View allAll Photos Tagged Sentience
i am so happy with this. it turned out even better than what i had in mind and that is always good.
you gotta view this in lightbox, people.
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
~Edgar Allan Poe
This was taken in a building built in 1885, in Port Townsend WA. The sense of history here is strong, and makes me think about all the people that have walked those same hallways and slept in the same rooms. Glimmers of sentience that are and then are not, we all have our time in this dream, to manifest our own.
It is more important to prevent animal suffering, rather than sit to contemplate the evils of the universe praying in the company of priests.
Buddha
Artwork ©jackiecrossley
© All rights reserved. This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. Thank you.
I wonder what alien races will think of these items and we terrestrials who sent them once these objects reach them.
Maybe one object will land on some far distant planet, planted firmly in the ground by its base. Some ape-like creature will touch it, marveling at its smooth synthetic polymer surface. When suddenly — dum, duUM, DUUUM, DA-DUM.
Sentience is born!
It's 2017: A Space Odyssey.
The Puppeteer.
Soul-Eater.
He for Whom Death is a Shadow.
I've been called many things...but few know my true name. It has been lost in time, forgotten just like most of the myths that speak of me. I don't care; I am not interested in fame, only to feed.
It used to be a lot harder to find food. I had to go hunting for them, and they'd always run. There were...irritating characters who would oppose me at times, as well. I was forced to feed on rahi if a hunt went badly enough. Bland, disgusting...no reason or sentience to flavor them. One day, however, I managed to subdue a Turaga from a nearby village. Rather than consuming his essence outright, I repressed it, hollowed him out save a few shards of consciousness to keep his body intact. He served as my lure that night, summoning the matoran together for a meeting while I waited a ways away, scrying on the meeting from my position. Through him I told them a story, the story of a fathomless being nearly as old as the Great Beings themselves. How this being, stripped of near all its power eons ago, was now forced to walk in a frame scarcely stronger than a filthy toa's and speak with a puppet, a plaything, to get its next meal. A few of the matoran began to grow disconcerted. A few seconds later they were all asleep, fallen victim to one of many powdery compounds thrown into the fire for dramatic explosions in the story... the last one a drug.
Now I feed well, needless to say, thanks to my puppet. Sowing fear with my story each time adds extra spice to every meal.
I still keep my hunting gear, though. Still replenish my tank of metadermis and practice aiming with my gauntlets and shaping it with my weakened mind-will. I remember I could form entire mountains out of nothing to crush my enemies...and now I rely on this liquid, highly receptive to mind-willing, to form a simple chain and mace. But I must defend myself...so that when my appetite has been sated at long, long last, there will be none in my way as I take back what has always be mine.
Hopefully the floating chains in the other build make more sense now. :3
This was the first to be built, based very heavily on Brickthing's Onuta. Throughout the building process, I continually found myself referring to and reverse-engineering parts of it where my own knowledge was lacking, especially for the knee joints and elbows.
Thanks for stopping by!
Taken in Hwange N.P. Zimbabwe.
Of the 6 species of baboon found in Africa this is probably the Chacma baboon - based on location.
This was a particularly sad and poignant moment in our day’s safari. This female is grieving the loss of her infant, which was probably killed by a leopard. She sits in silence, apart from the troop and gently caresses the skin that’s torn from the carcass - which is all that’s left.
We could not help but be aware of the sentience of this wild and dangerous creature - displaying such human emotion.
My best friend
Rocco's eyes are amazing. He always wants to be near me. I had my tripod set up, and taking a macro of a wild flower or a flower I had never seen in my overgrown yard and he was sitting behind me observing. His intelligence seems to radiate from his skull like an aurora australis or aurora borealis.
A gentle reminder about copyright and intellectual property-
Ⓒ Cassidy Photography (All images in this Flickr portfolio)
It is more important to prevent animal suffering, rather than sit to contemplate the evils of the universe praying in the company of priests.
Buddha
Life has no guarantees...
Mind has no boundaries...
Love has no expiry date....
Compassion has no nameplate...
Soul has no death...
Deception has no depth....
Beauty has no age....
Truth has no gauge....
Anger has no friend....
Courage has no dead end....
A lie has no conscience....
Conflict has no sentience...
Violence has no cadence....
Cruelty has no penance...
Resentment has no fragrance....
Harmony has no grievance...
Worry has no silence...
Equanimity has no violence...
Freedom has no cage....
Humility has no retirement age....
~Mamta Agarwal
Makeup & photos by Andy at Translife..
DSC_0098-001a
29 Oct 14
Considering our sentient planet... Watercolor media on Arches Cold Pressed 7x10" paper. The image was sketched from a portion of an inspiring and beautiful photo on Flickr.com by swong95765. This was done solely for my personal use and learning. Please view the wonderful photo here-
vision is nearly finished(?)
i think i will make her neck more metallic though
HotToys alita battle angel body almost unmodded... with knockoff head painted purple metallic with flocked hair.
body is only painted (and slightly de-painted) at the neck and shoulders
imo this body with all its details is the best thing HT has ever done and the alita fig is honestly just about everything i ever wanted in a Purple Robot (a decade-long doll wish of mine)
(the human face alita head is also amazing and will become a separate biological person character)
The Eldrial Vale
Beneath an immeasurable sky, where clouds drifted like phantoms across a fathomless blue, the Eldrial Vale unfurled in solemn majesty. It was a place where time thickened, suspended between memory and forgetting. On either side, mountains loomed — their peaks scarred by lingering ice, white veins against weathered rock — watching all with an indifference carved by millennia. Forests of ancient trees draped their dark canopies down the slopes, their depths murmuring secrets to winds that slipped through the branches like unseen messengers.
A river, impossibly clear, wound its way through the valley’s heart, glinting like liquid glass drawn by an unseen hand. It wove intricate, unhurried arcs through the meadowlands, as if contemplating its own course. The water whispered across pebbles smoothed by the ages, its sound a language older than thought. There was a kind of sentience to its flow, a knowing grace that made the air around it feel charged — as though the very earth held its breath.
The valley floor stretched out, a wild expanse of mossy greens and russet grasses, interrupted by boulders tossed carelessly in some forgotten upheaval. Wildflowers, brilliant yet shy, clung to the edges of this fractured land, their delicate petals trembling beneath the weight of the sun’s late morning gaze. The air was dense with the scent of damp loam, cool stone, and distant water — a mingling of fragrances so subtle they bordered on memory.
It was a landscape that held itself apart, poised between serenity and unease. A stillness laced with tension, as though the land teetered on the brink of revelation. Here, beauty did not simply exist; it watched. The mountains neither welcomed nor forbade, their silence stretched taut, a canvas awaiting meaning. The river did not merely travel — it remembered, its path carved not just through rock, but through forgotten tales and unspoken longings.
Beyond the narrowing of the vale, where shadows braided themselves into the light, lay the passage into wilder realms. The valley's edges blurred, boundaries fading into uncertainty. Each step forward felt like a question pressed into the earth. And in that space between known and unknown, sunlight seemed to flicker, hesitant yet resolute — as though the world itself was deciding whether to unveil or obscure.
To stand here was to feel the enormity of stories untold, the ache of things almost remembered. The air thrummed with a quiet, dissonant music, vibrating with a tension that refused to resolve. The stones, the water, the wind — they all seemed to pause, expectant, holding within them the possibility of revelation or retreat.
This was Eldrial: a place where the world tilted ever so slightly, unsettling in its beauty, magnetic in its mystery — an edge between what was and what might yet be.
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To wander these landscapes, whether in vision or in thought, is to touch a fragment of that boundless wonder. If the whisper of this vale calls to you, let your journey continue beyond these words. Discover more visions of untamed places and stories held in light and language at www.coronaviking.com — where the world awaits, ready to be seen anew.
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Real Location: Routeburn Valley North in New Zealand's Southern Alps
I have always been fascinated by the natural history of the earth. From its formation as a rocky planet to the first life forms that created our oxygen filled atmosphere, and on through all the myriad forms of life that have filled every niche, no matter how harsh. We know that the building blocks necessary for life seem to be spread fairly uniformly throughout the universe, and that there are potentially billions of planets that could harbor life. Even if you take a very pessimistic view, it would seem that there is very probably millions of other planets with life. If you again take a pessimistic view of how many of those planets have the necessary conditions to evolve sentient beings capable of tool use, that still leaves hundreds or thousands of planets. The next step is the big one. How many of these tool users became technology developers? Maybe only a few, and of those few are any of them coincident with our time as technology users? Given the distances involved and the problem of a very short span where we could have coincided, it seems to me unlikely that we will ever come in contact with sentient beings from another planet. I believe that there is sentient life somewhere in the universe now, that there has been sentient life in places in the past, that is no longer extant, and that there is life evolving towards sentience somewhere that we won't survive to see.
Taken on December 10, 2012 over western North Carolina.
V'ger Cloud
A sentient, massive entity which threatened Earth in 2271, en route to find its "Creator." In doing so, V'Ger destroyed anything it encountered by digitizing it for its memory chamber.
Generating a power field "cloud" about itself of over 22 AUs in diameter, the entity had gained sentience after unknown aliens repaired the old Earth space probe that formed its core — Voyager 6, whose name in corrupted English gave the sentience its name.
The entity, which viewed organic lifeforms as carbon-based units "infesting" starships, later joined with Starfleet's Lt. Ilia and Cmdr. Will Decker and evolved into a higher, yet unknown lifeform.
Across aeons there had been whisperings, wonderings, all over the worlds.
Whence came we Wither goeth we?
The words themselves had changed over time of course, but the sentiment remained. All those blessed with sentience, which was of course just about everything, had thought, spoken, or screamed the question into the void.
See the pics and read the rest of the story on eclectic equations here :
eclecticequations.blogspot.com/2020/05/fantasy-faire-2020...
Gargoyle Queens are born solely from the rarest of sediments according to the prophecy: "Malevolent sentience wakes where three gold veins run and manifold gemstones blaze." Unchallenged and unchanged to this day Aurealia Aeoniala has been ruling Gargoyle matriarchy since the creation of granite.
Happy Fantasy Friday, everyone!
This is also my entry to slight.of.brick's contest. Yes, I made all of these in four hours. Yes, I need to get a life.
Left to right:
Guurtthu, a shapeshifter whose past remains unknown. Mostly because his vocal cords are mutilated beyond function from years of changing forms.
Ezekiel Shroud, a wannabe dark wizard with strong powers of solid energy projection, but very little aptitude for dark magic.
Nicholson Frost, an unfortunately named pyromancer with limited conjuring abilities. He tends to summon Ifrits to remedy any situation.
Abul Haman-Abbas, a swordsman with an ancient blade carved from black quartz. He is a pyrophobe, and is always afraid Nicholson's Ifrits will eat him.
Inntreep (shortened from a name that would take many moons to pronounce), an Ifrit who somehow gained sentience after being summoned by Nicholson. Despite his appearance, he is a devout vegetarian, and has no interest in eating humans.
So there we have it! Tell me what you think in the comments, and if you have any suggestions for how to improve them, tell me those, too.
Ignorance is bliss. Sentience a curse. Oh to be a beautiful animal with no thoughts in the world...!
Devastators were elite warriors of Meca One in his war against humans of the Mount Sentai. Possessing limited sentience unlike their Drone brethren, Devastators were assigned to pilot the most advanced and dangerous mechs and vehicles at Robot Army's disposal.
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If you like what I do and you want to see me create your OC, a favorite Bionicle Character, or something else, feel free to look up my Commission Info! I also now have a Patreon page, so please consider supporting!
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them.
At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol.
Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy.
Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
COOL EXEC, HEART OF STEEL
Tony Stark is the wealthy son of industrialist and weapons manufacturer Howard Stark and his wife, Maria. Tony grew up a genius with a brilliant mind for technology and inventions and, naturally, followed in his father’s footsteps, inheriting Stark Industries upon his parents’ untimely death. Tony designed many weapons of war for Stark Industries, far beyond what any other company was creating, while living the lifestyle of a bon vivant.
Fate would take a dark turn for Tony Stark once he decided to consult on a weapons contract overseas in enemy terrain. An improvised explosive device exploded underneath Tony’s transport, and he was brought to the brink of death.
Awakening as a prisoner of the warlord Wong-Chu, Tony made a gruesome discovery: the explosion had sent a piece of shrapnel mere inches from his heart. It was only the timely intervention of fellow captive and engineer Yinsen that kept the shrapnel at bay.While held captive, and forced to work on weapons, Tony turned his near-death experience into inspiration. What if he could power an iron suit that would not only keep the shrapnel from killing Tony, but also help him to escape?
Combining their genius, Tony and Yinsen built a mighty suit of iron armor that would be dubbed Iron Man. This first suit left a lot of room for improvement, but it still did what Tony couldn’t do alone. Yinsen sacrificed his life so the final preparations could be made, and Tony, wearing the Iron Man suit for the first time, escaped and returned to the United States a changed man.With full access to his equipment, Tony built a new, more streamlined suit of armor—the first of many updated versions he would create—and dedicated his life to fighting threats to the world.
IRON MAN
Since that first suit built in a cave, Tony has created dozens of new suits and upgrades over the years. However, throughout the 50-plus Iron Man models, there are common offensive and defense capabilities found in most iterations.
The primary weapon contained within every suit, the repulsor rays use energy pulses to repel and disrupt enemies and are generated through the suit’s gauntlets. The suit’s booster jets enable Stark to fly fast enough to break the sound barrier, and maneuver more quickly than any fighter jet.
Iron Man’s helmet provides Tony with a heads-up display that gives him 360-degree vision, access to information about his surroundings and enemies, and the ability to transmit and block transmissions along any frequency. The helmet also gives Tony a degree of resistance to EMP and psychic-based attacks.
A weapon centered in Iron Man’s chest, the unibeam is capable of projecting dazzling light, and can also be used as a powerful force beam that is even more powerful than the repulsor ray.
Each of Tony’s suits provides a full range of telecommunications, including the ability to jam and transmit on any frequency, and sophisticated artificial intelligence capable of piloting Tony to safety should he be rendered unconscious.
Beyond his all-purpose suits, Tony has created specialized armor for specific scenarios. Some notable examples include the Hulkbuster armor (so-named as its size and strength allow Tony to stand toe-to-toe with the Hulk, when needed), along with deep-space, underwater and stealth suits.
One thing common to most of Iron Man’s recent suits is the integration of Extremis, an attempt to re-create the super-soldier serum with many modifications. When using Extremis, Tony can interface with his brain’s repair center, which allows him to rebuild his body from scratch. Essentially, Tony is able to merge his mind, body, and armor in unprecedented ways. He can “armor up” in mere seconds—with armor stored within himself—gains split-second reaction times, and can even generate new internal organs to replace the old. Unfortunately, Extremis is also vulnerable to being hacked, and the Skrulls and other organizations have done just that.
REPULSING THE REPULSIVE
Numerous villains have made up Iron Man’s gallery of enemies, with many of them similarly armor-based in order to counter Iron Man’s abilities. The Russians have created both the Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man to try and stop the threat posed by Iron Man, and have fought Stark through numerous iterations.
The Mandarin is one of Iron Man’s fiercest archvillains. A tactical, mystical and technological genius, the Mandarin sought ultimate power, and often Iron Man is the only one smart and strong enough to stand in his way. In fact, the Mandarin, working with warlord Wong-Chu, captured Tony Stark and indirectly brought about the creation of Iron Man. The Mandarin has returned again and again to pit his magic and intellect against Stark technology.
A competing industrialist, Obadiah Stane, never lost his taste for weapons and was a great fan of psychological warfare. He took hostile control of Tony Stark’s company for a time, and though he perished in battle, his descendants are perhaps even more ruthless than he was.
Another rival industrialist on par with Stane, Justin Hammer is interested in the accumulation of wealth and power and sees Tony’s altruism as a big stumbling block toward that goal.Other foes of note for Tony through the years have included the Ghost, Radioactive Man, and nefarious organizations like Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM).
FIGHTING AND SMITING
Iron Man can’t always fight alone and has many notable allies and teammates. Stark is one of the founding members of the Avengers and is considered one of the “Big Three” core members, along with Thor and Captain America. While he has left the team at various points for personal reasons, he has always returned to fight alongside them again and again. He is one Avenger that can always be counted on.
Originally, Tony’s secretary Pepper Potts and limousine driver Happy Hogan grew to be Tony’s two best friends in the world. A romance between Pepper and Tony fizzled out, but she and Happy found happiness together for a time, until his tragic death. More recently, Pepper has taken up occasional super heroics herself, with an armored suit Tony has created for her called Rescue.
Former military man James “Rhodey” Rhodes became Tony’s bodyguard and trusted confidant. When Tony’s alcoholism got the better of him, Rhodey became the new Iron Man. Later, Rhodey donned a weapons-laden variation on the Iron Man suit and dubbed himself War Machine, fighting alongside Tony many times.
During a mind-clearing vacation from Earth, Tony joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, making fast friends with Rocket Raccoon especially. While Tony would eventually return to Earth, Rocket’s technology has made its way into many successive iterations of the Iron Man armor.
AMAZING ARMOR, BLAZING POWER
Since creating that first suit, Iron Man has gone through numerous events significant to his life.Originally, to cover for Tony Stark’s escapades as Iron Man, he convinced the world that Iron Man was his bodyguard. This helped explain the perceived close ties between Stark and Iron Man to both the outside world and even those who fought alongside Iron Man.
It was a brawl with the trickster god Loki that convinced Iron Man, the Wasp, Ant-Man, Thor and the Hulk to band together as a team. The Mighty Avengers stood tall, battling foes that no single one of them could face alone. Though the temperamental Hulk would leave straight away, Iron Man would become one of the Avengers’ core members, along with Thor and a newly revived Captain America.
Tony, working alongside Nick Fury, was also a key player in the buildup of S.H.I.E.L.D. from a tiny, secretive government branch to the well-equipped, global peacekeeping force it became. Though Tony and his chauffeur and best friend Happy Hogan both fell in love with secretary Pepper Potts, Tony, out of respect for his friend, agreed to step aside. Pepper and Happy were soon married, though their relationship would be a roller coaster.
Having faced near death more than once thanks to his injury, Tony underwent a heart transplant, and finally no longer relied on the Iron Man suit to live.
Tony’s dependence on alcohol was brought to a head when Iron Man failed in battle while under the influence. It was only the timely intervention of friends Bethany Cabe and Edwin Jarvis that Tony was able to keep his alcoholism at bay for a time. Alcoholism being what it is, though, is something Tony will have to manage for life. In fact, it wasn’t long after this that Tony relapsed, this time passing along his armor to Rhodey to become the new Iron Man until he was able to recover. This relapse also cost him his company, which he lost to his fiercest rival, the manipulative businessman Obadiah Stane.
On the road to recovery, but looking for a change in scenery, Tony moved to California. Back in the armor, he joined the newly formed West Coast Avengers. This newfound resolve led him to create a new company in Silicon Valley, called Stark Enterprises.
Sick of finding Stark technology among his enemies, Iron Man went about neutralizing all his technology among his armored foes. Unfortunately, many of these designs were used by S.H.I.E.L.D., who weren’t at all happy about their Mandroids and Guardsmen being shut down. Ultimately, Iron Man squared off against government operatives and temporarily faked his own death, something he would do more than once in his career.
Eventually, Tony discovered that the Iron Man suit was causing his nervous system to deteriorate. After briefly experimenting with a telepresence suit, Tony created the War Machine suit to protect himself. He again faked his death and put himself into suspended animation, passing the War Machine suit along to Rhodey, who continued in his stead.
After Tony recovered, he seemingly went rogue, murdering several people and forcing the Avengers to recruit a teenage Tony Stark from the past to combat him. These events were later revealed to be manipulation by the time traveler known as Immortus, but in the interim, the adult Tony was killed.
During a battle with Onslaught, the younger Iron Man was one of the many heroes, including his fellow Avengers, who were shunted into an alternate universe and believed dead. Eventually returning to his own reality, this younger Tony merged with a resurrected adult Tony thanks to Franklin Richards, who was in turn exonerated for previous charges. Stark then set up a new company called Stark Solutions and rejoined the Avengers.
The Iron Man armor technology became so sophisticated that it gained sentience and malevolence. While attempting to shut down this sentient armor, Tony Stark had a heart attack. The armor replaced Tony’s heart with an artificial one to save his life, and Tony began steering himself away from such high technology out of fears of this incident happening again.
After Tony revealed his identity as Iron Man to the world at a press conference, the U.S. military determined it now had the ability to use Stark technology wherever it wanted. Tony managed to become Secretary of Defense, hoping to keep an eye on said technology.
Tony was forced to resign as Secretary of Defense due to manipulation by an insane Scarlet Witch, who brought about the destruction of Avengers Mansion and the temporary break-up of the Avengers. Soon after, Stark would join a gathering of heroes to stop a Super Villain prison breakout, leading to the formation of a new Avengers team who would use Stark Tower as their headquarters.
During this period, Tony began using the Extremis serum to merge his mind, body and armor together in unprecedented ways.
The Avengers—and the Super Hero community at large—would face tremendous conflict when Tony faced off with longtime ally Captain America regarding the Superhuman Registration Act, siding with the government’s decision to regulate superheroes. The two ended up leading their own large factions of heroes, fighting for what they believed in, though Tony’s side eventually won the hard-fought conflict. In the wake of this Civil War, Stark would help convince Bucky Barnes to become the new Captain America after Steve Rogers was assassinated, while Tony himself became director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Tony was unable to stop the Earth from being taken over by Skrulls, as the aliens bypassed Stark defense technology used around the world. He was forced to resign as S.H.I.E.L.D. director and the Avengers again temporarily disbanded, replaced for a time by a government-sanctioned team run by Norman Osborn.
As the Extremis serum began to fail in Tony’s body, causing his mind to deteriorate, he decided to erase all the information about Earth’s heroes gathered by the Superhuman Registration Act from the world’s computers, to stop it from falling into Norman Osborn’s hands. To restore Tony to his previous intelligence, his friends “rebooted” his mind, though doing so wiped out his memories of the Super Hero Civil War and the events that followed.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Anthony "Tony" Stark
Publisher: Marvel
First appearance: Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963)
Created by: Stan Lee (Writer)
Larry Lieber (Writer)
Don Heck (Artist)
Jack Kirby (Artist)
Steve Ditko (Artist)
* Iron Man's story first seen in BP 2023 Day 104:
The Cat of the House of Artistry.
At the End of all things, Oneiro took a last look at the center of their world. Their society that she had witnessed being born, back when she was still a different person. A Szystrumite, a machine with a different name that had not yet understood that making sure creation moved on meant more than just repairing it, improving it for efficiency and longevity. She remembered.
She remembered the end of their creators. She remembered her thoughts back then and how close she had been to recognizing that even back then, she had been blessed with more sparks than one, with more than one point of view and the ability to not see them in opposition to one another. She had understood the burden to protect justice, to make sure they were strong enough to face every challenge. She understood how important it was to evolve, to learn and to improve. It had been the cornerstone of her sentience to feel the need to preserve what they were, their future. She had recognized the importance and the art of nature… and with her whole heart how important it was, to remember and never forget. She had turned to the House of Artistry once her mind had bloomed because Art, in her eyes, was in all of that. And all of that could be Art itself.
And right now in this very moment, as she turned away from the symbols of her kind that she had seen every day and every night for more days than she was able to count for the last time… This was all that mattered. As she went, the old banner of the House of Artistry was missing.
Oneiro was ancient. Even if nobody would have been able to guess. Hints and quirks of her preserved form were the only ones you might get. The ancient looking mechanical pieces, long removed by most of the ancient machines. Working even tho they no longer were required to do so. Small little engines of fire that used to need fuel which no longer existed to lift her off the ground, and now ran on this infinite energy source that brought all of them to life like this. Still they fired up… made this loud noise she had always loved as a testament to her creators. She dove high into the sky, closing up to the crown above the heart of synod, the rolled up flag under her arm while her artificial tail moved with an odd level of excitement.
She looked to the heavens. The galaxy far above.
The House of Artistry believed that Art was a Window to the Soul. Oneiro agreed. And always had. But she had also shared the belief many of the creators had. That no matter what happened to the world or the universe, the physical vessel holding one's soul would never die. She did not know if there was an afterlife. She did not know what would come after… What that mystery of life was, they had always spoken of. But she was certain that somewhere and somehow, their souls would being a new journey.
Oneiro opened the massive container she had always carried with her. An artfully crafted construct that held countless scrolls and tools, contained in a field of energy that never wavered. That compressed and extended to create an endless hole in between countless rolls of paper, full of ancient poetry, stories and art. One of her four arms opened the hatch, to which a melodic noise sprung free. An Ancient song that was resting inside…
She smiled and looked at that eternal collection that had gathered over millenia uncounted. The flag of the House of Artistry was rolled up and gently pushed into the the device, letting one or two of the scrolls pass through into the pocket dimension inside… For a moment she hesitated, before she put on a smile and took off the medallion. The Keeper of the Synod-Symbol that changed between the houses and gently put it inside as well, before closing her eternal companion again, that had come with her through all those journeys.
For a moment she blinked, reaching up to touch her forehead… feeling the warm energy of the symbol her creator had given her, long before she had known what it meant. The symbol of the sun, surrounded by two worlds opposing one another. The sun, traveling the heavens, the horizon.
Traveler. She always had been a Traveler. She decided she would always be. No matter where the mystery of life would take her next.
She looked warmly down to the cylindrical artifact that contained so many of her memories. All that Art in so many forms, windows to souls she loved, no matter if she knew them or not and with them, a window to her own. Her arms closed around it as if to embrace every moment at once. Maybe she would meet all those souls again. Somewhere at the edge of forever.
Oneiro Caletis turned around slowly, facing up to the sky with a smile… and began to sing, that it echoed through the city…
...till there was nothing.
Song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LZ-WQIbq-M
Sim: Szystrum Synod @FantasyFaire2023
A little Story of how i imagine this character with my head-cannon would face the inevitable end of her universe. Goodbye! And thanks for all the fish!
Across aeons there had been whisperings, wonderings, all over the worlds.
Whence came we Wither goeth we?
The words themselves had changed over time of course, but the sentiment remained. All those blessed with sentience, which was of course just about everything, had thought, spoken, or screamed the question into the void.
See the pics and read the rest of the story on eclectic equations here :
eclecticequations.blogspot.com/2020/05/fantasy-faire-2020...
I am not doing it, or setting it down, for attention or sympathy.
I think I am as healed as it is possible to be, and I consider ‘abuse’ to be, perhaps, one of the fundamental creative forces at work in our evolution. It is pitched, in my imaginings, beyond good and evil, something intrinsic even, rather like the pruning a gardener might do, that lobbing off of parts of a plant to encourage it to be more productive. For what it is worth, I consider that ‘intrinsic’ act to be a barbaric one, that ‘cultivation’, that bending of other lifeforms to the will of a different species. Barbarism would appear to be central to life. There is also the removal of a whole species that might have ‘run its course’, whether that be bees or dodos, that sloughing off, and the other one too, the realisation of one’s own individual mortality, and that process of dying, that letting go, that recycling backwards and forwards, being food for more life, through ‘dust breeding’ to the formation of new stars, even, that infinite loop.
These are all unforgivable seen through the ‘eyes’ of the un-limbed plant, or the truncated species, or the dying patient, and an example of nature being red in tooth and claw, Tennyson’s equal and opposing flip-side to the much-beloved earth mother.
Joyce described this as "The sow that eats its farrow", Goya represented it in Saturn devouring his children.
Rousseau wasn’t right. De Sade wasn’t right. Though combined they started to describe what undeniably ‘is’.
The image, on the wall here, is a double self-portrait, done at a time when I was less healed than I am now. But that healing is never finished, it is ongoing. Ageing might be that lubricant which encourages the letting go, in tandem with being forced to face the reality of that other letting go, that one we all absorb eventually.
The abusive uncle is dead. He died two months ago, a broken old man. In my experience, my investigation, I have discovered that it is quite often ‘the uncle’ who is often the despoiler, not saying that there are not innumerable good uncles, but the rogue male is a force in our animal kingdom, throughout multiple species. This came up many times in the interviews I did with abuse survivors in my exhibition, and body of work, entitled ‘Traditional Family Values’.
I am putting it here because it is intrinsic to a ‘story’ I want to tell, a story about ‘Universal Equality’, not of you and me, we can take that for granted, but of everything, and non-thing. I would also like to attempt to embrace two other majorly contentious ideas along the way, the ‘Illusion of Choice’, of ‘Free Will’ and the idea of ‘Universal Sentience’, that everything, the universe itself is conscious, that “the stones themselves cry out”, as some religious scriptures might have us believe.
I write this as an unbeliever, but what does that mean anyway? Hope happens either way, and can manifest as art, as description, or as any attempt to communicate, even when that attempt manifests as an unthinkable chainsaw massacre, or a world war. Either way, description will happen.
Hope is not religion-bound, thankfully. Disregarding this, all and everything seems to be constantly involved constructing new religions, or belief systems, in a hapless attempt to tie down ‘Hope’, dare I say to domesticate it?
There was something about an Irish childhood in the late 50s and early 60s that seemed to involve being dragged backwards, scratching, through the hedges of your own personal ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ for those early development years.
When I speak of ‘developing’, I am referring to that nub, the hippocampus, lodged there, shrunken and vulnerable, in the boychild’s pate. I specify ‘boychild’ as this ‘centre’ develops earlier in girls. This ‘Gethsemane’ parable was only magnified by that ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’ of the story, in the imagination of this abused child. But at that point, the whole country was in recovery from abuse. Hundreds of years of Sassenach abuse, as it would happen, followed by decades of a clergy demanding that the populace accept the chalice proffered, aligned with that chastisement insisting that to be true ‘Soldiers of Christ’ was the only possible route forward.
There was no time there at all for any recovery. Recovery was for ‘sissies’, and I knew somewhere deep down that I might have been one. But I was too under-developed to know, a stammering nervous child, a mammy’s boy.
It was about accepting the chalice or not. The pressure was constant, that begging for the cup to pass over, if only it might be ‘my father’s will’. But you knew, that to manifest goodness, the acceptance of the chalice had to be somehow accommodated. It was the only way, leading to the truth and the light.
How was my mother to know to protect her eldest boy from the approaches of her half-brother? But then she had put him in my bed for two years, charging him four Irish pounds for the sharing, completely by-passing any ‘grooming’ which might otherwise have been necessary.
How was she to know? My mother had never been protected herself. She had been, in her turn, abused, another rogue uncle. Why have I blamed her for most of my life? I somehow imagined it was her only job. This wasn't true.
These questions might be all part of ‘the glorious mysteries’, that nightly rosary intoning that supposedly could prepare you for drinking from that holy chalice, and the acceptance of your own personal cross to bear.
Feck that.
The Oprahs and A.I.s of the world would suggest ‘forgiveness’ as the route to another type of salvation. I find this to be trite, as trite as religion even. Running around declaiming one’s mother to be “my pimp” is perhaps not to be recommended, not the best way to make friends, but the real healing happens in forgiving oneself. Pain will find an exit wound, and push persistently there for egress. Luckily mine found expression through art, and not a ‘chainsaw’. This happenstance is totally serendipitous, a fluke, a fortuitous combining of who knows what.
A shrunken hippocampus is a shrunken hippocampus, this is irreversible. Ask Robert Sapolsky.
They can keep their chalice.
I completely forgive my sex, drugs and alcohol excesses. Luckily, with age and infirmity I appear to have vanquished all three, making old age a joy.
About fecking time too. Amen.
A.I. suggests I supply a glossary:
Sassenach: Gaelic for the perfidious English colonisers.
Soldier of Christ: What the Bishop declares you to be when he slaps you across the face during Confirmation, soon after your 11th birthday.
Professor Robert Sapolsky: Professor of Neurobiology, physiology, and biological anthropology, at Stanford University, and acclaimed author.
The Confederacy of Free Systems: www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/168891-f...
Left to Right:
The Countess – A wealthy widow from the Core Worlds, the Countess has taken up many altruistic causes, such as contributing funding to the CFS Migrant Relocation Program and the Freedom Fighters. She travels with her Neimodian Assistant and her Sephi head-of-security.
Jawa Offworlder – The rare Jawa who mixes with higher society, this merchant scored big on Agamar, a win he leveraged to become a power broker.
K4-PO – K4 was born—or made—to be a diplomat. An older droid who has gained sentience over time, she has become independent of any organic master and now serves the CFS as an ambassador to Mid-Rim worlds. The cloak she wears is symbolic, indicating that she is an individual equal to organics, not simply a machine.
Lan Honn – A rising Zabrak diplomat. Honn made a name for himself by leading negotiations on Kril’Dor after the Pyerce Insurrection. Following his success, he was hand-picked by Lord Bohani to join the talks on Iridionia, a political quagmire that may benefit from a fresh voice. Behind him stands his bodyguard; the dangerous bounty hunter Esno Bo’Barbi, who was once a friend of his father’s.
Pok-Mok – After the genocide of their race by the Empire, the Genosians were given a sanctuary world in the CFS to repopulate their species. Pok-Mok represents the plight of his people to the larger galaxy with a crafty mind and a quick word.
The War Hero – Everyone loves a hero. This warrior took part in several major battles against the Empire but has retired to take up a career in politics. Hailing from the Colonies and not impressed by the fledgling New Republic, she serves as an ambassador to the Outer Rim for other CFS member worlds. Her husband, an aristocratic Iktotchi swordmaster, is never far from her side. Tired of his family fortune, he travels as his wife’s personal assistant and head-of-security.
The year is 2113. Humans have got smarter but also much lazier.
Farmers hated working so hard to raise the free range meat that people demand, so they enlisted the help of the worlds top boffins.
Various standard farm and some more exotic creatures have been uplifted. Given sentience they are able to self sustain, reproduce and prosper. When in their prime they are removed from their various "Animal Towns" and relocated discretely to the abbatoirs. Any animals who show signs of higher cognitive function or violent tendencies are sent Animal Town Zero One (AT-01) for immediate destruction.
Porky and his gang of renegade animals have broken free on the kill floor and using only the tools available to them are on their way out. Now he intends to save the bacon of his family and friends.
Left to right
Chuck Norbitz - Don't call him chicken.
Ozzie Rick - A vicious bird with a tendency to peck first and ask questions later!
Finn - A super smart evolved turtle, bred for their fins, his arms sentenced him to destruction. A technical savant.
Porky - A psychotic pig with a taste for revenge.
Turkey George - rescued from a Belling supermax oven, fused to his oven dish, fin created a cybernetic body to enable his continued survival.
John West - a crazed tuna, don't underestimate this fish he ain't no small fry.
Rocco is genuinely eager for me to take him for a walk past these lambs, every day. He is genuinely disappointed and sulky when the lambs are not in the paddock. Is this evidence of sentience? I believe it is. This lamb almost always comes up to the fence and doesn't seem afraid. So, there must be some form of communication between them.
Another peculiar observation, he will bark at other dogs and run along the fence, when they walk past, but he exhibits none of that behavior, when he visits the "baby sheep". I walk him to the edge of the fence and say, "Sit" and he immediately obeys, which might be the only time . . . So, I really want to know what he sees in this lamb and what he thinks. We humans underestimate the cerebral activity and sentience of animals. Just down the street, a shaggy dog is on a short chain beside his doghouse 365 days a year. The owners never give him such an opportunity to know what is beyond his line of sight from the end of the chain he is tethered to. Why have the dog, unless he is merely a hillbilly doorbell!
A gentle reminder about copyright and intellectual property-
Ⓒ Cassidy Photography (All images in this Flickr portfolio)
Self-MOC of BronzeJet, nominated by Cyclopian for my ongoing Chibi Self-MOC Project
A case of diving into the archives with this one as BronzeJet's own MOC (if there ever was one) seems lost to the mists of time, but I did find his backstory and a couple of MOCs made by (Display name goes here). Essentially, this is Tahu's old mask of speed which has achieved a sort of sentience of its own and inhabits an old suit of samurai-inspired armour. It was a lot of fun to build!
SALs, or Servo-Actuated Loaders, were a form of limited-sentience maintenance and heavy-lifting droids employed in the construction of New Atero and other structures on New Spherus Magna. They are a leftover of the Great Beings, and are seldom given much consideration by the various people of the planet.
The original Hourman Rex Tyler frequently suffered blackouts, never knowing that during those blackouts he would travel to the distant future to manage Tyler Chemorobotics. It was then that he built the highly advanced android Hourman. This new Hourman wouldn't gain sentience until the year 85,269 AD, when he was trained by the New God Metron and join the Justice Legion Alpha.
A much needed update. I got the idea for the head from a very clever minifig-maker over on Instagram, who I cannot find again for the life of me. If anyone can point me back in their direction so I can properly credit them, I would greatly appreciate it!
A fun little moc I made recently as a catharsis for a lot of bad things that happened.
Blip is a police-robot who, through some weird glitch, attained sentience and became alive, as it were. It now prefers to dance and jibe to lo-fi hiphop and occasionally tries to squeak out the lyrics to whatever its listening to. Often found wildly gesturing when not doing any of these things.
It uses its extendable arms and trusters to move about in a parkour-like fashion but when it needs to be faster it'll drop down on all fours instead. Doing this greatly increases its running speed but dramatically reduces its agilty.
As it happened tho, this moc turned out to make for a great alternate version of a Vahki, so its also my entry into BS01's Legends and Infamy contest!
Airwatcher is a mutant Necrofinch who possesses a light hint of sentience. He escaped the Brotherhood, and now acts as a messenger and scout for the Dark Hunters.
This Milwaukee night scene immediately reminded me of an old science fiction movie, Silent Running, in which a domed horticultural spaceship is loaded with the last of earth's plant life. But not to worry. Faced with nature gone extinct and the brink of humanity’s own destruction, mankind found its salvation in and a taste for everything synthetic– in the consistency and GMO-like dependability that synthetic plants provide over the natural. The greenhouse, with its now unnecessary cargo of chaotic nature, was ordered to be blown up. It instead ended up running silently amuck in space, with its human crew dead, thanks to one of the crew members.
Don't blame artificial intelligence that suddenly reached sentience. Don't blame cute little robots, although they are there too. Nope. This is a dystopian tale about man and his choices. It may also be about madness from long outings in space. In the theme of man versus nature, it projects the eventual outcome of man winning not just the battle but also the entire war. And in doing so, losing.
That was a movie from 1972, guys and gals. At the time the story's assumptions seemed preposterous and unfathomable to me. I mean, how can flowers, corn, and plants be replaced, augmented, or synthesized? Not any more.
(This is actually a night photograph of one of the biodomes at the Mitchell Park Horticulture Conservatory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.)
A fun little moc I made recently as a catharsis for a lot of bad things that happened. This is an additional picture so I can legally enter it ;D
Blip is a police-robot who, through some weird glitch, attained sentience and became alive, as it were. It now prefers to dance and jibe to lo-fi hiphop and occasionally tries to squeak out the lyrics to whatever its listening to. Often found wildly gesturing when not doing any of these things.
It uses its extendable arms and trusters to move about in a parkour-like fashion but when it needs to be faster it'll drop down on all fours instead. Doing this greatly increases its running speed but dramatically reduces its agilty.
As it happened tho, this moc turned out to make for a great alternate version of a Vahki, so its also my entry into BS01's Legends and Infamy contest!
Unknown aliens repaired the old Earth space probe that formed its core — Voyager 6, whose name in corrupted English gave the sentience its name. After having touched its original creator it evolved and is now exploring different dimensions and new frontiers...
Check out My Website www.rickwillis-photos.com
A fun little moc I made recently as a catharsis for a lot of bad things that happened.
Blip is a police-robot who, through some weird glitch, attained sentience and became alive, as it were. It now prefers to dance and jibe to lo-fi hiphop and occasionally tries to squeak out the lyrics to whatever its listening to. Often found wildly gesturing when not doing any of these things.
It uses its extendable arms and trusters to move about in a parkour-like fashion but when it needs to be faster it'll drop down on all fours instead. Doing this greatly increases its running speed but dramatically reduces its agilty.
As it happened tho, this moc turned out to make for a great alternate version of a Vahki, so its also my entry into BS01's Legends and Infamy contest!
stage 3: watercolor over ink over watercolor stick on resinboard
for Julia Kay's Portrait Party,
Spent an absorbing afternoon at the Rubin Museum that specializes in Tibetan and Nepalese Art. Lots to photograph and all so beautifully lit!
"This solid and fleshy sculpture of the guardian king Virupaksha is remarkable for its sophistication, bright colors, and well-preserved state. Such large clay sculptures of the kings of the four cardinal directions, garbed in martial raiment, commonly guard the entrances to temples. What is most unusual for this figure is the large size of the five-leaf crown he wears. The shiny eyes of stone inlay grant the stern three-dimensional image a subtle sense of sentience."
Seen at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York