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From The Restory - Conversations On The Journey (222)

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Artificial Intelligence 

What I'll Miss Should Humanity Fade



The Conversation




Elements From The Conversation







Creative Piece

Starting with this week's blog entry, we're adding a new facet - something creative in whatever form, that expresses the theme without words.

This week it's the famous painting by Joseph Turner, "The Fighting Temeraire" (1838).


An old, glorious wooden warship (the Temeraire, which had fought in the Battle of Trafalgar) is being towed away at sunset by a small, black, smoking steam tug to be broken up.

It is probably the most famous visual metaphor for the transition from the old, hand-crafted, wind-powered world to the cold, efficient machine age. The steamboat does not care about the history or beauty of the wooden ship; it is simply efficient.

The word Temeraire literally means "the one who dares" or "the fearless one" (from the French téméraire). And the ship repeatedly lived up to her name; at the Battle of Trafalgar she repeatedly entered the fiercest battles to save other ships. She was the pinnacle of human bravery, wood craftsmanship and the art of harnessing the wind.

But in Turner's painting there is nothing "warlike" or "dauntless" about her anymore. The great, mighty warship that once determined the fate of nations is now utterly powerless. She cannot even move under her own steam (or wind). She is dragged like a forced prisoner to her own execution by a machine barely a fraction of her size. The chivalry of the old days is over. The new world fights with cold, mechanical efficiency. The black steamer does not fight the waves or the enemy; it simply ignores the wind and the current with brute, calculated force.

Turner has captured that irony masterfully with his light. The proud old ship looks almost like a ghost – white, light and transparent, already halfway part of the spirit world – while the little black tug, dark, solid and unsympathetic, bursts into the new era.

Music

For the imperfect, broken human - who else but our Leonard?




With our love.


George & Matilda







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