Inktober Day 26, Dark

We live in a scary universe.

Our planet only has a molten core because asteroids once crashed into each other to form it’s very substance and the internal heat of our mantle is made of the energy of those violent shocks. The natural world is full of signs of the astrophysical reality of a much larger system of predation and I am sure you know that seeing a wilder beast feed upon another is not a pretty sight.

As early as 8000 BC, giant sloths were still roaming South America and our homo lineage, it’s intelligent way to hunt and not be hunted, is solely responsible for their disappearance. It fascinates me that giant koalas became extinct on the Australian continent for the same reason.

By raising cattle and other animals for food, we have created much more biomass then there ever was at any single point in time, when our planet was regulating itself during wilder times.

Very little is understood about the nature of energy but that never stopped this strange phenomenon from ruling very aspect of our lives, down to each and every motivation. Energy can best be understood when asking where movement comes from, more precisely what fuels movement. We also know that energy is responsible for generating transformation. As the used up energy becomes weaker, so does it’s ability to generate transformations, like a subatomic particle going straight through the earth, colliding with not a single atom from our planet.

Perhaps if we could study these elusive particles, we could find a way to reverse the current trends of climatic chaos but we cannot, nor will we ever be able to (or so I presume). We could get a peak into other worlds, how they have copped with their inevitable demise and perhaps be in a better position to simply accept the order of things. We could fathom a much broader history of energy, because I believe that these intergalactic travelers have a story to tell and it’s just that good.

On another note, I have been spending our dwindling pool of terrestrial energy playing the mobile version of Mario Kart. You rarely fall off the track which is a dumbed down yet fun way to play this classic. Because you can skip the intro, completely changing the start time of a race, I can only assume that you are competing against AI but the UI makes you feel like you are competing against other players so it’s confusing.

If there are AI based on real player’s style, that would really show the kind of data farming that is potentially going on and possibly explain why the free features are so appealing. Very hard to say but I am quite puzzled by the Y fork in starting times as I would think that everyone would be starting at the same time. The game has lagged at times but is overall very stable and fun to play.

For the Inktober prompt Dark, I decided to talk about the future. The Vampire here is allergic to the sun which is a testament to how far he is removed from the marvelous bio-engineering feat of photosynthesis or, the ability to convert sunlight into energy. Humans feed on the product of photosynthesis and the vampire feeds on humans, so he is once removed from plant life, which is responsible for creating our oxygen rich atmosphere. This oxygen then fuels our blood and that is what the vampire feeds on. It is all very philosophical you see...

The scale in the drawing may allude to something more. Like what happens when an organized society of Anteduvelian (coined by Vampire the Masquerade and taken from latin, before the flood) conspire to rule the earth.

The environmental musings in this article are based on the following talk by Vincent Mignerot. It is in French and focuses on a realistic and science based scenario brought on by the inevitable outcome of mixing our human intelligence with the power of energy itself.

He is critical of the environmental agenda, stating that it is anxiety causing to propose carbon neutrality by 2050, disregarding an entire history of energy, and that this level of contraction is a factor in a much bigger game of political polarisation. Game which we are experiencing globally. With impressive eloquence, he adresses the need humans have for the wold to make sense.

It ties beautifully with my own philosophy. I find meaning in caring for the environment, even though I feel like we have gone too far for I believe in an “inevitable” scenario that is similar the one Mignerot describes.

It is worth meditating on the fact that aside from whale oil, a form of energy has never taken another one’s place. In other words, wind and solar were built on top of nuclear which was built on top of fossil fuels, which was built on top of coal. One never reduced our need for a previous form of energy.

A sizeable portion of environmental discourse is, like so much theory, based on a false economic model that puts resources back into the ground as though reality was just a video game simulation. An economic model where the resources are free and value is “created” from transforming those resources.

Monsters are hyper-objects. Now more then ever, they help us cope with a reality that is to hard to fathom, let alone accept. Like dreams and nightmares, their role is to take the long way around to help us make sense of the world.

I love teaching classes at Green Apple, it is challenging since my kids don’t always get behind my projects but since when have I been known to back away from a good challenge?

Following the creation of these monsters, there was a Where’s Waldo like exercise but unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures.

My parting word of advice.
When Greta tells you to listen to the scientists, don’t expect her or her friends to be the middle-person to deliver this science. Do your best to find graphs and other scientific sources of your own. Full disclosure, my mom is often that middle-person to me, but she goes on sites like Seemorerocks for scientific information that is generally hard to find and we’ve been at it for years so I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have a vagenda.

Thank you for reading this unlikely mix of kids' monster drawing, Inktober, eco centered discourse and of course Mario Cart (because you know...). Let me know your thoughts on the larger issues here as I would be happy to discuss them with you, unless you are a climate change denier in which case, please move on.

Thanks also to @OCD which has done such a terrific job making us artist feel special and celebrated for Inktober. You humanoidz are da bomb yo!