In a deep and profound sense, it was fire (or more precisely, A.F., together with language) signaled the end of the old world as H. erectus knew it.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Before Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), or some 800,000 years ago probably, our human ancestors Homo erectus discovered how to wrest fire from burning bushes, and how to control and use this terrifying force of nature. Eventually, they learned how to artificially create fire. We now simply call it “fire”, but to be exact, it should be called Artificial Fire, or A.F.
Thus with A.F. did H. erectus people broaden their food sources, expand those parts of the brain that created culture and language, spread to all parts of the world, and thrive in all ecosystems. A.F. paved the way for the next waves of Homo to dominate the living world, and build civilizations that would transform what it meant to exist as humanity.
SUBENIR NG NAGSASA, muntik ko na malimutan. Mumurahin lang ito, hindi gaya ng pa-tattoo kay Fang-od. Hinaharbes lang ng mga pamilyang Ayta sa dalisdis ng bundok, nilalapatan ng konting dekurasyon, ganun. Bilhin mo para pwede mo na ipagmalaki na nakarating ka sa Nagsasa.
Kaya, hayun. Ang ilalagay ko lang na dalawang katiting na tuldok sa super-pausong mapa ngayon sa FB ay ito: Nagsasa at Loo. Kaso, sa sobrang liit ng tuldok, hindi lilitaw sa mapa. O baka kukulayan ng travel website ang buong probinsya, na para bang naikot na ng respondent ang lahat ng sulok nito. Kaya wag na lang ?
P.S. Yung Pro-Palestine istiker e hindi kasama sa orihinal na gawa ng mga Ayta. Istiker yan ng kampanya na suportado ng IBON Internasyunal, syempre inilagay ko sa aking paboritong workdesk dekor.
Yun namang tungkol sa super-pausong mapa sa FB kung saan pwede mong ipakita ang dami ng probinsya ng Pilipinas kung saan ka nanirahan, matagalan man o maiksing panahon, o dumaan lang saglit — posibleng maganda ang intensyon ng gumawa, gayundin ng mga nagpauso.
Pero sa pakiramdam ko, ang epekto sa mga walang panggastos at walang oportunidad na pumasyal sa buong saklaw ng bansa, e nakaka-alienate ang mapang ito. Parang nakakahiya kung “kulay-puti” ang kalakhan ng mapa mo — blangko, di man lang nakaapak sa karamihan ng probinsya. Hindi nito kinakatawan ang arawang kilos ng milyun-milyong mala-proletaryo sa bukid, na grabe ang nagawang pag-ikot sa loob ng iisang probinsya.
Sabagay, iba naman ang layunin ng milyun-milyong mala-proletaryo’t magsasaka kapag sumisilip sa Facebook. Ang mas habol nila ay praktikal na komunikasyon kaugnay ng pamilya at kaugnay sa kabuhayan, pana-panahong libangan, at — sa mga kabataang namihasa sa Tiktok sa panahon ng lockdown — e magbahagi ng pang-araw-araw na karanasan nila.
Sa madaling sabi: Paano kaya maipapakita sa social media ang buhay-kanayunan kung saan nakaka-relate ang milyun-milyong mala-proletaryo at magsasaka dahil ganun ang arawang karanasan nila?
On a more serious note:
This is a three-piece desk décor made of bamboo by an Ayta community in Nagsasa Cove, San Antonio, Zambales. I bought it from the Ayta family that became my informants when I interviewed them about the origins of the place. Someone from my old IBON office borrowed it and stuck a pro-Palestine sticker on it. It wasn’t very artistic, and the craftmanship was mediocre. but I associated it with the Ayta people’s struggle for dignity amid adversities.
So I kept it among my many work memorabilia. It also inspired me to write a blog piece about the secrets of Nagsasa Cove, where Ayta families doing handicrafts were mentioned at a certain point.
I brought the bamboo décor to a much better-lighted open window on the second floor. The colors of the bamboo and dark-dyed rattan were more natural and were complemented by the blurred background colors of green, blue and greys. I also intended this perspective shot, especially since this very nook in our ancestral home was my favorite spot for looking out the window into the street below, as a child. #
LAST DECEMBER 2022 (which seemed so long ago, in infotech terms), at first I had wanted my study group at UP Open University to focus on the potentials of an AI-based operating system (think of Linux on AI steroids) that ran on an alternative PC architecture. This AI-muscled PC would rely almost purely on GPUs + a standard CPU (think of a souped-up Raspberry Pi with external GPUs).
Such an approach would make it much easier for barrio kids to assemble a fairly cheap AI-powered rural network for empowering their province’s educational-cultural and info needs. If successfully deployed in many rural provinces, it could serve as a long-term innovator-disruptor not just in the “IT industry” sense but in the wider socio-economic and political sense.
But since my group was pressed for time, and what with the hype around Midjourney, Dall-E etc., I agreed with the more popular choice to focus on AI generative art and lit — which of course have their own immense (but I now feel, short-lived) innovator-disruptor potentials. I’m still satisfied though with how the research turned out.
But now I want to return to my original interest, advocacy, and prediction: that, in the longer-term, the biggest arena of struggle for cyber-control (in the IT field) will feature the “weaponry” of streamlined mini-PC servers on AI-architecture GPUs (even just Raspberry Pi-based for now).
It would run AI-enabled open-source operating systems and software, and be capable of hosting distributed-cloud services that can empower community-based networks. The network can even shield itself from external attack, to some extent.
So here are some links that should be of interest to 21st-century tech activists:
