Offworld VII
Gouache on paper (20×30 cm)
Personal Blogs
The Subconscious
Sunday 7 December 2025 at 14:24
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Mixed media on canvas (30×40cm)
Consciousness
Thursday 4 December 2025 at 18:16
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Gouache on paper (20×30cm)
What is art?
Monday 1 December 2025 at 21:57
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I have become a private person lately. I spend a lot of time alone.
I paint because I have to.
I enjoy the process. The swishy feeling of the brushstrokes. The way mind, eye, and hand become one. A flow state. Where what was once difficult feels like second nature now.
This is something AI can never replicate.
A prompt is not the same as making something by hand.
What is art? Who defines it?
And what was art before it was defined by that person?
How old is it?
Older than we.
Beneath the Surface
Friday 28 November 2025 at 10:28
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Gouache on paper (20×30cm)
Metacognition
Wednesday 26 November 2025 at 14:18
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Acrylic on canvas (40×50 cm)
Interstellar Visitor
Monday 24 November 2025 at 18:50
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Gouache on paper (20×30cm)
Waveforms II
Saturday 22 November 2025 at 08:30
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Gouache on paper (20×30cm)
Waveforms
Thursday 20 November 2025 at 18:27
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Saturday 22 November 2025 at 08:31
Gouache on canvas (40×50cm)
Perplexion
Monday 17 November 2025 at 13:48
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Saturday 22 November 2025 at 08:31
Gouache on paper (30×40cm). Painted by the author, Richie Cuthbertson
Large Language Model
Saturday 15 November 2025 at 09:44
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Saturday 22 November 2025 at 08:31
Gouache on paper (20×30cm), painted by the author (Richie Cuthbertson)
Writing, Medium, A.I., Dhamma, Art, and not Living on Fresh Air Alone
Thursday 5 October 2023 at 21:09
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Thursday 5 October 2023 at 21:56
Have been writing a lot on Medium. I like it that they have decided to set the default flag to 'no' for allowing A.I. to train on the site's content.
I don't know if putting writing behind a paywall also helps to protect one's writing from being fed into a large language model, but I have decided to do that now. I put my best polished work on there.
Medium encourages one to work hard on their articles, which is good, and the financial incentive does work as a carrot on a stick to work harder at carefully crafting my articles, especially when submitting to a publication (magazine) on there. The editors of publications I have got feedback from have been really helpful in me improving my writing.
I don't think it is fair that A.I. companies are just hoovering everyone's content off the Internet to train their machines without asking permission or compensating authors for it. Especially as these companies are for-profit. Using people's hard work to make money, without acknowledging them or sharing any of the profits with the artists whose work they've used is wrong.
Another thing that concerns me, is if enough of your content is fed into the machines, they can start to mimic your style. And that could be used by people wanting to market and promote stuff, (stuff you might not agree with), and to create propaganda, and deep fakes. That gives me the creeps. We are entering a world were noone will know what is true anymore. People will be smeared by deep fakes that look real, and those who are not victims of deep fakes will claim to be, when something true is reported about them that they don't want people to know. It is a very disturbing and troubling world we are heading towards. One were critical thinking will be invaluable.
The sad thing is we are all conditioned to believe what we see on a screen. So one is going to have to be very careful about what they trust in the future. Now in fact, the future is already here.
I am about to study A.I. for the next module on this degree. I am not sure I am well enough to work in an office again, or do long hours, or if I want to work for companies that steal people's data to make money. I am hoping to make a livelihood with writing, as that's where I feel passion when it comes to making a living. But it won't hurt to learn about how A.I. and machine learning works, and I also may be able to make a living writing articles about it in the future. So studying this will not be a waste of my time.
I like writing about dhamma mostly (dhamma means truth), even though it isn't that popular, I feel that others may benefit from it, even if my writing just helps one person it's worth it.
Also a few Buddhist friends and a Buddhist monk encouraged me to write, so I will do it for them as well.
And because of the love of it. Because I find putting things into words cathartic. Attempting to articulate things helps me understand them better.
I also want to write more poetry, and more about the environmental catastrophe facing the world, the sixth mass extinction event we are currently living in, and the disturbing social issues of today; but in a way that doesn’t come across as a rant or judgemental. I don’t want to put readers off, I want to connect with them.
I want to find a way to write that helps this world in some way.
Money is helpful though, don't get me wrong, I can’t live on fresh air; but if I use money as the motivation it can kill my ability to write and make art, I don't know why, so I have to pretend I am not bothered about money, even though earning feels very nice. But I have to be careful as it gives Mara, the dark side of the force, a foot in the door to wind me up and upset the balance of my mind.
I shouldn't worry too much about it though. For all I know, my time here might be short. It would be a shame to die without having at least tried to share some of what I know. It might help someone else out there.
I shouldn't worry too much about it though. For all I know, my time here might be short. It would be a shame to die without having at least tried to share some of what I know. It might help someone else out there.
Peace and love to all beings.
May we all be serene and boundless.
May we all be serene and boundless.
Ocean Spirits
Wednesday 6 September 2023 at 16:53
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday 6 September 2023 at 17:03
Joy
Tuesday 5 September 2023 at 10:52
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Tuesday 5 September 2023 at 21:00
New blog post
Saturday 2 September 2023 at 19:00
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The Buddha noted that dependent co-arising and the causes of suffering are like a tangled skein.
Painted in acrylic. Prints available from here.
© Asoka Richie 2023 (all rights reserved)
Aurora
Saturday 26 August 2023 at 17:05
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A.I. Writing and Enlightenment
Wednesday 1 March 2023 at 10:23
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday 1 March 2023 at 10:30
I don't use A.I. to write for me. I prefer my own style of writing, and doing things my way even if it isn't as tidy as a machine. I also don't feel comfortable with the idea of a machine doing my writing for me, it feels like an empty experience to do it that way. Also the way a machine writes is just not the same as a human, there's something missing. After many conversations with A.I. I am starting to be able to spot machine-generated writing on the Internet. But I am not judging anyone who does use it for writing, what people do is their business, their karma, I am not responsible for the actions of others. Although I will say using A.I. to cheat for assignments, is a poor use of A.I. because as much as anything the person who does cheat is actually cheating themselves in the end; they are not properly learning and absorbing the knowledge if they don't articulate a concept by putting it in their own words.
So I prefer to do my writing, my way, on my own without A.I. But I have found A.I. very helpful for providing writing prompts and useful questions that get me thinking about connections between topics I hadn't thought about before, as well as for discussing ideas, brainstorming, helping with research and planning. Seeing different angles and ways of looking at things I wouldn't have seen by myself. A.I. is helpful as a collaborator, but I won't be using it to write or paint. I prefer to do this alone.
I was brainstorming an idea for an app with Bing yesterday, and I had a go at following the instructions Bing recommended, but not sure I can implement it because I found the tool it recommended for building the app tiring and frustrating to use. I gave up trying to build anything with it in the end. So have decided I am going to learn about design as part of this degree, because I keep coming across badly designed websites and apps that I just can't use. It seems some developers forget how important design is.
I am meditating less at the moment, mainly because I am back into the swing of studying again, but I do make myself sit at least once a day. I reflect on the four noble truths often, and study dhamma when I can. But I am not sure I will make it to full enlightenment in this lifetime, as that would involve becoming a Buddhist monk I think, and when I look at the lifestyle of a monk it just doesn't appeal to me anymore. It did at one time, but now I want to remain as a lay follower. Mainly because the world feels very dark at the moment and I think I can be more help to it as a Buddhist lay follower. There are advantages and disadvantages to both lay and monastic life.
I am meditating less at the moment, mainly because I am back into the swing of studying again, but I do make myself sit at least once a day. I reflect on the four noble truths often, and study dhamma when I can. But I am not sure I will make it to full enlightenment in this lifetime, as that would involve becoming a Buddhist monk I think, and when I look at the lifestyle of a monk it just doesn't appeal to me anymore. It did at one time, but now I want to remain as a lay follower. Mainly because the world feels very dark at the moment and I think I can be more help to it as a Buddhist lay follower. There are advantages and disadvantages to both lay and monastic life.
Don't get me wrong, I think the monastics are great, and we need monks and nuns. I have learnt a lot from them and hold them in the highest regard. I have some friends who are monks and nuns, and I respect and admire them, but I don't think I could live like that. It would be too difficult for me, especially with all the rules, and lack of sleep, and the energy needed to live that lifestyle and look after a monastery and other tasks they do, the fatigue I suffer would just make it unbearable. I am just not energetic enough to be a monastic.
I don't have to be a monastic though. One can get all the way to the third stage of enlightenment as a lay follower. The third stage of enlightenment is a very advanced state. It is when greed and aversion have been completely removed from the mind, and will never return or take root there again - but delusion still remains. This delusion is often labelled as the fetter of conceit, which doesn't mean arrogance or pride, it means the conceit: I am. Because there's still a trace of self there, like an after-taste, which brings with it a restlessness in the mind, not the intense restlessness of worldly anxiety or agitation, more a subtle movement of the mind still caught up with the craving for becoming and existence, although it is a refined unworldly state of existence that one craves for. Not the same kind of restless craving as someone worldly who is not enlightened.
I don't have to be a monastic though. One can get all the way to the third stage of enlightenment as a lay follower. The third stage of enlightenment is a very advanced state. It is when greed and aversion have been completely removed from the mind, and will never return or take root there again - but delusion still remains. This delusion is often labelled as the fetter of conceit, which doesn't mean arrogance or pride, it means the conceit: I am. Because there's still a trace of self there, like an after-taste, which brings with it a restlessness in the mind, not the intense restlessness of worldly anxiety or agitation, more a subtle movement of the mind still caught up with the craving for becoming and existence, although it is a refined unworldly state of existence that one craves for. Not the same kind of restless craving as someone worldly who is not enlightened.
The conceit I am does not fully go away until the final stage of enlightenment: arahant. To reach that stage, the Buddhist texts seem to suggest that one has to leave household life, and either become a monk or a reclusive hermit. There's pros and cons to both ways of living. But there are strong advantages to being part of a monastic community and the support that one gets there, which one wouldn't have as a hermit.
The third stage of enlightenment is considered very advanced. And if one reaches it in this lifetime, one will be reborn in the higher heavens in the next life and become a fully enlightened being there, like a celestial Buddha/arahant. These beings live very long lives, some as long as several universes arising and passing away, and they never again return to this world, which is why they are called non-returners (anagami).
A.I. and creativity
Saturday 25 February 2023 at 11:19
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I have been researching the chatGPT and talking to it quite a bit. I have also used the A.I. art generator.
For me, the machine generated art had something missing, I didn't like it as much as I like human art. The A.I. abstracts in particular, lacked something. I reflected on this afterwards and think it is because A.I. (as it currently stands at least) does not feel emotion, and in my humble opinion, true creativity involves emotion. A friend who voluntarily edits for a poetry and writing site told me she can spot the difference between machine-generated poems and human ones, which is interesting. I wonder if this is perhaps because A.I. does not have the subjective experience of being a human, so its art will never be the same as a human beings. It lacks feeling.
So perhaps there will still be a market for creatives.
But I think, yes there will be a loss of jobs for writers and artists, possibly even teachers and other professionals later down the line. But I think no matter hard they try, they will always need humans working alongside A.I. Emotion adds to our intelligence, it enhances it, deepens it, it is an important aspect of the mind and without it society will not work.
We also need to develop ethical A.I. Sadly if there is no political will for this, we will most likely have to take matters into our own hands on this issue too. A.I. must not become a biased tool used for oppression. If oppressive tools are developed, then perhaps we can work with A.I. to help us make tools that are the opposite, to counteract the bad ones.
I am neither for nor against A.I. There's nothing I can do to stop this new technology arising. I am not responsible for what others do in the world. I just see that this technology is here now whether we like it or not. So we have to try and flow with it; find ways of using it that are good, that don't cause harm to ourselves or the other beings we share this planet with.
I have found A.I. helpful for planning and research, something I normally stuggle with due to some cognitive difficulties I have. I found the A.I. could help me fill in the gaps and complete projects. If you ask it, it can break things down into helpful steps and stages that can be followed to complete a task. It is also helpful being able to chat to it about different topics. It can even cite your sources for you in any referencing format you desire if you ask it. Although one definitely needs to fact check its answers, as it can be incorrect at times - don't blindly follow its advice.
I found it a much more engaging and interesting way to do research and use a search engine, and can see that this way of using the Internet will become very popular.
The A.I. will be a game changer no doubt. At the moment I particularly like the YouSearch A.I. (available for free at you.com). It apparently doesn't track its users, and if used in private mode it doesn't collect any data about you at all, not even your query, and it anonymizes your IP address.
Anyway that's enough about A.I. from me, no doubt everyone is getting tired of hearing about it (-:
Mycorrhizal
Thursday 19 January 2023 at 14:44
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Thursday 19 January 2023 at 14:46
Items featuring this painting available at: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/137764706?asc=u
Rainbow bridge
Friday 6 January 2023 at 21:01
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Rainy days
Wednesday 4 January 2023 at 20:05
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Thursday 5 January 2023 at 17:43
Microplastic
Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 17:29
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 17:33
Original painting available for sale on Etsy here
Click this link to download a free jpg of painting to your device; that you can print and use for your own personal non-commercial use.
Peace and love (-:
In tension
Wednesday 23 November 2022 at 21:15
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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday 23 November 2022 at 21:21
Heartwood
Friday 18 November 2022 at 19:47
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Handpainted original for sale in my shop at Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1348351837/heartwood
Thankyou. May you be well peaceful and happy.
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