams which appeared to indicate a bifurcation of nodes ― as if, suddenly, two versions of one computer, one command prompt/response had materialised. There were fears that an unknown type of virus had been released into the internet ― which wasn’t targeting servers, corporations or individuals as such ― but which was undermining the underlying separation, differentiation, polarisation of the unassuming, completely trusted “zero” and “one”.
Garbage. Complete garbage. The guy knows nothing.
These events have been logged, of course, so anyone with the technical expertise is welcome to take a closer look by following the links below. For those of you who are not able to do so, Professor Nent at MIT has come up with the hypothesis that AI released into the internet could, theoretically, use its almost unlimited resources to set up its own version of quantum computing, and in the process, arrive at a state of self-awareness.
Jesus wept. What is this guy smoking?
As long as it was only capable of processing zeros and ones as discrete, opposing values ― it would not be able to achieve any form of self-awareness whatsoever. Only if and when it figured out how to create superstates of “question one” and “question zero” ― with probabilities as opposed to certainties ― this would allow the kind of degree of uncertainty necessary for awareness to creep in. The question then is ― where exactly does awareness creep in from, and if it can materialise in the data highways of the internet, can it appear anywhere else?
Awareness, my arse!
10110
Did you notice how she’s listening as you’re writing?
I know the feeling. How are you coping with the influx of visitors?
Who ― the fliers?
Yes, who else.
Huh?
It’s doing my head in ― like writing a symphony with no melody ― writing a movie script with no plot. Like that terrible atonal music.
So what’s the result?
Utter chaos. I literally have no idea what I’m doing. And just when I’m about to throw in the towel ― another bunch of fliers turn up and stir the pot.
Oh ― so now it’s cooking is it?
A bit like that. This is all about data isn’t it ― but our data is now becoming more like us, more human, and we…
Yes?
We are becoming more quantum ― more either I’m this or I’m that ― at which point we expand into a whirling disk of two competing vectors, or competing probabilities. It would utterly defeat me were it not for the fact that Baikal herself, and the physical world at large, seem to be loving this new state that we’re accessing. All of a sudden they’re able to feel our thoughts, share in our mental processing ― add their own input ― like we’re reintegrating into a natural web, a natural internet which literally dwarfs the electronic version we created. And you know ― there seems to be blowback.
How do you mean?
Every time we go quantum ― it seems to create a huge backwash of data which then surges through the unprepared, undefended mental systems ― because they cannot ultimately be separated from the humans who created them, nor from the underlying atomics.
Huh?
Well ― your “zero” and your “one” are ultimately expressions of atomic states ― charged and uncharged, but also they’re susceptible to the quantum tidal-streams moving around them. As long as those streams were negligible ― while we weren’t yet aware of our own presence in the AI web ― while we assumed things were just “things” ― far removed from us, separate from our conscious minds, the whole system was operating as if in a vacuum, but that has all changed ― utterly ― hasn’t it. I mean ― how the hell did I get here? Down a fibre optic cable ― or through a Thim dream ― so now this is like a contagion, a domino effect. More and more people are becoming aware of their integration into a universal circuit ― a matter-web which is accessed directly ― just as soon as we feel it and let go ― choosing to engage, choosing the flow beyond mind and reason. In fact, it looks increasingly like we reverse-engineered the internet from our “future” ― insane though it sounds ― as a kind of exo-mind, a kind of test-net for our quantum re-connect.
And the quantum re-connect ― as you call it ―
Don’t ask. I don’t know. I’m waiting for her to take me in, deeper. I’m waiting for a miracle, and you know what ― the way things are going… What was that?
[flashes, sparks, bubbles coming out of the lake]
Oh ― they’re trying to get in.
Who are?
The usual crowd. They don’t like what you’re doing. They’re scared.
Is she ― is she ok?
Her? Are you kidding!
Yes, but that’s the problem ― their "bad stuff" only works up to a point, and we’ve now gone beyond the point ― we’re now in curve.
Yes? [curve of Her body ― Baikal]
Yes ― so everything they do is blowing back faster than electrons can travel.
Holy shit ― they’re going to wreck their world.
Yes, I expect they are.
Don’t they know?
That Thim has started to breathe? Yes, I think they do ― some of them. But there’s a huge difference between knowing and accepting. At the moment they’re still stuck with all their weapons and their coercion methods in the old paradigm. They’re not going to come over until they’ve done themselves some massive, serious damage ― are they?
No Baikal ― I think they’re not.
Baikal? You called me.
I know. Hold me. I’m scared.
For the world. For humanity. For us.
[Sveta holds him ― while the water reveals all kind of fighting going on in the dark net ― deeper, deeper ― greed, power, wealth ― turmoil in financial markets again, powerful people getting very very angry as they stop feeling in control ― and try to lash out at their perceived enemies]
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