Interrobang ?!?……

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  1. the floor is open……

  2. Kinda looks like one of those “fez” hats to me. Would that disqualify me for a job at a chair factory?

  3. first image……

    observe the edges between the bands of color…..

    what do you see…..

    second image…..

    context is everything……

    third image……

    😉 chairs ?!? right ?!?…..

    fourth image…..

    what the heck……

    • RiaD on January 27, 2008 at 23:28

    the i’ll be back later…

    #1- each colour has 7 bands, most saturation at left, least at right… the 7th looks white… each bands edge get fuzzier & it seems the horizontal length is less also.

    looking at both blocks of colour thr right side seems cloudlike(the only word i can find to describe)

    #2- two triangles with 3 pac mans holding up the one on top. when i cover the pac mans there is one triangle with a “3-sided throwing star” (i dunno what you call this shape- like if you cut a pie in 3 equal pcs- the shape of the cuts)

    #3- there is one actual chair, one camp stool, one stool, one hassock and two things where the baby hammered wood bits together. all of these could be used to sit on.

    #4- there are 2 sets of 4 circles in an ell shape… but they differ in colour.

    there are 2 sets of 4 black triangles but the design/placement varies.

    there are 2 sets of 2 white objects but what shape they are varies.

    there are 2 sets of 3 black objects but what shape they are varies.

    no 2 sets have design, colour & shape the same

  4. Crazy uncle mark: hum

    Luke what is that in your hand

    Luke: a rock

    why

    Crazy uncle mark: why is that a rock

    Luke: its a rock because its a rock

    Crazy uncle mark: now I know where dictionaries came from

    hum

    lets try it another way

    what am I doing when I name something

    and what is it that is being named

    Luke: well when I name something

    I am saying what it is

    like a chair or a tree

    Crazy uncle mark: I want to give you a new word

    using a word to represent something is sometimes called distinguishing that thing

    a distinction indicates whether something is a thing or is not a thing

    Crazy uncle mark: Luke is that a chair (points to lawn chair)

    Luke: yes

    Crazy uncle mark: is that a chair (points to a stump)

    Luke: it might be to some people

    Crazy uncle mark: very good

    but maybe not for everybody eh

    Crazy uncle mark: pretend for a moment that I have never seen a chair

    I don’t even have a word for chair

    describe a chair to me

    Luke: well

    it has legs

    it has a flat part

    sometimes it has a back or arms

    Crazy uncle mark: is a bean bag a chair

    Luke: sometimes we call it one don’t we

    Crazy uncle mark: I do sometimes

    then what about the stump

    Luke: well different people have different definitions for a chair

    Crazy uncle mark: it’s true

    yet there does seem to be something that we are talking about

    something that actually exists independent of our awareness of it

    would a chair still be a chair if we were unaware of it

    say it had been hidden and everybody who knew of it was long since gone

    Luke: yes

    Crazy uncle mark: why

    Luke: because people could still sit on it

    Crazy uncle mark: oh

    so a chair is a thing that can be sat on

    Luke: of course

    Crazy uncle mark: well wait a minute

    pretend for a moment that there was nothing which could sit on it

    would it still be a chair

    Luke: maybe

    if there was stuff to set on it

    Crazy uncle mark: what if nothing else existed in the world

    only this chair

    I’m not asking if something would be there

    I’m asking if what was there would still be a chair

    Luke: I don’t know

    this is pretty hard

    Crazy uncle mark: yea it is isn’t it

    Crazy uncle mark: let me repeat back to you what I have gotten so far from our conversation

    things are things because we recognize them to be so

    things would still be things if we were not present to recognize  them

    things might not be things if nothing else existed

    we’re not sure about that one yet

    Luke: yea

    Crazy uncle mark: what do you think would happen if I got 100 people together from all over the world

    and we put 100 objects in a room

    then we asked these people to go in one at a time and pick all of the things which were chairs

    Luke: Crazy uncle mark you always ask such hard questions

    Crazy uncle mark: Luke I know you and someday you will be glad I did

    Luke: I hope so

    Crazy uncle mark: what would happen if we did what I have suggested

    Luke: well

    they would pick some of the same things as chairs

    Crazy uncle mark: would they disagree on some things

    Luke: sure

    of course

    Crazy uncle mark: here’s one for you

    would all of the things in the room get picked by someone

    in other words would there be anything which no one would pick

    Luke: I don’t know

    it seems like there would have to be

    Crazy uncle mark: would there be someone who didn’t pick anything even though everyone else picked at least one thing

    Luke: how could that be

    that would mean that there isn’t anything which we all agree on as a chair

    Crazy uncle mark: what’s wrong with that

    Luke: well then it would only be a chair because we said it was

    not because it was a chair

    Crazy uncle mark:  hum what do you think of that

    seems crazy when we talk about something for which there is a lot of agreement about like a chair doesn’t it

    Luke: it seems really crazy

    Crazy uncle mark: here’s one for you

    what if we took 100 people and one chair

    every second we remove a tiny chunk of the chair from it

    would there come a point at which we would all agree that what was left was not still a chair

    Luke: I think so

    yes

    when we could no longer sit on it

    Crazy uncle mark: clever

    two things emerge for me then

    tell me what you think of this

    first except in the most unstructured examples

    a thing is not a thing because of its material

    otherwise removing material from a thing could not make it not a thing

           because some albeit a very small amount would be left

    second a thing is a thing in someway because we or someone

    else sees a relationship between that thing and another

    thing

    how am I doing here

    Luke: ok I guess

    Crazy uncle mark: lets explore this a little farther

    look at these two illustrations

    in one of these we use visual exemplars to suggest thingness

    in the other something else is happening

    yet these two illustrations are really very similar in the way they work

    what do you make of the second one

    and don’t worry I didn’t quite see it at first either

    the two look at the images above of the circle with chairs and the geometric figures….

    Luke: the first one is obvious

    but I don’t understand the second one

    Crazy uncle mark: remember back at the beginning when I asked you

    to describe a chair

    Luke: yes

    Crazy uncle mark: well describe the collections of objects in the

    illustration so that they all fall under the same set of

    characteristics or attributes

    you know like legs and flat top and so on

    Luke: I don’t know how

    Crazy uncle mark: here’s a description

    the things on the left all have two of three possible properties or

    attributes

    roundness, solid color, and bilateral symmetry

    the things on the right have only one of those properties

    this is an example of a polymorphous set

    and most of the things we talk about fall into this kind of thing

    Luke: ok

    if you say so

    but I don’t get it

    Crazy uncle mark: think about it for awhile ok

    get back to me

    Crazy uncle mark: another one for you

    what if I was in space over our planet

    what would I see

    Luke: well

    the planet of course

    Crazy uncle mark: good

    and what would I pick out as the parts of the scene

    Luke: oceans and continents, mountains and rivers and plants I guess

    and snow

    you would see snow

    Crazy uncle mark: and what would happen if I got closer to the

    planet

    say so that all I could see was a single continent

    Luke: ah

    forests and individual mountains and maybe a few rivers

    Crazy uncle mark: would I see the oceans

    Luke: no

    Crazy uncle mark: and if I got closer still

    say over a particular area

    Luke: trees and lakes

    so

    Crazy uncle mark: it’s a great experiment to do with your mind

    and here is what I notice

    what things show up depends on the scale of observation

    different scales

    different things

    curious

    things also seem to all be made of other things

    they are composite or aggregate

    except in the most unstructured examples

    a thing is not a thing because of its material

    otherwise removing material from a thing could not make it

    not a thing because some

    albeit a very small amount would be left

    Luke: yea like a body

    with cells and organs

    Crazy uncle mark: yea

    Crazy uncle mark: you know what this makes me think

    Luke:  no

    Crazy uncle mark: that a thing is a collection of other things

    and what makes it a thing in this sense is its persistence or

    duration

    Luke: what do you mean

    Crazy uncle mark: here’s another word for you

    invariance

    it means something stays the same even though you change

    some other things

    Luke: what do you mean something stays the same even though you

    change some other things

    Crazy uncle mark: I mean that if you change the scale of observation

    either with respect to the space or time considered

    something about the relationships of the aggregate parts

    of the scene remains the same

    Luke: hum like a body

    Crazy uncle mark: very good

    or an ocean

    constantly changing yet in some way always an ocean

    Luke: ok

    Crazy uncle mark: lets see if I can sum up

    things are things because we recognize them to be so

    things would still be things if we were not present to recognize  them

    things might not be things if nothing else existed

    different things show up depending on the scale of observation

    different scales

    different things

    things also seem to all be made of other things

    they are composite or aggregate

    except in the most unstructured examples

    a thing is not a thing because of its material

    otherwise removing material from a thing could not make it

    not a thing because some

    albeit a very small amount would be left

    yet despite the appearance of different things at different scales

    something remains invariant often

    Luke: ok

    it sure is complex for such a simple thing

    I don’t think of all of this stuff when I name something

    Crazy uncle mark: no you really don’t

    it all seems to happen relatively automatically

    and relatively unobserved I might add

    Luke: things are squigley

    Crazy uncle mark: they sure are

    it gets even worse when you start to try to find out where one

    thing ends off and one starts up

    here again it seems to depend a lot on the scale of observation

  5. First impressions..

    It’s easier to wash out the blue.

    I used to stare at sketches of 3-d boxes to change the perspective.  They’re both there anyways.

    Chair

    Yes No, flip.

    Hmm….dialog?  I don’t know if that counts.  Plus now I’m chronically late…

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