by Ciro Santilli (@cirosantilli, 34)

Art

Stuff that is beautiful but useless because it does not make food or houses cheaper.
Or from Ciro Santilli's best random thoughts:
Without technology, one cannot survive. Without art, one cannot live.
But that sure enough has a Jesus semi-precursor, and likely many others: man shall not live by bread alone.
There is some art however that lives in the fine intersection between beauty and usefulness:
Something is useful if it either:
  • makes money
  • creates novel knowledge, or present knowledge in a novel way, that others may find beautiful
Maybe those are genial. Maybe not. Nostalgia is just too strong to discern. Ciro still goes back to them for rest.
These did not stand the test of time however.
When Ciro was ten years old, he was addicted to 2 cartoons: Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z!
Pokemon had just launched in Brazil in 1999, 2 years after the Japanese launch: br.historyplay.tv/hoje-na-historia/comeca-exibicao-original-do-anime-pokemon (archive) And Dragon Ball, was first aired in 1989 in Japan! My God, those translations took forever back then!
And everyone was playing Pokemon on their Game Boy Color. Ciro was already cheap however, and didn't buy the console despite wanting it, and just played it through his friends handhelds. But maybe this is a good thing. Playing alone sucks.
Mostly video games of course.
First when he was really young, about 5, Ciro played a lot of NES, but he doesn't remember things from that era very well. Contra, Ninja Turtles, Battle Tanks, Duck Hunt, and some modern "real world jet" top to bottom rail shooter (TODO identify) are definitely some of the games he clearly remembers playing, see also: Figure "Five year old Ciro Santilli playing NES on a joystick". Nintendo hard was truly a thing back then.
As an honorable mention, Ciro remembers his teenage/young adult neighbours in Jundiaí playing some DOS games on their computer, notably there was a 3D racing one. This must have been around 1995/1997, so using some of the very earliest GPUs. Those games felt so incredibly advanced, including the required setup to play them, which required some command-line commands. It felt like some kind of black magic! But Ciro didn't really play them however.
Ciro then skipped the SNES and handhelds, which he played only through friends because he was cheap (but also because Brazil is a poor country remember, and imports are pretty expensive). He clearly remembers playing Super Mario World for the SNES and Pokemon on friends' Gameboys of course.
Ciro then went straight to 5th generation with the Nintendo 64 in 1994 which his parents bought for him during a trip to the United States. Once again, because he was cheap, the only game he bought was Super Mario 64, which likely came with the console? He played that game to death.
Then came Ocarina of Time, which blew everyone's minds, and Ciro would go to Blockbuster to rent it for the weekend, and again play to death with his friends. You had to arrive early at Blockbuster to rent it, otherwise other people would rent all copies!!!
The only time Ciro got robbed as of 2020 was when an older teenager stopped his bicycle in front of Ciro and took his rented Golden Eye 64 copy away from his hand, and run off. Poor drug addict.
Ciro always felt that the PS1 had a much uglier aesthetics than the N64, and didn't like the console. Playing a bit of Final Fantasy VI on his memory did stick deeply to his mind however. Ciro later played all good PS1 RPGs on emulation during University of São Paulo during amazing solitary nights.
And on the PC, Ciro was particularly touched by Age of Empires II and Diablo II.
As a young teenager Ciro would also play Counter-Strike with his friends at LAN houses. Playing that game would make Ciro extremely anxious, his hands got all cold, and it was a lot of fun.
After this Ciro grew up and notice that the only fun game is that of becoming become rich and famous in the real world.
This explains however Ciro's tool-assisted speedrun interests.
Outside of video games, Ciro got midly addicted to Magic: The Gathering in his early teens.
Lower teens, before discovering more hardcore stuff that is more genial and adult-venerable:
So a base mix of what you migth expect from a regular male teenager born in 1989 Brazil.
OK, Ciro still comes back to those from time to time, he confesses. Nostalgia, nostalgia.
The following are also adult venerable though :-)
Video 1.
Killing In the Name by Rage Against The Machine (1992)
Source.
As mentioned on Wikipedia, it has only 8 lines of lyrics.
And the most satisfying "Ugh"s ever recorded on tape. Rap rock perfectly describes the genre.
And no, the opening sentence "Some of those that work forces" is not understandable: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/262444/what-is-the-meaning-of-the-phrase-that-work-forces-in-rage-against-the-machine
Video 1.
Emmenez-moi by Charles Aznavour (1968)
Source. The ultimate ode to exoticism.
It should be a crime to automatically generate ASCII art from images.
For some ASCII art in the Bitcoin blockchain see: ASCII art.
        z

        ^
        |    *------*
        |   /|      /
        |  / |     /|
top -------*------* |
        |  | *----|-*
        |  |/     | /
        |  |      |/
bottom ----*------*
        |  |      |
        +--|------|-----> y
       /   |      |
      /    |      |
  x  /     |      |
    v
          left   right
Code 1.
3D cube plot ASCII art by Ciro Santilli (2021)
Tis term was invented by Ciro Santilli, it refers to ASCII art of text, essentially creating a typeface. in that medium..
Collections and overviews:
You just couldn't resist Googling it and clicking this page, could you? You naughty, naughty bearded programmer nerd. Yes, I'm talking to you.
TODO it is quite hard to actually find non-automatically generated ASCII art of people fucking, most of them are just sexy/horny women drawn by bearded nerds, likely and based on sticky physical paper porn magazines from the 80's, good old days.
                                    |
                                    |
   Tank Man                         |
   by Ciro Santilli          00     |
   2021 CC-BY-SA 4.0          \\  +-|-+
                               \\/   /|-+o
                                \\--+ / /o
                               /|\\ |/ /oo
                        |     / ----- /oo
                        |    /       /oo
                        |   +-------+oo
                        |   oo+---+ooo
                 00     |   oo     oo
                  \\  +-|-+
                   \\/   /|-+o
                    \\--+ / /o
                   /|\\ |/ /oo
            |     / ----- /oo
            |    /       /oo
            |   +-------+oo
            |   oo+---+ooo
     00     |   oo     oo
      \\  +-|-+
       \\/   /|-+o
        \\--+ / /o
       /|\\ |/ /oo
      / ----- /oo
     /       /oo
    +-------+oo
    oo+---+ooo
    oo     oo
 xx
 --
/||\
|--|
o||0
 ||
 /\
Code 1.
Tank man ASCII art by Ciro Santilli (2021)
This image depicts the Chinese government fucking 1 million Chinese people in the ass during the Tiananmen Square Protests, which was undoubtedly one of the largest gang bangs of the late 20th century:
Video 1.
The IBM 1401 mainframe runs "Edith" by CuriousMarc
. Source. 1960's punched card ASCII porn. Vintage. EDITH is also mentioned e.g. at: www.threedee.com/jcm/aaa/index.html. No ASCII uploads found however: www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/a2pser/the_ibm_1401_mainframe_runs_edith/.
Boring!
OMG, Ciro Santilli only learned about this in 2021 after: twitter.com/ryancdotorg/status/1375484757916672000
Figure 1. Source.
Our definition of "film" is a broad one, including any moving picture, of any length, animated or not.
For the standard "2 hour film" format, see feature film.
The best way to watch a television series is: wait for the thing to end. Then watch the first and last episodes of each season. The rest is fluff. And then pick up any missing interesting clips from YouTube. If a series holds you more than those episodes, it is one of the few amazing ones!
If you are going to make a television series, do make it a limited one. Plan one story, and execute it amazingly. Don't let things drag on and on.
The BBC 1979-1982 adaptations of John Le Carré's novels are the best miniseries ever made:
They are the most realistic depiction of spycraft ever made.
Some honorable mentions:
There is a lot of "who kills who" useless fluff, and everything to do with the wife is boring, but too much gold otherwise.
It is amazing to see how seasons got better and better until the finale. The last season was amazing, Ciro Santilli actually watched all episodes of that one! This is clearly seen on the evolution of metacritic scores.
Video 1.
That's The Best Coffee I've Ever Tasted scence from Breaking Bad
. Source. The chemistry and business related stuff is especially cool. Because when companies and criminals don't tell anyone about their secrets, it is up to the imagination of film makers to do so.
Video 2.
The Beauty Of Cooking scened from scence from Breaking Bad S02 E09
. Source.
It's just too charming, and has some deep themes.
Ciro Santilli enjoyed watching the temple flashback moments on YouTube.
Combat in the USA is of course terribly ridiculous due to guns Are Worthless.
A bit over the top, but convincing enough. A crypto-vampire show.
Ciro Santilli likes this.
He doesn't have the patience to actually watch full episodes with rare exceptions, rather just watching selected scenes from: www.youtube.com/channel/UCdeIGY2DIjpGf0A2m9GSE3g, but still, it is interesting.
What appeals to Ciro in this series is how almost nothing is solved by violence, almost everything is decided in the bridge, at the "cerebral" level of the command structure. This reminds Ciro of a courtroom of law sometimes.
Maybe there's also a bit of 90's nostalgia involved too though, as this is something that would show on some random cable channels a bored young Ciro would have browsed during weekends, never really watching full episodes.
One crime of many episodes is being completely based on some stupid new scientific concept, which any character to back it up.
Another thing that hurt is that due to their obsession with the senior members of the crew, sometimes those senior members are sent in ridiculously risky operations, which is very unrealistic.
Episodes that Ciro watched fully and didn't regret:
Semi worth it:
Not worth it:
  • Cause and effect
TODO
  • s06e11 Chain of command
Video 1.
The Fall of The Simpsons: How it Happened by Super Eyepatch Wolf (2017)
Source. This interesting video essay makes the main point that the Simpsons used to be good because they mocked mainstream. But then they became mainstream, which basically defeated their purpose. Think different from Apple comes to mind.
Although this was one of the children cartoons Ciro Santilli liked to watch, watching Dragon Ball Z as an adult feels like watching paint dry, everything takes forever! Apparently padding to sync with the manga: www.quora.com/Why-does-DBZ-drag-on-for-so-long The original Dragon Ball was likely strictly better, as it was much more fun and took itself less seriously. Also in DBZ power level inflation is taken to ridiculous levels. This is why One-Punch Man is good. Out of all evil characters, Frieza is one that made a big impression on Ciro, his graphical design is so good.
This was THE craze thing in Brazil before Pokemon, it was shown from 1994 to 1997. In particular the collectible action figures! It was possibly more popular in Brazil than e.g. in the US: www.quora.com/Why-was-Saint-Seiya-so-popular-in-Brazil
The thing as quite violent, rated for 14-year olds, but no one gave a fuck, 7 yo Ciro was happily watching it. We protect children too much.
That series also had quite a religious feel to it (as obviously suggested by the series English name itself). It must also have been a great motivator to getting young kids into astronomy!
Ciro's favorite character was definitely Andromeda Shun. He was smart and thoughtful, and had the coolest most complex weapon: his chain whips. He's also a bit effeminate, with his pink clothing and a gentle way. Perhaps that is the reason for adult Ciro's mild fascination with the Andromeda Galaxy.
The English name is horrendous... the Portuguese/French name is so much better: Knights of the Zodiac! Saying this in English just reminded Ciro Santilli of the Zodiac Killer. But nevermind.
Ciro Santilli really loved his documentary called Can't get you out of my head by Adam Curtis (2021), and then proceeded to basically watch all of this films.
Ciro Santilli was touched by this, and then watched several other documentaries by Curtis.
Part of Ciro asks if it is all a big conspiracy theory. But it feels and sounds so right.
Notably the part of the governments have lost all power to companies, and can't do anything meaningful anymore to actually represent the people, because globalization reduces the power of governments.
His films Blaise Pascal (1972) and Cartesius (1974) have the greatest scenery and wardrobe ever. The eerie horror movie soundtrack is also very interesting. Ciro was weirdly reminded of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980).
Episodes of the life of Blaise Pascal.
This film is really good.
Ciro Santilli defines a "business film" as a film about business, enterprises or entrepreneurship. Political thrillers are closed related as well.
This is one of his favorite film genres!
Some lists:
Great reports to how 2022-Ciro Santilli views how OurBigBook.com could go. Ciro can't help to feel that he is a mixture of both of the vision, tech and people guy. Not as extreme as any of them, but more like a well rounded (and less good individually) version of each. High flying bird vs gophers.
It is good to watch the Out For blood in Silicon Valley (2019) documentary after this to see how the characters look like in real life. Many feel amazingly cast, very close to the original. The only great exception is the Indian dude, who is completely different. Was it that hard to find some indian dude who looked and felt a little more like the real one?
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzCodipONmNiROhYCUWyz_U interview with Walter Murch by Web of Stories. He worked on sound design for all The Godfather films, and tells some interesting details about it. He's just super nice in general otherwise. E.g.:
Video 1.
Francis Coppola's Notebook on The Godfather
. Source.
This film is an abomination and disgrace to the bilogy.
One is reminded of Nick Leeson.
Ciro can relate strongly to the level of passion depicted in this film: Section "Don't be a pussy". It almost feels like a business film in that a sense, where the startup is the authors career and passions.
Video 1.
Confutatis scene from Amadeus by La Música Es Mi Religion
. Source.
Video 2.
These are originals scene from Amadeus
. Source.
Video 3.
Grazie signori scene from Amadeus
. Source.
by The New Republic
Video 1.
Plutonium for self-respect scene from the 1987 film Edge Of Darkness
. Source.
Video 2.
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas: Edge Of Darkness
. Source.
Video 3.
Three wonderful scenes from the 1987 film Edge Of Darkness
. Source.
Video 1.
The Nerdy Kid in the White Shirt scene from Charlie Wilson's War
. Source.
Video 2.
The old man lost his horse scene from Charlie Wilson's War
. Source.
Ah, Ciro Santilli was not expecting this. What a unique mixture of humour, technology, politics and bravery. No wonder it was a box flop, there's something good about this film.
Chanbara (チャンバラ).
Those movies are "all the same". A quasi lone superhuman samurai with a good inside but painful problems helping out random people, mostly villagers in trouble and bitches in debt.
This is a neologism by Ciro Santilli, it refers to the fact that Zatoichi was not fully blind, but extremely hard of sight, which makes him:
  • too capable for the blind people, who did not trust him
  • too incapable for non-blind people, who despised him
and metaphorically refers to similar situations where a person or group of people are in the middle of two groups and not part of either of them.
A related thing that comes to mind is Aum Shinrikyo's Prophet Shoko Asahara, who was semi blind, and would bully the fully blind people of his school for blind people.
Some criticisms:
And by artificial intelligence, read of course (non-human-identical) artificial general intelligence.
Today-2022, this is placed under the science fiction film category. But maybe this might change during Ciro Santilli's own lifetime?
The basic criteria of "is a film about artificial intelligence good or not" to Ciro Santilli is: does the AI inhabit humanoid, or fully human looking, bodies? Bodies is a bad sign due to:
  • the best science fiction works deeply explore the consequences of one single technology: efficient humanoid bodies are a second technological breakthrough besides AI itself. The first AI will obviously be a supercomputer without a body
  • it is hard to imagine that the AI wouldn't organize itself as one huge central computer and R&D/command center. Perhaps there will be need for a few separate ones to optimize usage of natural resources, and to have some redundance in case a nuke blows the region, but there would be very very few of the think tanks. But having big centers is fundamental, because you centralize all the flow of ideas and their combination leading to new better outcomes for the AI. The mobile robot actors controlled by this center, if any exist, would then be slaves with some degree of autonomy and infinitely less computational powerful than the think tank.
This is a tag for films that depict some sort of artificial general intelligence, but in which that is not the primary focus of the film.
Things that can be understood are boring.
Aaron Swartz agrees: www.aaronsw.com/weblog/looperexplained "Next week we'll explain Primer." He never did though :'-(
That makes Ciro Santilli most mad about this film is the fact that the dude was passionate about writing, and when he became a genius, rather than write the best novels ever written, he decided instead to play the stock market instead. This paints an accurate picture of 2020's society, where finance jobs make infinitely more money than other real engineering jobs, and end up attracting much of the talent.
Another enraging thing is how his girlfriend starts liking him again once he is a genius, and instead of telling her to fuck off, he stays with her.
The other really bad thing is the ending. He fixed the drug by himself? He scared off De Niro just like that?
Ciro Santilli just keep watching that a gazillion times whenever it showed on TV.
All action scenes are useless crap, but the premise with Ciro's precious simulation hypothesis subject, related physics and the illusion of life.
It is a shame that the key premise of using human bodies to produce energy is completely and impossibly stupid. You would obviously get more energy by directing burning the food you feed into humans.
If the film had been made later, maybe the much more plausible concept of AI alignment would would have been used instead. What a shame.
Video 1.
Blue Pill or Red Pill scene from The Matrix (1999)
. Source.
The premise that "we can't make AGI, but we know enough about the human brain to upload on to a computer" is flawed. Edit: after reading Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom (2014), Ciro Santilli was convinced otherwise. What is flawed is of course just the "extracting connectome with macroscopic probes part". A post mortem connectome extraction with microtome is much more believable. But of course they weren't going to show fake slices of Jonny Depp's brain, are they? Famous actor bodies are sacred! What a huge lost opportunity. On the other hand however, the scale of the first connectome extraction would be arguably too huge to be undertaken by a random pair of rogue researchers. The same would also likely apply to any first time human brain connectome. It would much more likely be a huge public effort, much like the Human Genome Project.
But this film does have the merit of exploring how an AGI might act to take over the AGI might act to take over the world once created, notably by creating its own physical research laboratory. Though it doesn't feel likely that it could go under the radar for 2 years given the energetic requirements of the research. Even the terrorists find it before the FBI!
I also wish they had shown the dildo (or more likely, direct stimulation!) computerized Jonny Depp used to use with his wife before he managed to re-synthesized his body. But you know, 18+ would cut too much profits. Ah, what a shame.
Video 1.
Can You Prove You're Self Aware? in the big lab scene from Transcendence (2014)
. Source.
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