The Black Box

Vantablack: Darkest material on Earth

You're "doing your own thing". Who is the "you" that's doing it?

Social media is a way to examine our real intentions or at least be suspicious of them.

The best thing about getting older is that it allows you to appreciate different worlds simultaneously. Having once lived in a world without computers, the internet, or social media, gives one the ability to detach from those things. Deleting a social media account is easier for a person that lived decades without one.

I saw Bohemian Rhapsody last night. What I find interesting about watching biopics about musicians is that it opens a little window to what it was like to live in a certain time, or that it reactivates a feeling from that time, or allows you to see milestones more clearly. One of those is the advent of MTV in 1981, which was perhaps a factor in enticing Freddie Mercury to do his own thing outside the 'familial' band unit.

MTV made musicians change their intentions, even without their knowledge. All of a sudden image was at the forefront whether you cared or not. Slowly it affected the creative process because you were thinking about the video more than the music. It changed the intentions of the entire industry, and then we found ourselves in strange new worlds of behavior.

The Internet had a similar effect circa 1995: All of a sudden anyone could publish anything they wanted, and the future was full of possibility, creating new avenues for celebrity, allowing that to be the intention--even without their knowing.

You could trace this back centuries and probably find that same tiny space where something else is at the controls. The "mindfulness' movement has given us more insight into how this works, where we can 'label' thoughts and intentions.

Advances in neuroscience also makes it empirical, such as the Libet Experiment, which found that intention precedes action by microseconds--the "Black Box' of consciousness, now eerily submerged in data oceans that we barely understand.

With music, or anything that you do that is potentially shareable, could you do that thing without anyone ever seeing it or hearing it and be content with it? Personal pride and a sense of privacy, even modesty, are perhaps the more pure aspects of creativity. Showing or performing is always an area that now more affected by the Black Box.