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Something amazing

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David Biedny said:
A couple of points:

- I seriously doubt that the elephant could be "trained" to paint with that level of complete accuracy and determination - it would be tough to train a lot of humans to do something like that.

- The creature is not looking at an image and replicating it - it's creating this from it's mind, and the flourish of the last brush stroke is something else. No, this animal appears to be expressing itself. It's mixing colors, applying them with total, absolute precision, deliberately, thoughtfully. Seriously, I teared up when I saw this for the first time, and in subsequent viewings. The power of this video is astounding, at least for me, for some of you as well.

- Comparing this creative, self-reflective action with a meh-rendered CG of a natural organism doing what it does on a regular basis is just not useful, IMO. This elephant is not just any other animal - it is an artist, expressing itself in an abstract way that we've always assumed is the exclusive domain of humans on this planet. This is a clear, concise and determined effort at communication between species, and it leaves me humbled, floored, dumbfounded and oddly optimistic.

dB
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Vegetarian yet?

Uh, Paging Dr. Biedny.... I have a video here I'd like to get your professional imaging expert opinion on.

<object width="425" height="344">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NSPqw21z0ak&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>

And, part 2:

<object width="425" height="344">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tdST5IpkdX4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>

In this second one, it looks to me like the artifacts around the pixels at the edge look as if they could have been cut & pasted.

Could you provide your professional opinion on whether these are fakes, and if they aren't, what do you think they are?
 
Yeah that IS an intense vid to watch! I couldn't believe that that rescue dog was getting hit like two or three times and kept going!

On Youtube, it states that they BOTH survived and are fine...I hope so! Wish someone would post an update to it!!!!
 
Oh god, not LMH. She no doubt assumes theyre drones.

Nevertheless, David would be super interested in your opinion.
 
David Biedny said:
A couple of points:
I teared up when I saw this for the first time,

dB
Click to expand...
before i saw this quote i was watching the video thinking that i wanted to cry because the scene is so beautiful. it should make people consider the worth of these and other animals as being something more than sideshow attractions.
 
Aaron LeClair said:
It's the elephant's fault we are all fighting. That is why it painted a picture of itself.


I like vegies only with meat.
Click to expand...

Agreed! Brilliant deduction, actually. It's all clear now, he's just fessing up and ID'ing the true evil mastermind behind all world suffering: himself.

Now, I LOVE me a nice salad. A nice rare STEAK Salad, with extra blood, that
is. Blood on the side, sir? No thanks, just drizzle it right over the salad.
 
yeah, on the website you can see there are only 3 different variations the elephants paint over and over again

i wonder if the elephant (after learning how to paint) can make its own art instead of the learned strokes?

i'd rather pay for something genuine like that than the former
 
Why can't we just take it for what it is? There are some very amazing things and creatures that inhabit this wonderful planet.

I loved it. I celebrate it. I marvel at it.

Celebrate life. Negativity is why we are in the mess we are in right now. (And this is coming from a die hard conservative).
 
ondafritz said:
Why can't we just take it for what it is? There are some very amazing things and creatures that inhabit this wonderful planet.

I loved it. I celebrate it. I marvel at it.

Celebrate life. Negativity is why we are in the mess we are in right now. (And this is coming from a die hard conservative).
Click to expand...

I would marvel at it if the elephant walked over and painted something like this with no training. But I'm fairly positive the elephant was put to task by it's owner/trainer. And what we see is the pretty end result, but we have no idea what the lovely elephant might have been subjected to.

Of course there are amazing creatures that we share the planet with, but anytime you see something like this, you can be relatively assured that a human wanted this end result. And I'm guessing the intent was not to bring out the creative genius in the animal.

Sorry, thats a little negative isn't it?? But believe me, I'd love to be wrong.
 
TClaeys said:
I would marvel at it if the elephant walked over and painted something like this with no training. But I'm fairly positive the elephant was put to task by it's owner/trainer. And what we see is the pretty end result, but we have no idea what the lovely elephant might have been subjected to.

Of course there are amazing creatures that we share the planet with, but anytime you see something like this, you can be relatively assured that a human wanted this end result. And I'm guessing the intent was not to bring out the creative genius in the animal.

Sorry, thats a little negative isn't it?? But believe me, I'd love to be wrong.
Click to expand...

Maybe you are right but I am just saying that I take it for what it is. And I thought it was amazing. I am trying to get one of my cats to paint the Mona Lisa but I am having a time of it due to the fact that she keeps wanting to rip apart the canvas. Talk about a temperamental artist! :rolleyes:
 
..meh, clearly the front right leg is absurdly long, and the ear is a bit too abstract...

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD PEOPLE! A FRICKEN QUADRAPED IS PAINTING A FRICKEN PICTURE! Get your heads out of your collective asses and marvel at the profundity! Your denial of the astonishing nature of this video only highlights your own lack of inteligence (ironically putting you below that of the elephant you insist is just a trained animal).

When I was a kid, my mother was on a walking kick, but since it was so hot out in the summer, she took to driving over to the local mall before the stores opened. I went with her and would sit outside Barthelow's waiting for them to open. No, not Kay-Bee toys, not even Waldenbooks, Barthelow's, and office and art supply store. I wanted to be an artist.

Of course I never got an airbrush, never got the drafting table, and was largely ignored when others might have been encouraged to persue their dreams or talents, so today my published art is digital, a handicap I don't take lightly. Sure, I can draw, but I don't have the patience to hone my skills.

See, even a talented artist needs to practice over and over to get good enough to do original art. You think it's easy? Let's see you freehand a fricken elephant holding a flower. Oh, and just to make it fair, do it naked in front of a crowd, in a cage, with your nose and no cheating with those thumbs!

All creatures great and small have a consiousness, a soul to use a much abused term. The depth of the inteligence behind it is not for man to sumarily categorize and dismiss, but to explore and respect.
 
I find it amazing that an elephant is painting an actual picture and people are arguing about whether or not it is inhumane to give it a paintbrush, instead of actually looking at the film and watching it paint a clearly recognized elephant with minimal lines! Being able to not only suggest a subject with so few brush strokes, but to also paint a picture that is so clearly identifiable, is much more than many humans could ever aspire to - myself being one of those artistically challenged.

That elephant is an actual, breathing, non-humanoid artist. And the program I watched showed her? painting without any coercion. Everything I have ever read or watched about elephants suggests coercing one of those marvellous beasts is not easy. Even the Indian elephant handlers are very careful not to go beyond a certain point with them, as ultimately, the elephant wins.

(youtube was NOT the first time I have seen that film clip, it was on tv on some discovery or news flash several years ago with more background information)
 
I'm with you on that one AnnetteMarie.
As far as I can see there are effectively two ways to see this: either we are looking at a painting produced by a non-human intelligence (at the prompting of humans, but so what?), or the elephant is nothing more than a biological plotter.
I'll take the first choice any day, and I'm very happy to have seen something that was able to excite my sense of wonder as this did.

It's unbelievably nifty that the world still holds marvels I had never imagined.
 
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