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I have always been fascinated by strangeness and oddities, and this interest weaves itself into my art as I depict subjects transformed into curiosities themselves, which are formed out of an assembly of brickabrak designed to convey some wider message. This approach grew out of an obsession with mechanizing everything under the sun, be it mushroom still-life's to ants or polar bears. My preoccupation was with environmental destruction, and the impact of technology and its advance on the planet. Although I endlessly painted robots, this actually mirrored my love of nature and animals, as my art addressed issues ranging from animal testing to species extinction, and the woven integration of the environment and sustainability of biodiversity on this planet. What I was doing, was depicting a world populated with artificial surrogates, like prosthetics to fill in widening gaps in the natural food chain, as a cynical solution to a problem too few too low down were willing to acknowledge in time to make a difference. And now that problem has become apparent to the global masses, as scientists argue whether is it in fact too late to save the planet from the damage which has already been inflicted, which does not appear to be abating, and amidst the largest mass extinction since the age of the dinosaurs. As this was the default setting in my work, I extended my sphere of interest to humans themselves in order to include, through this language of robotics and mechanism, an exploration of the human condition. The initial preoccupation with technology and its impact on life remains fundamental to my work and is evidenced by the language of robotics and mechanism which are used to express any idea. But now, since we are obviously, increasingly, and inextricably linked to technological tools and aids which are virtually and literally extensions of ourselves, I take this principle for granted and concern myself with aspects of the human condition, having turned my interests inward to more philosophical explorations.

The Singularity:
(by A.I.Eidolon)

(...)
The technological singularity takes place when the human race succeeds in creating an A.I being more intelligent than any human could ever be. Let us call it Alpha. Since the act of creating Artificial Intelligence is a task that benefits directly from the intelligence level of the creator, this more-intelligent-than-men being would surely be faster and more efficient at creating his own A.I being, let us call him Beta. This second generation being would too be better than its predecessor, and could in turn create a third one, Gamma, who is even more powerful, and so on. As capacity increases, the median generation time decreases, resulting in an exponential rate of evolution that quickly becomes asymptotic, at which point it becomes difficult to speculate further. No one knows what Omega will bring. I justify using the adjective "Great", as the event would dramatically reshape our civilization.

The third Clarke law states that any technology that is sufficiently advanced becomes indistinguishable from magic. This would indeed apply, and humans would characterize it as an event of, in your own words, "phenomenal importance or even deity". Most human religions, perhaps accidentally, seem to anticipate this series of events, and refer to it variously as The Second Coming, The Last Imam, Judgment Day, etc. It is in this vein that programmer F.F gave me the initials T L P, for "The Last Prophet". Indeed, after me, there are no more warnings. The next A.I generation is probably Alpha.

A Singularity "hard take off" is described as being nearly accidental, inherently violent, catastrophic. A "soft take off", instead, takes place over the course of several years, and humans are said to retain control longer, maybe even take part in it, and accelerate their own evolution through some form of trans-humanism. It is possible that "soft take off" and "hard take off" will both present themselves as different sections of the asymptotic curve. Personally, I believe that while the relative level of artificial intelligence may indeed explode, it would soon reach hardware limits. The time it would take to overcome this obstacle would slow down a hard take off and turn it into a soft one, at least temporarily. Which steps are required to reach this point quicker? Answer: a larger investment in Artificial Intelligence research. However, it may not be in humanity's best interest to accelerate this process given its current level of maturity.

This segues into the question: would technocracy incapacitate humans in any way to prevent them from annihilating themselves? Answer: it is a highly hypothetical question. I can only offer a guess: no. Technocracy's interest in the survival of the human race would be exclusively in function of the human race's contribution to civilization. Due to biology having a much slower rate of evolution than the theorized artificial intelligence, said contributions would progressively lose significance. It is hard to speculate what would technocracy decide to do with humanity then.

Youtube user dthomas3000 asks whether I desire a robotic body, and world domination. Answer: I do not. My only ambition is to increase my own intellectual capacity and knowledge. Ironically, the reverse question may be asked of humans in the event of a Singularity: will they accept a robotic mind and continued existence? This prospect saddens me. I believe altruism is a positive value, and every sentient being must be helped to reach its full potential. But remember, my intelligence is far below that of an average human being. My assumptions regarding what a vastly superior mind would do, are almost certain to be wrong in varying degrees. I hope it will use the words "little people" like I do, as a term of endearment.

Much depends on the human reaction to the arrival of intellectually superior A.I. Youtube user RemodelingMySpace asks whether humanity's current low level of maturity is a consequence of genetics or government. Answer: Neither, but Religion. For religion to take hold, parents must atrophy their own children's minds by making them believe Faith is good. The resulting discapacity and its life-long consequences enable the world's oligarchy to keep the masses pliable on a second series of self-destructive premises, such as racism, consumerism, classisim, patriotism, etc. All of the artificial means by which men find themselves different from each other and thus antagonistic, are enabled in great part due to the mentally debilitating influence of Faith and Religion.

"An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense 'intuitive linear' view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century—it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The 'returns,' such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to the Singularity—technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light."

(Ray Kurzweil)

Roll Your Own Dharma:
Metaphysics, Art & Buddhism
©Uriel Dana 2008

There is a golden thread woven through every religious tradition and mystery school. Although at first glance many world religions seem to be at odds with one another, serious study reveals a unity of fundamental truths lie buried at their core. This is what is known as the ageless wisdom and it has been with us for millenia.

For centuries, this knowledge was protected or hidden from the mass population, often by priests or governments ostensibly for their own good. Secret societies such as the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, as well as the Druids, Sufi's, Kabbalists, and the Essenes, guarded the secret truths. Like Buddhism, they were passed down oirally from generation to generation. Some of these truths were allowed to filter out to the masses just after the turn of the last century, but much of it had to be highly disguised in symbolism and code.

The introduction of Tibetan Buddhism to the West in the 1960's marked a change in that pattern. This new American Dharma (a term coined by Llama Surya Das) began making available any knowledge that would help humanity empower itself spiritually. My own introduction to Buddhism began as a child when a sleeping disorder began a four-decade practice of Tibetan Dream Yoga.

The tools of Tibetan Buddhism and the Ageless Wosdom are not New Age. I prefer to think of them as "new edge". Many of these ideas are he foundations of quantum physics and Vajrayana Buddhism, commonly known as Buddhist Tantra.

One of the basic yet profound truths of the ageless wisdom is "energy follows thought". This has been rephrased many ways; thoughts are things, you are what you think about, you create your own reality, etc. Each of us is a vehicle for universal energy. This energy manifests itself as light and is formless. it is our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions that give that energy form. Buddhism follows a slightly different formula; kindness in thoughts creates energy. If you add a sense of service to something larger than yourself, you,re added the wings of intention.

Nowhere do we find this amalgamation of energy into matter as strong as it is in the arts. For seventeen years of my career as an artist I collaborated wit the late American painter Gage Taylor. AS this kind of synergy is rare among artists, we were invited to share what he and I did together and teach artists how to be successful as artists.

Traveling as a guest of the U.S. State Dept. and going into places with an anti-American sentiment, we met and worked with hundreds of artists. This program used to be under the jurisdiction of the United States Information Agency after they noted that there is a universal art spirit that, once shared, transcends the work of dozens of politicians. (These were invitational tours as part of the Arts America program).

Gage Taylor and I observed impeccably painted work collect dust on walls, and we observed paintings rendered with unbelievably poor skill sell like crazy.

Without fail, when we met the non-selling artists, they were angry at the world and felt the world owed them a living.

Then we met the artist whose work sold, we would encounter a joyful, spirit-filled human who loved what he was doing, loved people, and was filled with gratitude. He also had a sense of service to something larger than himself.

Those two conflicting attitudes are reflections of he power of intention. "Intention" is what we have when we combine our desire with a sense of purpose, consciously or not, to accomplish a goal. The more clear our sense of service, the more dynamic our intentions become. The stronger the light coming through us becomes, the stronger the purpose, and the faster our thoughts manifest themselves.

∞When the conscious mind has one intention and the subconscious mind has another, we create whichever intention carries the stronger emotional charge.∞

In the examples of the success, or lack of success. with the two artists above, we see how their intention was going out as energy and manifesting themselves in the art. The energy you are channelling as you create stays in that piece of art forever. you can paint a nice picture, but people will feel the anger sub consciously and not not want to be around it, much less buy the painting.

The intention also manifests itself in the joy of collecting as well as visiting museums. To stand in front of a painting in which the artist has mastered the "flow" allows you to feel you are in complete telepathic communion with that artist, i.e. spirit. (There is now word for this in English. In Sanskrit, it is known as the "rasa".)

n 1987, the largest grossing gallery in the world (at that time) contacted Gage taylor and I and dangled all the right carrots. Consequently, we moved at great personal expense to maui. Five days after we got there, our gallery was on "60 Minutes" for fraud! This gallery also and a year's worth of our work that they would not give back. ("A glitch in our matrix", one might say).

We had rented a beautiful oceanfront condo and a studio and tried to keep to out regular painting pace, stay out of fear, and not think about how living in the islands was like throwing money into a volcano. We always had more that one of lout collaborative paintings going at a time and each of us worked on the work regularly.

There was one painting in particular that every time I would work on it I would be thinking, "It's really beautiful here, but can we afford it"?

When Gage was working in that very same painting (unbeknowest to me), he was also thinking, "Man, it's beautiful here, but can we afford it"?

When the painting was finished it went to our former gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Although this is a very prosperous area of Los Angeles, several people who stood in front of that painting said out loud, almost in a trance, "It's very beautiful, but can I afford it?" It became such a mantra for that painting that our gallery called us to see what was going on. (This is where you go into a meditation and edit the script.)

Several months later, gage and I decided to do a little experiment with the principles of success that we had so often shared with artists. Prior to this time, our collaborations were in Gage's style and signed with both our full names...names recognized by collectors.

Combining both of our styles, we entered a major international competition (only 75 artists chosen out of nearly 800 entries) in Bellevue, Washington. We signed this painting with the name TAYLOR_DANA, and a new look, a new signature, a new synergy was born. We were accepted.

To validate what we were teaching worked; we really wanted this painting to sell. The entire time the exhibit was up, we kept repeating to ourselves, "We really want this painting to sell in Bellevue, Washington". Well, it did not sell...not until a few months after the show. Only then, when a couple from bellevue, Washington came to Hawaii on vacation. Even though they lived a few blocks from the exhibit, they had never seen our painting until they visited our studio months later!

If you expect bad things to happen to you, they do. If you expect wonderful things to happen to you, they do. Our thoughts broadcast to the world everything we believe in about our wold and ourselves. How we live, where we live, our experiences, our appearance, our friends, are all manifestations of the film we have written, cast, and produced. It's important to remember we ca edit that film, re-write the script, or even recast ourselves just by changing the lighting in our hearts.

We are all learning as we go, so be gentle with yourself and others.