Formalized Spittle, Abiogenetic Sludge, and Dregs of the Self: Physical & Computational Homunculi Method/Application â Alan S. Tofighi (2021)[1]
Ingredients
Control is a recursive cultural soup; sauciers change but subjugation requires the perfection of a system that can surveil, process, regenerate, and act predictively with repeatable quality, like any good recipe. Recent years have seen a shift in this gambit via abiogenetics, Ââthe development of organisms from non-living matterâ in a physical form via CRISPR technology and more successfully/immediately in the computational realm through the mimetic low-Turing test world of GAN derived deepfakes. The unending flows of personal information available online via user agreements, histories, and data leaks, are easily brute forced to lead to predictive methods accurate enough for major investment, financially and technologically. On the reverse, entire nations of âselvesâ can be churned out with only a few thousand dollars of processing hardware to further train surveillance systems as well as form the recent batch of âsockpuppetâ accounts[2] These methods âdespite all talk of artificial intelligenceâ are not interested in the 1/1 replication of the human or mind but the customization, control, and mechanization of means to sway, archive, and regulate intelligence/autonomy/mind. The training and tracing of individuals âtheir impulses, interests, likeness, etc.â and molding these factors is the prime interest in the mining/forging of these selves and the bulk of the so-called AI Industry[3].
In this sense this soup is not dissimilar to the alchemic & hermetic aspirations of brewing up a homunculus[4], an artificially formed miniature humanoid. Much like the present, the process of chrysopoeia Ââthe transmutation of lead/shit into goldâ being the endgame of alchemy is a largely exoteric task. The true goal was often not wealth but the creation of a homunculus. The forging of this being would demonstrate total mastery/knowledge of the human itself, and the homunculus would extend that as some were said to have predictive properties. Horrific visions of a half-formed being in a jar âaware of its own babbling existence and vague futuresâ a product of a technical mastery and simulation beyond recognition is a presentation of this soup. Of course, it is always a horror less interesting, invisible, and present that is already here. Digital Homunculi are constantly formed by our personal dregs, paper trails of habits, interactions, and ultimately desires. To make peace with and educate our own homunculi into a âpataphysical being of utter misuse/uselessness and to become the Basilisks of ourselves is the goal and endgame of this research into perfecting the useless.
Development: Fecund, Apocryphal, and Exoteric.
To further percolate the homunculus a brief look into its historical background is given. For this uninitiated, this is a history driven by the fecund and the divine. A hyperformalized creation of alchemical beings Ââlike other hermetic processesâ is largely hermeneutical, apocryphal, metaphorical, concrete, or at times all of the above. This process would lead to a sublimation of the alchemist into an arbiter of creation. Certainly, this process is impossible as one huff of it would leave the user stuck in a putrefying sealed chamber of nigredic suffocation.
The first known documentation of the process is attributed to Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim aka Paracelsus (1493/4-1541) an alchemical hermetic researcher credited with advancing medical and toxicological studies. With an advanced understanding of biological composition/function[5], Paracelsus coined âand formalized the creation of aâ homunculus in 1537 The process is as follows:
âThat the sperm of a man be putrefied by itself in a sealed cucurbit for forty days with the highest degree of putrefaction in a horse’s womb, or at least so long that it comes to life and moves itself, and stirs, which is easily observed. After this time, it will look somewhat like a man, but transparent, without a body. If, after this, it be fed wisely with the Arcanum of human blood, and be nourished for up to forty weeks, and be kept in the even heat of the horse’s womb, a living human child grows therefrom, with all its members like another child, which is born of a woman, but much smaller.â[6][7]
This foul conception is of course predated by JÄbir ibn ḤayyÄnâs (721-815 C.E.) writings of the Takwin in the Kitab Al-Ahjar (Book of Stones)[8] which describes a creation via complex chemistry-based methods. The creation of plants, minerals, animals, and prophets was also elaborated[9]. Crucial to the development of modern chemistry, Jabirâs work lies in the heavily codified world of the exoteric, the hermeneutical, and the brutally multifrontal[10], a warning is given: The purpose is to baffle and lead into error everyone except those whom God loves and provides for“[11]
Prior to Jabir, the formulation of an artificial being first appears in the Talmud in reference to the Talmudist Rava (ר××) (280 â 352 C.E.) where it is recorded:
If the righteous desired it, they could [by living a life of absolute purity] be creators, for it is written, But your iniquities have distinguished between etc. Rabbah created a man and sent him to R. Zera. R. Zera spoke to him but received no answer. Thereupon he said unto him: âThou art a creature of the magicians. Return to thy dust[12]
it is here where the foundations for the golem appear, but a clear transcendental framework exists.
Osccilating in timeframes, Arnaldus de Villa Nova was claimed and would claim to forge a homunculus as wel as Zakariya al-Razi but post-Paracelsus as advances expanded so did prometheanist desire and a long history of deception and the exoteric. The apocryphal figure of Simon Magus would claim to have formed a homunculus out of thin air of which the power to walk on water was granted. Of course, this creation out of air was more difficult than the original creation of humanity out of dirt as Magus would be sure to clarify, granting arbiter of creation status. Perhaps the highest profile homunculus was the result of Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein and AbbĂŠ Geloniâs creation of ten clairvoyant homunculi in 1775. Sealed in jars, this predictive dectet was reportedly kept within the Vienna Masonic lodge they were members of. Given they were claimed to have been seen by local figures of stature[13].
As times changed these interests have largely been relegated to fringe culture[14]. early developments in computation and machine learning would occupy these realms of interest that the homunculus once held. Early interests in automating IBMâs âunder the belief that it would be easier to train CPUâs rather than people to operate the CPUâs[15]â the role of âintelligenceâ would exist eliciting fear of an eventual autonomy as opposed to the passĂŠ brutalism of total surveillance and bureaucracy that arrived along with the potential for passive annihilation. The first emergences of the digital homunculus began with various COINTELPRO (1956-1971) and MHCHAOS (1967-1974) programs in which US citizens were spied on by various intelligence agencies and portraits of these activists were drawn out to predict what they would do next and find the fastest ways to eliminate them, publicly, fatally, or both. The 1989 introduction of the FICO score and the rise of the early internet would also begin to brew up digital homunculi as predictive behavior (spending, repaying) and the access of communication outside of an immediate circle would expand.
Digital Homunculi
It is after the events of 9/11 when relations of power âglobally and digitallyâ would expand with advances in surveillance. This acceleration was deployed in tandem with complicity and forfeiture of privacy for convenience, peace of mind, and the implementation of no alternative. Coming out of the extreme developments in high frequency trading and warfare simulation, âspecifically the field of Affordanceâ whole new levels of predictive methods would enable a new expansion of power as internet 2.0 would align with these new networks[16]. As the NSA would become the most powerful intelligence agency under Bush and expanded under Obama, the mining of information âonce warrantlessâ would become voluntary with the majority of engagement with the internet or technology at large. This would reach a public consciousness with the public whistleblowing of Edward Snowden (2014)[17]. In the brief time since Snowden advances in computational power âaiding computation and machine learningâ had enough advances to make use of the current dregs of selves that exist online. The advancement of wireless networks and networked apps and âinternet challengesâ encouraging users to upload images of them ten years prior and currently, among other things did wonders for training sets on the process of identification and aging. The use of filters, while not as radical in its training is also of use in procuring facial recognition/mapping.
As these networks of AI assisted surveillance expanded the expansion of copyright laws of pre-high-speed internet days would also update. Software would be created to scan and verify within seconds the status of copyright on the increasing abyss of media uploaded every second. What once resulted in immediate censure/takedown would be superseded by the clichĂŠ of capital once again extending its boundaries by scanning said material and allowing it to flow taking in whatever ad revenue would be generated by said upload[18]. In the realm of fractional profits, it is the voluntary analysis of user taste âall the better to form algorithms and patternsâ that is the real benefit in this new permissive arena of passive gains. Taste itself is atomized and entered into new streams of flows. Once analyzed redirection to a prioritized content can be easily done well tuned algorithmâs in a passive yet superliminal form of advertising wholly original to this new era.
Lastly, the most recent development is the rise of home DNA test kits. For a nominal fee one can submit their own DNA test for archival storage to the private sector. While this can be analyzed for personal entertainment/research and medical research, it is the wariness of the private sector and their connection to the military industrial complex that is cause for alarm. The patenting of DNA is nothing new however in 1990 Genetic Technologies (GTG) issued U.S. Patent No. 5,612,179 which holds ownership over the discovery and work to be conducted in Junk DNA. A complex web of ânoncoding sequencesâ Junk DNA constitutes roughly 75% of all DNA[19], a majority which will remain shrouded under the copyright of Malcolm J. Simmons as well as biochemical complexity.
Basilisks of the Self
With all of these fields of surveillance/generative, transient, or legal is not clear if any method of escape is possible. The soft mandatory usage of the net, extravagant methods of tracking debt, and the total privatization âon and off the gridâ present a panoptical labyrinth. The tactics of sousveillance exist to look back into the camera but to go further by spreading and the useless is a possibility. Returning to Paracelsus: when discussing the homunculus, the topic of the Basilisk and other beings created by non-standard methods arose under the title of animalls. The vitriolic opposite of the homunculus with equally extravagant and false origins â a snakeâs egg hatched by a chicken or a product of menstruating womenâ the basilisk is of interest in its ability to kill anything to fall under its sight and bearing a âpoison is above all poisons, to which nothing in the world is to be compared.â[20] To look at the screen and react in a way that kills or poisons the harvesting desire of the tech is the key. Tactics of this abject chicken and/or serpent are the game. To lay low, shed skin, and walk around with a calculated and precise manner to be taken in as idiocy.
Usage of extensions that click on every add on a page, VPNs, and data strikes have been at use but there is very little that can be done to exist this system as the grid is now multivalent and harder to leave than before. Tagging locations in useless locations, and the removal of cookies is a start. Private information sealed in abstraction, the presentation of ways useless to facial recognition, and the work to copyright our own genetic sequence are tactics I have begun to work on. A futile and useless research, its abject goals are TBD. This process will take further work as the fields of usage and rights expand beyond the realm of representation post Crispin Glover in Back to the Future. This is by no means a means to an end or even effective but an analysis of method and possibility. As infinite selves begin to accumulate we must willfully choose to become the basilisk guarding our own homunculi.
[1] Much of this material appeared in prior essays. Revised and recontexualized for the exhibition
[2] See the deepfake of parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver revived for political means, and the parody but very possible deepfake amazon worker Twitter accounts
[3] Ai here is referring to automated processes not Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in which the generation of new concepts and autonomy is the goal. Training and repetition are key in understanding this as a routine and mechanical process.
[4] Outside of hermetic histories the homunculus has two contemporary recurrences; the Homunculus Fallacy, in which a theory is inconclusive if it can only be explained by its own mechanism i.e. Âwe experience the world through a smaller version of ourselves in our head making sense of these sensations, a claim that would continue recursively with a smaller person in that person, etc. The second usage is the Cortical Homunculus an anthropomorphic representation of sensitivity to stimuli mapped out with sensitive areas being rendered large i.e. a humanoid with giganticly proportioned hands and lips, as they are dominant sensorial organs. This is then broken down into the sensorial and motor homunculus. For this essay the digital homunculus is to be the source of attention.
[5] Paracelcus is also known for expanding the four elements to include biological compositional concepts of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury ârespectively representing the Body, Spirit and Soulâ one would trace where ailments began and apply small doses of the ailing toxin to cure said affliction. Paracelsus was the first to name and use Zinc, unknowingly discovered Helium, proposed that digestion was biochemical, and reached an early understanding of psychosomatic affliction
[6] De Natura Rerum (On the Nature of Things)
[7] Scholarship on De Natura Rerum has become complicated since it 1928 when Karl Sudhoff proposed doubts with the authorship. It is unclear whether De Natura Rerumis genuine, a forgery, a reproduction of the original, or the product of at least three different authors, all pretty standard.
[8] Kitab Al-Ahjar (4:12)
[9]Respectively: takwin al-nabat, takwin al-ahjar, takwin al-hayawan, takwin ashab al nawamis.
[10] While apocryphal, it is believed that the word Gibberish is a result of the complexity and imperceivablity of Jabirâs work
[11]Ibid.
[12] 65b.
[13] Outstanding claims aside, it is of course important to note the exoteric function of Masonry. Much more interesting activities under Adam Weishaupt the following year in Bavaria to be sure.
[14] Personal favorites exist within the historical avant-garde, the occult theories of Jack Parsonâs interest in the homunculus, and James Shelby Downardâs theorization of the union between a JFK homunculus and the Trinity Blast site. While by no means a favorite the similarities with the My little Pony Cum Jar Project (2014) is oddly similar to Paracelsus method.
[15] It is from this project where Noam Chomsky is first introduced.
[16] Huge advances Came from peter Thielâs Palantir company a private sector brute force surveillance tactics to map out and scan through the totality of phone calls, fingerprints, banking records, and real time data. OF all things Palantir is credited with solidifying, formalizing, and making use of standard methods of predictive, and AI assisted surveillance/prosecution, with the benefit of operating as a private company outside of standard method. Within federal methods the LAPDâs Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration (LASER) program (2011) was a direct and targeted application of predictive methods to surveil and accelerate arrests of citizens with prior records or adjacent to prior records for increased arrests.
[17] What is perhaps most interesting about the MHCHAOS program was that itâs leak, the expose in the Washington post known as the family jewelâs story was only done so as a power grab by political rivalâs in the CIA to oust James Jesus Angelton. Snowden, it should be noted prior to work with the NSA was an employee of the CIA which were active in trying to weaken the NSA for their own interests as opposed to liberation/duty as opposed to the leaked information of Chelsea Manning.
[18] Bots are also trained to identify material that âcouldâ be copyrighted and marking a video to send income to the owner (who may not exist) taking a fee as a middleman. The traces of sound playing from a distance, radio, tv, etc. would also be applicable for this process.
[19] It is debated how much of DNA is actually âusefulâ with numbers as low as 10% and as high as 25%
[20] De Natura Rerum