top of page

Waiting For An Error

Scene I

The Louvre. Multitudes of tourists stand in an endless line. Endless because the art in Louvre is viewed shoulder to shoulder. Pricy ticket is already purchased so seeing EVERYTHING  is a must. The feet are swollen, head and back aches kick in.
Don’t ask the tourists what grabbed their attention the most, for they now loathe all things art!

Scene II

Distinguished murmur of high-end conversations fills up the empty space. Wine rolls around plastic glasses that look like made of glass. The espresso machine is on and a subtle jazz music whispers in the background… or is it just the air conditioners? No doubt something important is happening, something tremendously CULTURAL. Light nausea, sinking stomach sensations and slight vertigo come in next. There is a bit of a shortage of breath. The sense of importance mixes with the scent of the Calvin Klein perfume and fills up the empty space, seemingly now ready to explode or implode.
____________

Human mind has a unique ability to generate conveniently simplified impressions about the world. Before Copernicus, and dare I say: too long after, the impression about our planet as fixed in the very midst of the universe with all the remaining celestial bodies circling around it, has been such a simulation. The illusory nature of these simulations eliminates our need to test their accuracy against the actual state of affairs. The simulation is quite enough. It can be generated in a void and maintained in a void thereafter or it can be superimposed on top of our reality just like a filter or a carbon copy paper. Not unlike a catchy song played over and over, the simulation comforts us with its obvious simplicity and ease until a feedback loop occurs and the mind overwhelmed with repetition falls into the tracks of routine.

Because our view of culture is largely based on creating a kind of simulation, the illusion of excess may be experienced: “everything has been done, the end is in a rear view mirror and there is nothing else to do but to devote our time to playing chess where all moves are mostly predictable and executed according to a set of specific rules. The mind simulation of culture allows us only to see what remains within the vicinity of the 64 black and white squares. The programing of the simulation rejects all elements found beyond the chess board and displays them as errors. Only the most audacious attempts to knock down the board may guarantee a refreshment but even if they are a way to get closer to the true nature of the universe they risk accusations of heresy or in the best case scenario, irrelevance and lack of consistency.
The Great Simulator requires a sacrifice of adjusting the products of culture to the prewritten mainframe code. Avoiding the sacrifice seems to be nearly impossible, especially in time of the “cheerful entrepreneurship” propaganda when clever business cards end shiny websites are at the top of the priority list,


The Great Simulator is a product of natural for the homo sapiens tendency for mental and cultural conservatism: an ever resting body born from the intellectual incest. It is only because of the brief attempts to overcome gravity, a mutation may occur to refresh the gene pool and unblock further evolution. Yes, mutations are errors but without errors there is no growth.

bottom of page