Sociopath Community

Allegory of the Hawk and the Serpent

This is my favorite piece of artwork atm, it's a creation by an artist named Brenden Wiuff and is conceptually driven by the Capital management and portfolio optimization ideas of Christopher Cole of Artemis Capital. 

The above explanation and the artwork comes from the following paper published by Artemis Capital: The Allegory of the Hawk and Serpent It's a really good read if your interested in the evolutionary cycles of capital and specifically the inner functions and implications of volatility across the history of markets. 

The reason these images resonate with me is simply because I love symbology in general. One of the reasons I'm so attracted to mathematics, physics, and computer theory is merely because they are symbolic arts at their core. All of the most powerful ideas in mathematics are summarized in some symbol. Often these symbols scar people via intimidation but in reality they are meant to make things as they take a series of steps and encapsulate them into a singular symbol - if you recall the symbol you unlock knowledge nested within it. 

Examples - 

In the context of capital which is something that dominates our times this sort of imagery is never used to convey ideas, it's always some equation, method outline, or chart. Such things are all well and good but this type of imagery is striking and far more rememberable when dealing with ideas of cyclical destruction and rebirth . The imagery already exists and is used across cultures so why not continue the tradition of its use but for a new context? 

For a moment, I thought I understood you a little, Alice. Now I understand I don't. Which is fine.

I went through that artist's profile, and I found something very interesting -- I can see why you like him.

Someone else was trying to explain their fascination with math to me in a very similar fashion as you did a long time ago. She viewed math as a form of art. I've always enjoyed using math as a tool to reach some objective, and I can understand people's fascination with it in that regard. However, the moment that the application is gone, my fascination with math ceases to exist.

It's interesting to me how something like math can evoke drive in people as anything but a tool to reach some other objective.

The artwork is pretty cool. However, it took me less than a second of looking at it to realize we're very different people.

This painting. I flew so close to the sun. But my wings were fake and now I'm down here with you.

Chi No Wadachi. 

It's line work is solid, it's expressions are drawn by someone who clearly has a sensitivity to it himself, the use of speech is typically short and limited which lends more to the art than the communication, and his use of it makes for implications more so than a direct storyline being spoonfed to you as plot. He also does a masterful job attempting to make you relate to the main character with zoom ins on his expressions and skewed art that puts us behind the gaze otherwise of an unreliable narrator instead of the usual word of god approach. 

The work is done by someone who normally does horror pieces, but this time around needed to do something more family oriented and true to life. The constraints seem to force something a little more real out of him compared to his other works, and in that sense it shows how real life can be scarier for having the story feel a little more next-door. 

I'd say why I love it more specifically but the thing's a minefield of spoilers. The comments section on the site I've linked it through is also pretty wholesome. 

With the aid of LSD:  

Legga said: 

For a moment, I thought I understood you a little, Alice. Now I understand I don't. Which is fine.

I went through that artist's profile, and I found something very interesting -- I can see why you like him.

Someone else was trying to explain their fascination with math to me in a very similar fashion as you did a long time ago. She viewed math as a form of art. I've always enjoyed using math as a tool to reach some objective, and I can understand people's fascination with it in that regard. However, the moment that the application is gone, my fascination with math ceases to exist.

It's interesting to me how something like math can evoke drive in people as anything but a tool to reach some other objective.

The artwork is pretty cool. However, it took me less than a second of looking at it to realize we're very different people.

Yes, we are quite different.

I think fundamentally what separates us in scientific terms is the the data we are willing to explore and/or accept though i am having trouble to identify our conditions given I do think we overlap quite a bit as well. 

From what I see, you're less impulsive and more intrinsically driven, and you enjoy abstraction. Most of that is probably good, so you'll be better off than me.

I have a checklist for what data I'm willing to accept:
- It needs to have discriminatory power (i.e., can discriminate between different working hypotheses)
- It should be free of selection bias (i.e., not chosen post-hoc to support a given hypothesis)
- It should not be influenced by too many parameters (i.e., it should be easy to interpret the causal connection)
- It needs to be able to overcome any subjective interpretation of the prior probability (i.e., can not be anecdotal)

Data that comes from papers/other people's studies: I rely on how accepted said data/analysis is. I rarely read the papers or investigate much further if something is widely accepted.

For me, a hypothesis needs to have predictive power, a known prior probability, adhere to the law of Occam's razor, can't be both too speculative and too complicated at the same time (I have exactly one paper on a topic like this, and I decided not to pursue it further than that one work), and should preferably be something we can investigate within the next 10 years.

I'd imagine you're much more flexible about what you allow yourself to work on.

If TC is posting weird Warholesque cinema, I'm posting non paintings, too.

Bolshoi Ballet.

(My taste in paintings is rather bland, tbh. I like the type of impressionist era art that one can find on any coffee mug, or pillowcase  :&)

Xena said: 

If TC is posting weird Warholesque cinema, I'm posting non paintings, too.

 

 

Bolshoi Ballet.

 

 

(My taste in paintings is rather bland, tbh. I like the type of impressionist era art that one can find on any coffee mug, or pillowcase  :&)

 Holy shit xena your back?

Woww......