There’s a new language in town. It’s a bit like listening in a mirror. To help you hear it, here’s an older language…

Bird Footprints Among the Dinosaurs

Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta

Back in the day, careful observation of that kind of thing led first to systems of magic and then to this …

Syrian Cuneiform Tablet

Source

And that, in time, led to other languages, and finally a translation program, just like Okanagan Okanogan. This translator looked like this…

The Rosetta Stone

Hieroglyphs, demotic Greek, and ancient Greek in one.

That was really useful in moving magical languages in the direction of humanist ones. And so it went, until after a long history in books, including books of magic, it all led to this:

Code for Machines

With a human translation for the machines’ transport mechanisms.

Meanwhile, what are humans doing? Why, celebrating their non-textual lives and a thing called individuality.

Danny and Vanessa Leave Their Mark on a National Historic Site

Sulfur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station, Rocky Mountains.

As for that individuality, it’s a group thing, in all the languages of the world. No translation necessary.

Everyone Being Individual Together

Sulfur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station, Rocky Mountains.

Ah, those darned books have taught their humans well. Look at what the books are up to down in the valley below…

Banff Avenue, Banff Alberta

Complete with all kinds of specialized ecological niches for humans. There is little here that is not a book written out large. If you came for the mountains, you have to leave human codes and walk out into the rock piles, and then you have to come back to the steak houses and sushi shops. Living in the mountains is not presented as an option, but is, nonetheless, given as the name of the game. That kind of gap between image and reality is a clear sign that humans are thinking like books.

But, hey, why not come back at night, when things really get hopping:

Ice Park, Banff, Alberta

No need to climb an ice fall in the mountains, when you can climb one downtown in such beautiful, seductive colour.

And a closer look, without the beauty of all that light scaffolding and framing …

Human at the Monolith

… and a moment later …

Note the Texts

Texts are everywhere, of course.

And a moment later…

In the Age of Machines, this is Art

It is a vital Rosetta stone, to help guide humans into the new machine world.

Meanwhile, back on earth …