Freedom in Fetters

Y’already know! To be—suis—is already to follow, consciously or not, the vast, intricate forces of a network that binds us to the world. The Cartesian declaration, “I think, therefore I am,” becomes, upon closer examination, “I think, therefore I am part of something greater.” This network expands beyond selfhood: from the immediate intimacy of neighbor, to the shared identity of species, to the interwoven system of the ecosystem, to the grand choreography of the cosmos. The very act of existence is enmeshed within this expanding web. I do not merely exist in isolation; I exist because I am linked to this vastness.

Yet, herein lies the first tension: the problem of pretext. If I am to follow, if I am to see, I must first ask what I am following. Pretext functions as an initial justification, a given rationale, but it is often an obscuring veil. The narratives of my tribe, my culture, my era—are they guiding lights or distortions? Pretext, when unexamined, constructs the false narratives of history: wars waged under banners of liberation that mask the hunger for power, policies enacted in the name of security that conceal the impulse for control. If I follow without seeing, I risk being led by shadows.

Fig. 29 The Next Time Your Horse is Behaving Well, Sell it. The numbers in private equity don’t add up because its very much like a betting in a horse race. Too many entrants and exits for anyone to have a reliable dataset with which to estimate odds for any horse-jokey vs. the others for quinella, trifecta, superfecta

To see—voir—is the moment of clarity. But sight is not passive reception; it is an act of unveiling. Beneath the stated pretext lies the subtext, the deeper current running beneath the surface. To read critically is to uncover what is unsaid, to decipher the subtle patterns that shape the explicit narrative. The philosopher, the poet, the dissident—these are those who develop this sight, those who resist the comfortable fictions of surface-level meaning. Ukubona—the act of seeing—not only perceives but interprets, forging an awareness that resists deception.

From sight comes the necessity of choice—choisis. Seeing does not guarantee action; awareness without decision is paralysis. To choose is to introduce agency, to assert will. Here, a rupture occurs. One either accepts the preordained narrative or breaks from it, deciding upon a path that is not merely inherited. The moment of choice is existential—it is the space between compliance and individuation. To see but not choose is to remain bound. To choose is to declare, however tentatively, a claim to one’s own course.

Yet even in choice, the self is not fixed. The act of becoming—deviens—implies transformation, but also a return. There is no single moment of awakening that completes the journey. To become is to iterate, to cycle through states of knowledge and doubt, conviction and uncertainty. Nietzsche’s eternal return whispers in this movement: one does not simply progress in a linear trajectory but oscillates, revisits, reconfigures. There is a deep ambiguity in deviens—is it a forward thrust or a return to a prior state, now understood differently? The past is not shed but re-encountered, re-interpreted in light of what has been seen and chosen.

The final movement—m’élève—is the act of transcendence. But what is transcendence if not the capacity to iterate on one’s own becoming? It is not an escape from the world but an ascent within it. It is the realization that every pretext can be interrogated, every subtext uncovered, every choice reconsidered, every transformation re-examined. To elevate oneself is not to leave the cycle behind but to move through it with increasing clarity and intention. It is not a final state but a new vantage point, an iterative ascent rather than a mere loop.

Thus, the journey from suis to m’élève is not a rigid sequence but a recursive dance. To be is already to follow. To follow is to risk deception. To see is to resist. To choose is to declare. To become is to cycle. To transcend is to iterate. And in that movement—neither fixed nor futile—I am.

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import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import networkx as nx

# Define the neural network fractal
def define_layers():
    return {
        'World': ['Cosmos-Entropy', 'World-Tempered', 'Ucubona-Needs', 'Ecosystem-Costs', 'Space-Trial & Error', 'Time-Pretext', ], # Veni; 95/5
        'Mode': ['Ucubona-Subtext'], # Vidi; 80/20
        'Agent': ['Oblivion-Unknown', 'Brand-Text'], # Vici; Veni; 51/49
        'Space': ['Ratio-Weaponized', 'Competition-Tokenized', 'Odds-Context'], # Vidi; 20/80
        'Time': ['Volatile-Transvaluation', 'Unveiled-Resentment',  'Freedom-Dance in Chains', 'Exuberant-Jubilee', 'Stable-Metatext'] # Vici; 5/95
    }

# Assign colors to nodes
def assign_colors():
    color_map = {
        'yellow': ['Ucubona-Subtext'],  
        'paleturquoise': ['Time-Pretext', 'Brand-Text', 'Odds-Context', 'Stable-Metatext'],  
        'lightgreen': ['Space-Trial & Error', 'Competition-Tokenized', 'Exuberant-Jubilee', 'Freedom-Dance in Chains', 'Unveiled-Resentment'],  
        'lightsalmon': [
            'Ucubona-Needs', 'Ecosystem-Costs', 'Oblivion-Unknown',  
            'Ratio-Weaponized', 'Volatile-Transvaluation'
        ],
    }
    return {node: color for color, nodes in color_map.items() for node in nodes}

# Calculate positions for nodes
def calculate_positions(layer, x_offset):
    y_positions = np.linspace(-len(layer) / 2, len(layer) / 2, len(layer))
    return [(x_offset, y) for y in y_positions]

# Create and visualize the neural network graph
def visualize_nn():
    layers = define_layers()
    colors = assign_colors()
    G = nx.DiGraph()
    pos = {}
    node_colors = []

    # Add nodes and assign positions
    for i, (layer_name, nodes) in enumerate(layers.items()):
        positions = calculate_positions(nodes, x_offset=i * 2)
        for node, position in zip(nodes, positions):
            G.add_node(node, layer=layer_name)
            pos[node] = position
            node_colors.append(colors.get(node, 'lightgray'))   

    # Add edges (automated for consecutive layers)
    layer_names = list(layers.keys())
    for i in range(len(layer_names) - 1):
        source_layer, target_layer = layer_names[i], layer_names[i + 1]
        for source in layers[source_layer]:
            for target in layers[target_layer]:
                G.add_edge(source, target)

    # Draw the graph
    plt.figure(figsize=(12, 8))
    nx.draw(
        G, pos, with_labels=True, node_color=node_colors, edge_color='gray',
        node_size=3000, font_size=9, connectionstyle="arc3,rad=0.2"
    )
    plt.title('Pretext as Coverstory Masks Text', fontsize=15)
    plt.show()

# Run the visualization
visualize_nn()

Fig. 30 From a Pianist View. Left hand voices the mode and defines harmony. Right hand voice leads freely extend and alter modal landscapes. In R&B that typically manifests as 9ths, 11ths, 13ths. Passing chords and leading notes are often chromatic in the genre. Music is evocative because it transmits information that traverses through a primeval pattern-recognizing architecture that demands a classification of what you confront as the sort for feeding & breeding or fight & flight. It’s thus a very high-risk, high-error business if successful. We may engage in pattern recognition in literature too: concluding by inspection but erroneously that his silent companion was engaged in mental composition he reflected on the pleasures derived from literature of instruction rather than of amusement as he himself had applied to the works of William Shakespeare more than once for the solution of difficult problems in imaginary or real life. Source: Ulysses