K-W SoundEagle

Advanced artificial intelligence like ChatGPT would have been regarded by even our most recent ancestors as God-like, futuristic, prodigiously capable, divinely state-of-the-art or fantastically magical, if not also scarily human-like in what it can (re)produce, albeit superhuman in speed and quantity. At the very least, the introduction of ChatGPT signals the unbridled experimental spirit of accelerationist and technoutopianist vanguards in their shaping the future of AI-driven language technologies and transforming the way in which humans communicate, collaborate and interact with ever more powerful computer systems, generative AI models and interactive technologies. The risks and incidents of artificial intelligence displacing or atrophying human intelligence, diminishing critical thinking, curtailing authentic learning, facilitating plagiarism and fuelling misinformation aside, how well or exemplarily any advanced chatbot can consistently and reliably produce an edifying digest, illuminating synopsis or salient summary of an outstanding idea, a provocative claim, an intellectual work or a scholarly resource should be a quintessential cornerstone of both AI development and knowledge acquisition. Paving openness to exploring thought-provoking themes and understanding complex issues, including but not limited to those pertaining to what truly brings happiness, fulfillment, prosperity or sagacity, especially in a world of flux and escalating risks, in a time of dramatic change and global uncertainty, is indeed the most pertinent and ethically challenging aspect of a humanity (existing in an age) that is growingly reliant on artificial intelligence and augmented by God-like technology. In the long run, chatbots as well as other related programs and AI services can imperceptibly yet significantly influence not just the zeitgeist and the objective characteristics of intellectual property, but also the production, perception, popularity, prominence and evolution of derivative works versus original oeuvres.  Undoubtedly, generative artificial intelligence has already pushed the boundaries of creativity, authorship and the roles of human producers ranging from artists, musicians and writers to scientists and researchers.

The rapid and widespread adoption of artificial intelligence raises important ethical considerations and sociotechnological challenges. Concerns about data privacy, algorithmic bias and job displacement have prompted urgent calls and measures for responsible AI development and better governance, insofar as the ethical, equitable production and consumption of AI technologies are paramount to the long-term success and societal acceptance of AI, whose future holds both immense promises and emerging risks. Whilst continued advancements in AI innovations could revolutionize industries, enhance human productivity and address pressing global issues, there are nevertheless latent threats, existential risks and challenging prospects confronting humanity, not least in relation to the concentration of power amongst tech giants, the erosion of privacy rights, and the potential for autonomous AI systems to outpace human control, all of which mandate approaching AI development with caution, foresight and firm commitment to ethical principles towards establishing an ultimate nexus in which humanity and artificial intelligence collaborate harmoniously for the betterment of all and sundry.

1) Featured Illustration of Growing Humanity with AI
2) Introduction: AI-Induced Social Change
3) Privacy, Security and Visibility
4) The Future of Humanity and AI
5) 🧐 Conclusions
6) 📜 Collaborative Poetry Challenge ✍🏻

Advanced artificial intelligence like ChatGPT would have been regarded by even our most recent ancestors as god-like, futuristic, prodigiously capable, divinely state-of-the-art or fantastically magical, if not also scarily human-like in what it can (re)produce, albeit superhuman in speed and quantity.  The risks and incidents of artificial intelligence displacing or atrophying human intelligence, diminishing critical thinking, curtailing authentic learning, facilitating plagiarism and fuelling misinformation aside, how well or exemplarily any advanced chatbot can consistently and reliably produce an edifying digest, illuminating synopsis or salient summary of an outstanding idea, a provocative claim, an intellectual work or a scholarly resource should be a quintessential cornerstone of both AI development and knowledge acquisition.  Paving openness to exploring thought-provoking themes and understanding complex issues, including but not limited to those pertaining to what truly brings happiness, fulfillment, prosperity or sagacity, especially in a world of flux and escalating risks, in a time of dramatic change and global uncertainty, is indeed the most pertinent and ethically challenging aspect of a humanity (existing in an age) that is growingly reliant on artificial intelligence and augmented by god-like technology.  In the long run, chatbots and other related programs and AI services can imperceptibly yet significantly influence not just the zeitgeist and the objective characteristics of intellectual property, but also the production, perception, popularity, prominence and evolution of derivative works versus original oeuvres.  Undoubtedly, generative artificial intelligence has already pushed the boundaries of creativity, authorship and the roles of human producers ranging from artists, musicians and writers to scientists and researchers.  Artificial intelligence is fast becoming not just a chameleon, a do-it-all factotum, and a digital jack of all trades, but also a technological accelerator, an inevitable assimilator, and a formidable disruptor-cum-transformer auguring seismic social change with far-reaching ramifications and repercussions.

1) Featured Illustration of ChatGPT and AI
2) Introduction: AI-Induced Social Change
3) Close Encounter of the ChatGPT Kind
4) Scrutinizing ChatGPT Results
5) What ChatGPT Knows about SoundEagle🦅
6) Privacy, Security and Visibility
7) Getting to Know SoundEagle🦅
8) Mistaking SoundEagle🦅 as Artificial Intelligence
9) The Future of Humanity and AI
10) 🧐 Conclusions
11) ⚠️ Disclaimer 🪧
12) Recommended 📑Posts for April

One of the ongoing goals of SoundEagle🦅 is the nuanced conveyance and stylized rendition of various messages and ideas through certain thematic threads and inventive interfaces whilst connecting, organizing and bolstering a variety of textual, visual and aural elements, which are intended to be mutually enhanced by their multiplicity and facilitated by their multisensory contexts, interactive potentials and synergetic significance, irrespective of their degree of confluence and interdependency.

Designed and administered by SoundEagle🦅, this website has served as a multimedia playground to investigate the polyphonic dance of ideas, to consider their manifold eddies, their unexpected simultaneities or juxtapositions, as well as their multiple embodiments and modes of expressions, as they unfurl through the lenses of plurality, the faces of diversity, and the facets of multidisciplinarity, intermingling from time to time, and topic to topic, with the semantic fields of culture, the speculative realms of philosophy, the aesthetic worlds of art, and the analytic spheres of science.

The rich affordances and features available on this website constitute a multipronged approach for circumventing the many restrictions and conventions imposed by academic journals whose contents are often hidden behind paywalls, insofar as self-publishing certainly presents numerous advantages, which, when combined with the dynamic nature of webpages offering contents that can be freely viewed and shared by visitors and commenters, are attractive to the likes of SoundEagle🦅 who has been an inveterate freethinker, teacher and communicator.

The pluralistic experiences offered to you in some highly entertaining multimedia 📑Posts and Pages📃 comprise beautiful and stylistic presentations of Text Art, Photos, Videos, Music, Illustrations, Computer and Web Graphics as well as Games and Animations, many instances of which exemplify the malleability, permeability and cross-fertilization of ideas and cultures, whose fecundity, fluidity and visibility are often facilitated and enhanced by potent rendering tools, social media and emerging technologies, which have various implications for the modulation, transformation and documentation of procedures or practices, including blurring the boundaries of design, creation, interface and workflow, as well as facilitating the understanding of artistry through form, invention, interaction and information.

Under these scenarios, this website has increasingly become a creative, thematic conduit through which fusion, experimentation, appropriation and transformation flow, and where reinterpreting, repurposing, recycling and reinventing can freely combine contrasting or opposing elements from the real and the imaginative, the mundane and the exotic, the popular and the esoteric, as well as the secular and the religious, the artistic and the scientific, whilst embracing the richly textured terrains and novel landscapes of the bespoke, unique, controversial or idiosyncratic. Not surprisingly, many traditionally straightforward hobbies and hitherto simple pastimes, including art, craft, gardening and photography, have taken on more heterogeneous characteristics as they intermingle with other domains and interests, becoming more infused with the purviews of other fields and disciplines.

It is hoped that some of the offerings on this website can also serve as a bridge, conduit or crossing between the East and the West, between the laypersons and the experts, between the proven and the experimental, between the old data and the new findings, between the documented and the anecdotal, by way of judicious translation, edification, promotion and dissemination of information pertaining to the long cultures and traditions that have accompanied certain fields and disciplines and their ardent champions through the dynamic synergy of various pursuits and domains, including prose, poetry, art, graphics, cartoons, animations, games, puzzles, music and video.

In turn, these fields and disciplines can become both catalysts and arenas for recognizing, (re)creating and (re)contextualizing various pursuits and domains with multiple reference points as a means of reflecting and communicating the current state of community and society, and as a way of fostering mutuality, reciprocity and complementarity.

Understood in these terms, the value of certain fields and disciplines can truly begin to be appreciated and defined beyond the straightforward results and immediate implications of admiring, studying, developing and improving them, to the extent that partaking in these fields and disciplines becomes not just an attempt at, or a process of, accruing and capturing knowledge, but also a fruitful endeavour to use certain pursuits and domains and their myriad embodiments and representations as a means of expressing ideas, which are themselves products of instinct (nature), experience (nurture) and technology (tools), guided and shaped by principles and forms of knowledge.

A spiritual outlook with a minimalist perspective on life that is conducive to happiness is often predicated on living in the present moment through mindful awareness emancipated from the vagaries of the subconscious and the itinerants of the mind.

☼ೋღ🏅MENU🏅ღೋ☼

🔖 Stay in the Moment‍ 🔂
        A Meditation on Life: Delayed Gratification
        Scientific Account of Living in the Moment
        Stay in the Moment and Stop Wandering
        Stop Facebooking and Smell the Roses
        Conclusion: 🔄📈📉 Change Rules and Moment‍ Matters 🔖🕰️🔂
              Moment‍ Matters
              Change Rules

🕰 Moment‍ in Perspective 💠‍
        The Best Moments Involve a Loss of Control
        Find Your Eternity in Each Moment
        The Norm of the Moment
        8 Ways To Enter The Present Moment
        The Moment According to Stoic Philosophy
        A Stoic Analogy of Life by Marcus Aurelius
        10 Tips to Start Living in the Present
        The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment
        Mindfulness Tips: How to Live in the Moment
        How to Live in the Moment
        How to Live in the Present
        How to be Present: 5 Steps for Living in the Here-and-Now
        Learning to Live in the Moment Will Change Your Life
        Emerging into the Moment
        Thoughts and Reflections 10: Achieving Ourselves
        What Animals Can Teach Us about Mindfulness
        Why “Living in the Moment” is Bad Advice
        Living in the Present with Religion and Truth
        Living in the Moment — Good or Bad?
        Only Living in the Moment – And Why It Can Be Dangerous
        The Difficulty of Being in the Present
        Always A Moment
        Moments Without Thought
        Guide to the Now
        Oprah Talks to Eckhart Tolle
        Living in the Present Moment
        The Present Moment; Being Completely Here and Now
        Mindfulness Places Us Where Our Choice is Possible

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Coda

There exist certain conditions and circumstances in politics and governance under which even legislation has its limits and cannot be counted on to preserve liberty and realize (the significance of) democratic freedom, particularly when human fallibility and corruption prevail to the detriment or exclusion of probity, liberty, equality, fraternity, decency, acumen, rectitude and morality (being defended and applied with good sense and fine judgement); or when laws and decrees can no longer (be judiciously utilized to) guarantee, maintain or restore (any semblance of) order, justice and even democracy itself.

The capacity of laws and legislation to be legally valid, binding and enforceable in different contexts is both contingent (acceptable only if certain circumstances are the case) and circumscribed (restricted to certain roles or situations).  Laws and legislation comprise or constitute not unadulterated reality of legal control and scrutiny but a version filtered through the lens and scope of social expectations and human experiences as well as the contexts, power structure and social hierarchy in which they are presented.  The content, relevance and quality of laws and legislation are fundamentally filtered and moulded by class structures, social stratifications, cultural reproductions and communication frameworks as well as by the interaction between legal cultures, and the social construction of legal issues.  All in all, the validities of laws and legislation are inescapably constrained by, or contingent upon, not merely factuality, intentionality, advocacy, allegiance and partisanship but also contemporary modes of thought, standards of reasoning, epistemic principles, theoretical perspectives, ideological standpoints, leading paradigms, social conventions, cultural traditions, ethical frameworks, moral ideals and the like.

Without the mediation and benefit of the scruple, prudence, moderation, sagacity and good will of those in charge of systems, and more specifically, the justice system, even legal arguments and determinations predicated on morality or moral principles can persistently fail to resolve fundamental disagreements or epistemological impasses that often arise in a pluralistic society saddled with competing moral values. Furthermore, the jostling for legality and legitimacy amongst disparate voices and factions can often manifest as a zero-sum game.  Championing or enshrining the claims or moral values of certain societal groups via legal means and legislative controls not merely results in the suppression of the claims or moral values of other groups, but also risks undermining or infringing on their respective prerogatives, autonomies or sovereignties.  Such divisive issues can be tricky and challenging to manage, adjudicate and resolve efficaciously even at the best of times, and have become all the more insidious and perilous in the face of a fiercely partisan sociopolitical climate dominated and marred by intolerance, corruption, moral bankruptcy, Machiavellian conservatism and inimical illiberalism.

The rulings of the court and the enforcements of laws and legislation tend to impel rigid compliance, incubate further grievance and even inflame social unrest rather than promote nuanced understanding and facilitate genuine empathy, thereby frustrating people’s effort in, reducing their chance of, and extinguishing their motivation for, mitigating ideological conflicts and moral issues by being more conciliatory, sympathetic, compassionate, open-minded, and less prejudiced or bigoted towards others.  After all, outstanding manifestations of controversial matters and polarizing issues that ferment sociopolitical strife, especially those incurring, inducing or involving infringements of dignity, privacy, autonomy, liberty and civil rights, seldom cancel each other out neatly or resolve amicably on their own via an adversarial zero-sum game or winner-takes-all scenario, much less when there also exist punitive sanctions, prohibitive constraints or stringent rules and regulations to the detriment of civil liberties and even democracy itself.

Dedicated to the unforgettable Edward O Wilson whose affinity with Nature and unity of knowledge have stirred biophilia and spurred consilience in SoundEagle🦅ೋღஜஇ

Humanity is stuck with an antiquated modus operandi that taps into an ancient psyche, which has long evolved for the lifestyle and mindset of nomadic hunter-gatherer ancestors — a psyche that is dramatized by our antediluvian, anachronistic “paleolithic emotions”, entrenched by our problematical, superannuated “medieval institutions”, and compounded by our unbridled, expansionary “god-like technology”. It is a psyche that renders conformity, cupidity, vanity, self-deception and self-preservation as the strongest motives and tendencies that prevail amongst people in any society or socioeconomic order; a psyche that traps people with psychological inertia, sunk-cost fallacy and commitment bias whilst simultaneously uniting and dividing people by their social status, group affiliation and tribalistic loyalty; a psyche that is so saturated with labile, volatile, ineradicable desires, feelings, affects, moods, temperament and (pre)disposition that it still remains to be reined in by philosophical disciplines, calmed by meditative practices, or settled by spiritual traditions; a psyche that constantly defies attempts at exercising mental conception and willpower to better our own nature even when we are aware of ancestral, parental, peer and societal influences that have shaped our character and personality; a psyche that is so deeply embedded in the subconscious layers of our being that it can trick us with illusions of free will and conscious control; a psyche that resides in universal nature to such an extent that we are plagued with decision-making shortcuts and cognitive pitfalls that not merely prevent us from being more reliable and clear-minded but also stop us from transcending our age-old conundrums and existential crises — a psyche that is unable to overcome critical behavioural barriers and vanquish menacing psychological defects, all of which increasingly unravel the prospect of our species and dash the likelihood of our reconciling with Mother Nature.

Let us put this psyche under the microscope.  Just as there are evolutionary bases in people’s sense of morality and in their behaviours as well as in their religiosity, so too are there ingrained features behind people’s propensity for being unduly influenced or manipulated by their emotions, as revealed by new understandings in multidisciplinary fields such as sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and behavioural sciences, epigenetics, brain and cognitive sciences, gene-culture coevolution and the like, especially if those emotions are primal in origin, necessary for survival, conducive to surveillance, or associated with dread, anxiety, paranoia, uncertainty and doubt. For instance, fearmongering unequivocally manifests a potent appeal to fear to the extent that those who are capable of exploiting or attacking the psychological vulnerability of human beings can exert far-reaching control over people and place them under their reign or sway.

Emotions fuelling biases and flaring opinions can be seen as a major, volatile contributor to innumerable social flashpoints, cultural minefields and ideological infernos, where truths become victims and martyrs. The quality of news, information, journalism, public discourse and social life as well as politics and governance have been adversely impacted by Hype, Bias and Affect, thus negatively affecting democracy, civil society, civic activism, legitimate journalism and the world at large. In particular, the ease and frequency with which countless people from all walks of life readily or unreservedly slip into the cacophony of opinions and partialities in flagrant disregard for factuality and fairness have indubitably pointed to a deep-seated aspect of Homo sapiens. The perennial predilection for drama and the persistent preoccupation with emotion are part and parcel of (the (eu)social world inhabited by) the human species, simultaneously constituting the defining strength and the Achilles’ heel of the naked ape, insofar as large swathes of the human population have been held captive by biologically-based psychological states — the neurophysiological edifices that have been holding sway over much of humanity and showing no sign of abatement through the ages, whilst being magnified by institutional and technological advancements.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/misquotation-pandemic-and-disinformation-polemic-mind-pollution-by-viral-falsity/

Conceived by SoundEagle🦅ೋღஜஇ in the year during which coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a pandemic ravaging humanity, Misquotation Pandemic, Disinformation Polemic and Viral Falsity are three neologisms that aptly reflect the centrality of human behaviour in perpetuating and accelerating not only the spread of communicable diseases via human settlement and migration, but also the dissemination of misquotations and disinformation through social media, news platforms and mass communication, thus polluting the mind, media landscape and information ecosystem to the point of inhibiting or impairing civil discourse, human rights, democratic governance, social cohesion, community psychology, critical thinking, critical consciousness and sociopolitical development. The systemic production and dissemination of misquotations and disinformation are often not merely the result of ignorance, the absence of experience, the lack of acumen, the decline of rectitude, the dearth of morality, the rise of iniquity, the product of mendacity or the upshot of enmity, but also an outcome of the struggle and polarity in socioeconomic, cultural and political domains involving unequal access to and corrupt manipulation of power, information and resources.

Misquotation and disinformation have become such fashionable tools of distortion, deception, disruption and destruction that they are categorically and universally inimical to truth, trust, liberty, equity, integrity, morality and democracy.  The phenomenal rises and impacts of Misquotation Pandemic, Disinformation Polemic and Viral Falsity have been so embedded and pervasive as to render or qualify them as highly corrupting forces and exacerbating factors in the broader sociopolitical environment.  The sheer extent and potency of 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠 in atomizing and polarizing people into schismatic and ill-informed individuals, as well as in fomenting and extending people’s misguided, perfidious, disruptive, destructive, provocative, reactionary or counterproductive behaviours into the nooks and crannies of everyday life, have both unveiled and unleashed the language of misperception, cupidity, corruption, deception, subreption, antipathy, antagonism, resentment, inequality, identity politics and ideological extremism, often manifesting as dramatic forms of misrepresentation, sensationalism, cognitive bias, selective empowerment, discriminatory practice, invidious policy, historical negationism, social amplification and cultural tribalism — ones that are unflatteringly ill-equipped to address or moderate, but unenviably well-equipped to worsen or contribute to, the wider structural causes of complex, partisan or contested issues, especially those pertaining to homophobia, xenophobia, racism, ageism, sexism, religion, abortion, vaccination, genetic evolution, climate change, the environment, the economy, as well as civil and political rights. The outstanding effects and ramifications of Misquotation Pandemic, Disinformation Polemic and Viral Falsity have become so far-reaching and wide-ranging that they are (im)posing considerable disruptions and existential threats to humanity, as they inject layers of complexity and even intractability to diverse matters pertaining to information literacy, media literacy, sociopolitical impact, sociocultural disturbance, foreign interference, information warfare, knowledge security, social integrity, electoral integrity, media integrity and diversity, as well as conflict resolution, civic engagement, democratic resilience, public health, epidemiological response, sustainable living, environmental protection and ecological crisis. All in all, Viral Falsity has become both the recipe and the accelerant for instability, conflict, crisis and degeneracy on a global scale in pandemic proportions, burdening a large number of peoples, institutions and societies with awkward, difficult, complex, dangerous or hazardous situations occasioning gross injustice, perturbation, violence, lawlessness or dehumanization, and resulting in social, legal, political and bureaucratic quagmires, whilst (con)straining both intellectual discourse and civic life.

Throughout the world, the seemingly relentless, inexorable move towards a principally digital, mobile and platform-dominated media environment has ushered in not just modern methods of instantaneous communication with high-speed, expeditious access to information and applications online through worldwide platforms such as search engines and social media, but also the rampant distribution of misquotations and disinformation from numerous sources and across social networks. “Lies spread faster than the truth”, and “[f]alse news can drive the misallocation of resources during terror attacks and natural disasters, the misalignment of business investments, and misinformed elections”, as concluded in a report investigating the spread of true and false news online. The age of information has indubitably spawned the age of disinformation and the rage of misquotation. As a consequence, many regions and countries are not merely undergoing significant disturbances or seismic shifts in their sociocultural, political and media landscapes and information ecosystems, but also engaging in a series of aggrieved contests and existential tussles between (the autonomy of) self-governance and (the autocracy of) an authoritarian alternative.

As the third decade of the third millenium dawns, the skill and resolve for winnowing truth from falsehood have become more wanting in humans than ever before. Falsity trumps probity; fallacy swamps clarity. In short supply and chronic retreat are the cognitive tools and intellectual acumen necessary to recognize the errors or defects propagated in quotations, statements and claims from numerous sources, including the media, academia, luminaries, dignitaries, celebrities, ideologues, politicians, stakeholders, advertisers, influencers, Internet users and bloggers, particularly in the era of misquotations and disinformation, numerous instances of which seem to be intractably stoking people’s partial or utter ignorance as well as growingly courting their emotional drives, biased attitudes, cardinal urges, primal impulses and tribal instincts. Consequently, many segments and cohorts of the population can be easily convinced or manipulated to defend, support or purvey the interests, beliefs, agendas and actions of those who propagate problematic quotations, statements or information intended to be factually inaccurate, misleading, erroneous, spurious or conspiratorial.

Misquotations and misinformation have increasingly functioned as the instruments, rhetoric, foot soldiers and trojan horses of unethical behaviours, reprehensible conducts, ignoble agendas, mendacious propagandas and unprincipled calculuses. The pernicious influences of misquotations and disinformation present severe consequences because the causes, effects and ramifications of misusing, misjudging or misinterpreting quotations and information, however invisible, unchecked and unacknowledged they may have been, can also include those arising from various mental traps, thinking styles, behavioural patterns, psychological tendencies and cognitive biases.

There are indeed multiple connections between the misquotation pandemic, disinformation polemic, quotational intelligence, information literacy and media literacy as elaborated in the contexts of cognitive biases, formal fallacies and informal fallacies with all their concomitant social ills and their adverse social and civic outcomes impacting on community psychology, critical thinking, critical consciousness, and sociopolitical development. In a nutshell, the psychological and sociopolitical saliencies of (mis)quotation and (mis)information within the media landscape and information ecosystem have considerable impacts on the functioning of societies and the welfare of citizens.

Major sections:
    Introduction : All the World’s a Stage of Misinformation
    Cognitive Biases : A Minefield of Mental Traps for the Unwary
    Infodemic : Media Landscape & Information Ecosystem Pollution
    Hype, Bias, Affect : Appeal to Emotion & Lazy Thinking
    Misquotation & Misinformation : A Gateway to Bad Conduct
    Social Media : Social Amplification & Cultural Tribalism
    Infographic : Escaping Confirmation Bias & Echo Chamber
    Social Fracture : Existential Crisis, Subjectivity & Acculturation
    Fact-Checking : An Emerging Market Fraught with Issues
    Post-Truth : Weaponizing Falsity & Normalizing Duplicity
    Authentication : Quotation and Information Checklist
    Denouement : Democracy, Education, Legislation & Sustainability
    Annotated GALLERY 🖼
    Related Articles 📰

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/11/11/strong-wind-knows-tough-grass/

This post is an interesting brief excursion into Chinese history and literary culture, introduced with an elegant example of calligraphy by the author [ SoundEagle🦅ೋღஜஇ ].

The quoted poem exemplifies the strong ethical focus of much traditional Chinese literature, and the translations provided, when juxtaposed with the original text, well illustrate the economy of expression that is characteristic of the Chinese language.

There is indeed a veritable lesson of relevance which encapsulates, incorporates or consolidates the validity of, and thus, the legitimacy for, this particular Chinese quatrain (絕句).  In light of the frequency and prevalence of social turmoils and gross injustices caused by official misconduct as exemplified by egregious cases of malpractice and malfeasance in the business, financial and political spheres in various countries and regions across the contemporary world, the potent messages borne by this seventh-century poem 疾風知勁草 昏日辨誠臣 勇夫安識義 智者必懷仁 have gained even more gravity and relevance in the twenty-first century.

In particular, the first line of the poem, “ 疾 風 知 勁 草 ”, which this post is eponymously titled, bestows a perennial wisdom via the metaphor of “ Strong Wind Knows Tough Grass ” to receptive minds and eager students of life that a far fuller account or a much more genuine revelation of a person’s temperament, comportment and ethics tends to manifest only or predominantly under the trying tests of severe circumstances rather than under the regular rosy glow of daily life.

For instance, one cannot fathom or assess the danger that criminals pose by examining only what they do on a typical day, as much as one can hardly evaluate the resilience and robustness of the public health system without considering the outbreaks and aftermaths of pandemic diseases and devastating warfare. Similarly, one may significantly fail to appreciate the vulnerability and precariousness of both economy and autonomy as much as one is prone to underestimating the serious repercussions on social stability, democratic viability, environmental sustainability and ecological integrity in the absence of sufficient understandings of and sensible plans for information literacy, media literacy, sociopolitical impact, sociocultural disturbance, foreign interference, political warfare, information warfare, knowledge security, social integrity, electoral integrity, media integrity and diversity, as well as conflict resolution, civic engagement, democratic resilience, public health, epidemiological response, sustainable living, environmental protection and ecological crisis.

This particular Chinese quatrain, namely <strong>jueju (絕句)</strong>, is in a five-syllable form called <strong>wujue (五絕)</strong>, considered by traditional literary critics to be the most difficult form of <strong>regulated verse (近體詩)</strong>, which is one of the most important forms of Classical Chinese poetry.  Limited to exactly 20 characters, writing a <strong>wujue (五絕)</strong> demands the consummate use of each Chinese character to create a well-crafted poem, and entails the supreme command of symbolic language as required by the refinement of <strong>jueju (絕句)</strong>.

As with other forms of Chinese poetry, tonal metre in jueju (絕句) is a complex process comparable to the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in sonnets, since a poet writing a jueju (絕句) or similar lüshi-style poem (律詩) needs to alternate level and oblique tones both between and within lines.

Other rules as applied to the jueju (絕句) include regular line length; a single rhyme in even-numbered verses; strict patterning of tonal alternations; a major caesura before the last three syllables; optional parallelism and grammaticality of each line as a sentence.

Jueju poems (絕句) are always quatrains; or more specifically, a matched pair of couplets (對聯) where each line comprises five or seven syllables.  Overall, each couplet generally forms a distinct unit, and the third line usually introduces some turn of thought or direction within the poem.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/the-last-rag/

Composed by SoundEagle🦅, The Last Rag comes in two versions: the 1996 Original Edition and the 2010 Special Edition.

The Last Rag can be performed or listened to as a self-contained work, though it is also the middle movement of the three-movement Second Piano Sonata entitled “The Time Beyond”.

The Last Rag was first performed by Professor Stephen Emmerson in a music recital at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (formerly the Queensland Conservatorium of Music) in 1996, and was performed by David Pitman who played the Second Piano Sonata “The Time Beyond” on 9 October 1997 at the New Music Collective Concert held in the Recital Hall of Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University featuring SoundEagle🦅’s various compositions.

The Second Piano Sonata “The Time Beyond” (to which The Last Rag belongs) was also one of the major pieces featured at David Pitman’s final piano examination required for his Master’s Degree in Performance. The Last Rag was played by Professor Stephen Emmerson and recorded in the Orchestral Hall at Queensland Conservatorium by Daniel Fournier who, along with Peter Laughton, mastered all the edited tracks onto the CD entitled “The Rag Project” and released in 1998. More than a decade later, it had been fondly studied and played by Connie Stamatopoulou in 2009 and 2010.

The Last Rag had also been featured at least once on radio (in the vicinity of 2000 as the precise date is beyond recall) in one of the programmes hosted by Julian Day, an artist, composer and broadcaster who used to present the long-running experimental music programme called “New Music Up Late” as well as “Classic Breakfast and Afternoons” on ABC Classic FM.

The 2010 Special Edition of The Last Rag continues the salient features of the 1996 Original Edition further, including melodic angularity and atonality, contrapuntal textures, motivic extensions, thematic superpositions, harmonic piquancy, chromaticism, suspended tones, nuanced sonorities and dynamic expressiveness. Due to full-time filial commitments, both the score and the recording of the 2010 Special Edition are only just published by SoundEagle🦅 here in 2020.

Regardless of the degree to which the resulting composition may be regarded as an appropriation, reimagination or reinterpretation of classic Ragtime, The Last Rag has patently honoured the well-established tradition and true spirit of Ragtime in the process of sticking fairly closely to, whilst also deviating inventively from, the musical form of Ragtime.  As the accompanying poem indicates, apart from conveying certain personal and philosophical messages, The Last Rag also serves as a meta-commentary or meta-narrative to ragtime as a century-old genre, evoking nostalgia and contemplation, as well as simultaneously reflecting, acknowledging and transcending the eras and heritages of ragtime and related genres. Overall, SoundEagle🦅 has sought greater freedom, unity, sophistication and expressiveness in The Last Rag to reach beyond the stereotype and confined scope of this unique genre whilst exploring innovative techniques to decisively push the envelope of the Ragtime vernacular and its vocabularies.

Those who have performed, orchestrated or analysed The Last Rag to a high standard are welcome to contact SoundEagle🦅 for the possibility of their work being featured.

Major sections:
    Enlargeable Banner with Caption and Description
    Special Heading with Animated Moths/Butterflies
    The Last Rag Poem
    The Last Rag Notes
    The Last Rag Poll
    The Last Rag Visualization
    Audio Playbacks
    Video Captures of Score with Music
    Gallery of Score Sheets
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https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/facing-the-noise-music-grey-barriers-and-green-frontiers-of-sound-society-and-environment/

Facing the Noise and Music is SoundEagle’s multidisciplinary research to explore the grey barriers and green frontiers of sound, society and environment, showing the trends and interactions among art, science, philosophy and Nature.  Regarding the barriers, the research highlights the radical changes in values, lifestyles and communities that present obstacles to a better world, affecting musical taste and aural experience as much as physical security and spiritual wellbeing.  As for the frontiers, the research traverses the boundaries of noise and music, and forges holistic and life-enhancing views towards the environment.  It (re)evaluates sound and music in the light of contemporary art, pioneering science and philosophy as well as ecological and spiritual movements.

As the world enters the new millennium with ever more uncertainties and changes, the research raises moral contemplation and debate on critical issues about sound, society and environment, by connecting the contemporary with the historical, the global with the local, the communal with the individual, the human with the nonhuman, and the noisy with the musical.  The research opens for wide-ranging examination the questions of cultural and biological influences on humanity.  It investigates how biological factors, socio-cultural forces and scientific views have shaped human perceptions, beliefs and practices, which in turn influence the production and consumption of sound and music.  The investigation is aided by analyses of constructive and destructive socio-cultural resources; and supported by scientific studies on the effects of noise on individual humans, animals and their communities.  The research also seeks to unfold the symbolic meanings engendered from the interactions and exploitations of human and natural worlds.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/the-quotation-fallacy/
https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/quotes/

The Quotation Fallacy can be defined as any error or defect that weakens the construction, interpretation or treatment of a quotation as a consequence of invalid or faulty reasoning; intentional manipulation or misrepresentation; unintentional carelessness or ignorance; misleading notion or view; and mistaken belief or attribution.

On the one hand, exploring the eponymous Quotation Fallacy can curate and demonstrate the inventiveness and ingenuity as well as the ignorance and existential risks of humanity as observed from the complex interplay between the myriad manifestations of quotation and the manifold limitations of intrapersonal cognitive processes occasioning significant and recurrent biases, oversights, misjudgements, misrepresentations, vulnerabilities, unwarranted inferential leaps and faulty conclusions to the detriment of developing, advancing and sustaining civil discourse, human rights, democratic governance, social cohesion, community psychology, critical thinking, critical consciousness and sociopolitical development. On the other hand, the discerning mindset and emancipatory potential engendered by the percipient exercise of quotational intelligence plus the multifarious issues and perennial challenges entailed by the Quotation Fallacy call for the holistic and consilient recognition of the importance of quotational excellence, at least to the extent that how we quote (as well as how we live, choose, think and write) and our emotive, emotional, habitual, instinctual, soul-stirring or inspiriting response to a quotation or statement should be judiciously counterbalanced, tempered, filtered or enriched by the vigilance and diligence of our intellectual faculty as guided by philosophy, cognitive science, logical inquiries, sound reasonings and self-appraisals, in conjunction with information literacy and media literacy as well as social and environmental sciences, so that we can consistently have the guidance and mindset necessary for better logic, action, belief formation, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, decision making and problem solving.

Quotational intelligence is defined as the capacity to construct, interpret or treat quotations with or for logic, action, belief formation, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, decision making and problem solving. More generally, quotational intelligence can be described as the ability to properly perceive or infer information from quotations, and to retain the information or quotations as knowledge or resources to be applied towards adaptive behaviours within an environment or context.

Major Sections:
Introduction: Fostering Quotational Excellence
Misquotation: Improper Quoting, Sourcing, Context, Appropriation
Emotions and Biases: Affect Heuristic, Stereotype, Attribution Bias
Logic versus Fame: Formal Fallacy, Genetic Fallacy, Halo Effect
Authority Bias and Author Bias: Expert Influence, Creator Persuasion
Classical Logic: Contradiction, Context, Scope, Validity, Generalizability
Compromise and Subjectivity: Special Pleading and Relativist Fallacy
Definition and Ramifications: Description, Scope and Corollaries
Illustrated Quotations: Inspirational and Thought-Provoking Quotes
Quotation Checklist 📝
Annotated GALLERY 🖼

In perusing the different sections of The Quotation Fallacy “💬”, this expansive post comparable in scope and function to a monograph provides you with structures of ideas unfolding across various conceptual landscapes and intellectual territories such that taken as a whole, you can be well on the journey towards attaining an in-depth understanding of the history of quotation, the philosophy of quotation, and the sociology of quotation, via an Analytical Prism refracting and dispersing quotational matters into a rich plethora of colourful topics regarding the motivational, psychological, behavioural, sociological, political, cultural, linguistic, intertextual, artistic, academic, philosophical and biological aspects of quotations, including how one perceives or deploys the role, power and potency of quotations; how quotations are formed, presented, disseminated and sourced; how quotations evolve or mutate with time and context; how quotations are generated, chosen, favoured, (ab)used and exploited across different scales, purposes and media; how quotations can provide revealing insights into human behaviour, cognitive pattern and social relation; how quotations are justified and promulgated via the intentions, activities or operations of individuals and organizations; how quotations can become the instruments or ingredients of fusion, appropriation, intertextuality, reimagination and recontextualization; how verbal quotations are indispensable ingredients of human dialogues and daily conversations in the arenas of spoken discourse; how quotations have manifested in not only texts and speeches but also visual arts, performing arts, animal vocalization, interspecies communication and biomimetics or biomimicry; how pictorial quotes become the lingua franca and communicative currencies tempting people with its artistic and expressive qualities but cause the visual defacement of images and the textual suppression of quotations whilst falling short on meeting the noble and inclusive goal of web accessibility; how quotations can be fabricated, misattributed, garbled, mistranslated or stated out of context to become misquotations; how certain forms of misquotation can be (un)intentionally produced to become novel, catchy or amusing statements such as anti-proverb (or perverb), malapropism, eggcorn, Yogi-isms and spoonerism or Sreudian flip; how quotations or statements are misattributed to illustrious authors and eminent authorities, and unjustifiably given more credence and circulation based on the perceived status, fame or fortune of quotees; how one man’s meaty statement is another man’s quoted poison; how quotations can appeal to emotion, consequences, fear, flattery, pity, ridicule, spite and wishful thinking; how quotations can be fallacious, biased, misleading or misguided, especially when they contain formal and/or informal fallacies; how the juxtapositions or pairwise comparisons of some seemingly sound quotations can reveal contradictions and incongruities as well as limits in their reliability, validity and generalizability; how quotations are essential for research and scholarly works in conjunction with paraphrasing, summarizing, referencing and citationality; how the use of quotations can lead to a concentration of knowledge, understanding, control and influence; how quotations can be conceived more as engaging knowledge than mastering information; how quotations are affected and finessed by graphic design, mass media, information technology, sociopolitical trends and sociocultural forces that shape knowledge production, social discourse, cultural reproduction, and the construction and transmission of meaning; how quotations have ascended to become the principal objects of commodification in the age of social media, advanced communications and mass consumerism; how the world has been vastly powered by the quotation industry in which individuals and organizations deploy mass communication to suborn or exploit ideas for matters ranging from self-promotion, testimonial advertising, influencer marketing and tabloid journalism to culture war, social control and political opportunism; how quotations have been used in or associated with ideas, claims, arguments, agendas, projects, campaigns, propagandas, demagogy, media manipulation, Internet manipulation, astroturfing operations and post-truth politics; how misquotations and misinformation have contributed to the growing pollution of the media landscape and information ecosystem; and how quotations can be relevant to and focused on transformative knowledge production and new modes of accountability by cultivating quotational intelligence and consulting the Quotation Checklist to facilitate transformational and sustainble change through critical thinking and quotational excellence.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/optical-illusions/

SoundEagle would like to invite all and sundry to contemplate the following queries:
👁‍ Is seeing always believing? ❇️
👁‍🗨 Is viewing invariably perceiving? ✳️
👀 How robust is the human vision? ❇️
😵 How tricky is optical illusion? ✳️

This post is a lengthy and multifaceted showcase of 👁‍ Optical Illusions 👁‍🗨❇️😵✳️👀 in their various forms and manifestations.

https://queenslandorchid.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/variegated-oriental-cymbidiums/

Longitudinally, orchids have been cultivated far longer and earlier in the East than in the West.  They have been recorded in various documents from the ancient history in China, including herbal medicine books more than three thousand years ago, the “Book of Changes” 易經 dating back to the first millennium BC, and the first manuscript to deal with botany in its entirety around 300 BC, as well as the oldest Chinese dictionary entitled “Shuo Wen Jie Tzi” 說文解字 (edited by Xu Shen, a famous Chinese scholar during the middle part of the Eastern Han Dynasty from 25 AD to 220 AD), in which the Chinese word 蘭 encapsulates perfumed plants prominently represented by orchids, especially the Cymbidium orchid, which is one of the classic flowers of Chinese and Japanese horticulture and art.

The East-West divide rests not solely in the encounters, utilizations and documentations of endemic orchid species but also in the morphological differences between Occidental and Oriental Cymbidiums, accentuated and consolidated over epochs, dynasties and generations by sociocultural forces more than by geographical factors.  In other words, whilst globalization has distributed many orchid genera and species far and wide, the largest cultural (and horticultural) divide between the East and West in the cultivation of orchids nowadays probably lies in the Cymbidieae tribe.  The typically showy and colourful hybrid Cymbidiums that appeal to Western growers are plants from (sub)tropical Asia with green leaves and little or no fragrance.  In contrast, the petite and subdued Cymbidiums preferred and coveted by Eastern growers are the fragrant temperate species with foliage and floral chimerisms that arise from spontaneous natural variants and hybrids.

https://queenslandorchid.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/the-scents-and-smells-of-orchids/

Being eye candies aside, scented orchids impart a bonus sensory dimension to the appreciation of the largest flowering plant family. In spite of the subjectivity of sensory perceptions and the diversity of orchid fragrances, there is a high degree of consensus in how orchids smell to the human nose. In addition, there are sociocultural differences in the degree to which the presence and quality of fragrance are considered desirable, admirable or even obligatory in orchids. Such differences can be quite pronounced in certain genera, especially Oriental Cymbidiums, many of which are fragrant orchid competition winners, and are highly prized for their elegant and diffusive aromas, often described as a sophisticated blend of jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and lemons. The cultivation of these fragrant orchids and their exalted elevation in art are symptomatic of the Chinese idea that fragrance is the heart of the flower. Indeed, Confucius referred to Oriental Cymbidiums as the “King of Fragrance” 「王者之香」, a phrase that is still in use today, having withstood the test of time and the rise and fall of dynasties.

The smell and flavour of natural vanilla created by adding or cooking the whole pods, powder or extract from orchids of the genus Vanilla are popular and ubiquitous in myriad foods and culinary dishes. There are at least 171 identified aromatic components in vanilla fruits. Even though no other orchid genus has achieved such global reputation with the odour of its fruit or flower comparable to that of the venerable Vanilla, there are indeed plenty of orchid genera, species and hybrids capable of filling rooms, houses and conservatories with odours containing rich combinations of volatile compounds when they are in flower. Nevertheless, it is still somewhat ironic that the widespread and long-lasting flowers of Phalaenopsis are largely odourless, whereas the specialist and short-lived blooms of Stanhopea are prodigiously fragrant. Hopefully, the renewed interest in breeding orchids specifically for their fragrance as well as the worldwide progress achieved in fragrance competition and judging will result in more perfumed cultivars being available to orchid enthusiasts and the public in the future.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/soundeagle-in-debating-animal-artistry-and-musicality/

Can Animals Make Art and Music?
… a roundtable on humor writing, featuring some of your favorite funny bloggers … revealed the critical gem that a monkey riding a dog is always funny …

A monkey riding a dog or vice versa may be the fodder of some circus act to titillate spectators expecting comical or quaint juxtapositions of unusual animal behaviours. How much more funny (or serious) could the act be if those animals were to display creativity involving certain artistic elements beyond just technical executions?

The sounds and languages found in Nature, and the associations between humans and animals couched in expressive forms of composition, narrative, performance art, popular culture and science, often challenge conventional expectations or entrenched assumptions not only about animals, their individuality, intelligence and social roles, but also about art and music, as well as the procedures, contexts and interpretations involved.

In an age when the ideas of neuroplasticity and neurodiversity are beginning to catch up to, and align with, the now familiar concepts of, and desirable allowances for, multiculturalism and biodiversity, we can better guard against the pitfalls of overly normalizing, regimenting or pathologizing human behaviours, gender identities, sexualities, appearances, comportments, etiquettes, lifestyles, career aspirations, work-life balances, interpersonal communications, body politics and cultural expressions, as they begin to enter the public awareness and discourse in greater frequency and magnitude, especially with respect to bigotry, conformity, integration, inequality, segregation, criminalization, discrimination, marginalization, ostracization and stigmatization. Ostensibly, what was once woefully misunderstood and regrettably deemed as hopeless, intractable or undesirable, including neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, has been gradually seen in a different light, insofar as certain peculiar modes of perception or idiosyncratic facets of cognition are observed to be responsible for breeding savants, including artists and animal whisperers possessing astounding or unusual abilities. Set against our normality, the apparent otherness of such people can nonetheless allow them to excel in what they do, often single-mindedly in precious, unexpected and admirable circumstances. Accordingly, we may indeed have even more compelling grounds to cherish the fascinating encounters or engagements with certain animal (cap)abilities, for despite their much greater otherness with respect to their human counterparts, whether neural or otherwise, innate or cultivated, some animals have consistently exhibited uncanny sameness to human beings in these skills in which they excel, not the least in the almost ritual-like practice and precision of the bowerbird in designing, the lyrebird in mimicking, the bird-of-paradise in dancing, the nightingale in singing, the cockatiel in talking, the peacock in dazzling, and the crow in problem-solving, never mind that these creatures are not bothered with (re)producing or communicating from architectural blueprints, artistic sketches, original manuscripts or compositional scores as definitive proofs of concepts, or as aesthetic statements of intents, visions and missions. Therefore, in the greater spirit of openness and empathy, in the increasing acknowledgement of plurality and multiplicity, and in the essential rebalancing of the Instrumental perspective with the Spiritual perspective, instead of always so exclusively or anthropocentrically admiring and celebrating the supposedly towering human achievements, human beings can finally be free to reflect on their hubris and their disconnect with Nature in order to truly appreciate their closeness and kinship with other animal species: the nonhumans and all their neuroplasticity and neurodiversity, waiting to be fully uncovered, recognized and engaged. Overall, the discussions here have yielded significant glimpses of animal artistry and musicality to provide the impetus or catalyst for future debates and discoveries.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/do-plants-and-insects-coevolve/
https://queenslandorchid.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/do-plants-and-insects-coevolve/

Coevolution is usually defined as a reciprocal influence of at least two interacting species on each other’s evolution. For insect–host plant interactions, possible examples include the development of toxic or at least distasteful chemical constituents in plants as an evolutionary response to insect attack and the evolutionary response of some plant-feeding insects to these, and various adaptations found in flowers and pollinating insects which combine to permit and enhance a mutually beneficial relationship. It remains a matter for debate whether such developments truly exemplify coevolution as defined above; the evidence in favour of this interpretation appears most persuasive for flowers and their pollinators in view of the multiple apparent adaptations seen on both sides of this relationship. In some instances, such as the development of long nectaries in flowers and correspondingly long sucking tubes in their specialized pollinators, attempts to model the evolutionary processes involved mathematically may strengthen the evidential basis for deciding whether a true coevolutionary process has occurred. A presumed coevolutionary relationship between two species or groups of species may be extended by the intrusion of other species not originally involved in the relationship, as in the case of aggressive flower mimicry by predatory insects that prey on pollinators of the mimicked flowers. Another kind of extension of a putative coevolutionary relationship is exemplified by Mullerian mimicry, in which insect species that have evolved to tolerate and sequester toxic or distasteful chemical compounds from their food plants have also coevolved to resemble each other visually, and yet another by Batesian mimicry, in which a palatable species, which does not feed on a toxic host plant, has evolved to resemble visually a toxic insect that does. The association between plants and plant-feeding insects is one of great antiquity, and it is suggested that coevolutionary relationships in their broadest sense should be conceived as occurring between whole evolutionary lineages over long periods of geological time.

https://queenslandorchid.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/cooktown-orchid-floral-emblem-of-queensland-australia/

The Dendrobiums are not immune from the various rifts and shifts in taxonomy and phylogenetics, not even an iconic one that is named after a town and then chosen from competing candidates to be the definitive emblem for an entire state of a nation. Variously referred to as Dendrobium bigibbum, Dendrobium phalaenopsis, Dendrobium bigibbum var. phalaenopsis, Dendrobium bigibbum var. superbum, Dendrobium bigibbum subvar. superbum, Dendrobium bigibbum var. bigibbum, Dendrobium bigibbum var. compactum, Dendrobium bigibbum var. coerula, Vappodes bigibbum, and Vappodes phalaenopsis, the floral emblem of the state of Queensland in Australia, commonly called the Cooktown Orchid, has been caught in the taxonomic turmoil and crossfire, for better or worse. Existing or outstanding naming discrepancies in paperwork, registries and historical documents are abundant.  The recent 2014 G-20 Brisbane Summit was the 9th meeting of the G-20 heads of government. It was held on 15–16 November 2014 in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, the only state in Australia whose floral emblem is an orchid. Endearingly known as the “Cookie”, this historically significant orchid is still recognised by many as Dendrobium bigibbum for the moment, even though there have been reclassifications at both the genus and species levels.

https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/do-plants-and-insects-coevolve/
https://queenslandorchid.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/do-plants-and-insects-coevolve/

Coevolution is usually defined as a reciprocal influence of at least two interacting species on each other’s evolution. For insect–host plant interactions, possible examples include the development of toxic or at least distasteful chemical constituents in plants as an evolutionary response to insect attack and the evolutionary response of some plant-feeding insects to these, and various adaptations found in flowers and pollinating insects which combine to permit and enhance a mutually beneficial relationship. It remains a matter for debate whether such developments truly exemplify coevolution as defined above; the evidence in favour of this interpretation appears most persuasive for flowers and their pollinators in view of the multiple apparent adaptations seen on both sides of this relationship. In some instances, such as the development of long nectaries in flowers and correspondingly long sucking tubes in their specialized pollinators, attempts to model the evolutionary processes involved mathematically may strengthen the evidential basis for deciding whether a true coevolutionary process has occurred. A presumed coevolutionary relationship between two species or groups of species may be extended by the intrusion of other species not originally involved in the relationship, as in the case of aggressive flower mimicry by predatory insects that prey on pollinators of the mimicked flowers. Another kind of extension of a putative coevolutionary relationship is exemplified by Mullerian mimicry, in which insect species that have evolved to tolerate and sequester toxic or distasteful chemical compounds from their food plants have also coevolved to resemble each other visually, and yet another by Batesian mimicry, in which a palatable species, which does not feed on a toxic host plant, has evolved to resemble visually a toxic insect that does. The association between plants and plant-feeding insects is one of great antiquity, and it is suggested that coevolutionary relationships in their broadest sense should be conceived as occurring between whole evolutionary lineages over long periods of geological time.