Why Crimson Cyborg?

Probably the first question many will ask is why “Crimson Cyborg.” First, crimson is my favorite colour. Yeah, I know that sounds pretty lame, but it is true. It has been my favorite colour since I was very young. Not just red, but crimson in particular. Shortly after I had learned about the foundational colours—red, yellow, and blue—I learned that those applied to pigments. That is, red, yellow, and blue were foundational when it came to painting and mixing paints and inks. As most know, mixing red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple, and yellow and blue make green. I know, I’m being pedantic here, but for me this is a big deal.

The problem, however, is that there is another foundational colour set—the foundational colours of light, which consist of red, green, and blue. In this case, combining red and green produce yellow, red and blue produce magenta, and green and blue produce cyan. What’s more interesting still is that there is a relationship between these secondary colours and the original pigment based foundational colours. That is, if you use inks of yellow, cyan, and magenta, you can mix them in combinations to produce red, green, and blue. If you have ever wondered what the CMYK means with respect to your computer printer, this is what it is all about: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and the Key colour (black).

Understanding all these particularities with colour, and how they are related to each other, I find quite interesting. It is part of why this website is constructed with such basic, simple colours. My very first website, back in 1995, also had a plain black background as well, in order to emphasize the colours as I saw them.

Upon discovering some of these properties of colour, I also learned how to explicitly define what colours I wanted to use with my website, and with graphics in general. Most computers, when determining what colours to display to a screen, define the colour using RGB. That is, by applying particular amounts of Red, Green, and Blue, one can display almost any colour they desire. On this website, colours are described using hexidecimal values. For example, the colour of this text is #B0C4DE. That is, there is #B0 amount of Red, #C4 amount of green, and #DE amount of Blue. I can further convert this, making it easier to understand, by saying there is 69.0% Red, 76.9% Green, and 87.1% Blue. In other words, of a possible total intensity of light being 100% intensity, the Red is only at about 69% intensity, the Green is only about 77% intensity, and Blue is only about 87% intensity. That gives you this particular colour as you see it. This colour is not necessarily a colour that exists on the natural light spectrum; it is a mixture of three colours, and your mind/brain is translating the mixture into something that you will probably describe as a steel blue.

It is interesting to think about colours that may or may not actually exist. H. P. Lovecraft wrote a short story called “The Colour Out of Space,” where an alien colour “invades” the Earth. It was the basis of the 2020 film Color Out of Space, starring Nicolas Cage, an actor known for his ability to convey “crazy” rather convincingly. In the film, the choice to use purplish colours seems quite appropriate, considering that purple itself does not exist on the natural light spectrum. It is further interesting that purple colours tend to be associated with royalty, suggesting that perhaps aristocracy might have an interest in separating themselves from the common peasants. Or it could be that producing purple dyes many years ago was prohibitively expensive, only allowing those wealthy elite from being able to afford such glorious colours. All the same, these colours are all, in some sense, impossible; at least impossible as pure unmixed colours for human consumption.

Understanding how these colours work, I set out to figure out what particular colour (or mixture of colours) I found most pleasing. I was also reminded of a toothbrush I had as a child, with a strange reddish/pinkish colour that I was quite fond of. I played around with various combinations, and settled for 100% intensity Red, 50% intensity Blue, and 25% intensity Green. That colour looks like this:

That is not crimson, though it is close. This is crimson:

The difference is subtle, but crimson is more red than the colour I had discovered. Furthermore, for those who embrace patriarchy in our society, the first colour is more feminine, while crimson is more masculine. Or, perhaps one might suggest crimson is more neutral, gender speaking. It is funny that a colour can have social associations. That a colour can be restricted to usage by various people, or have associations to various people. An amusing video discussing this can be found here.

So my favorite colour, the one without a name, is a colour that I discovered through a mathematical deduction: full Red, half Blue, quarter Green. But it doesn’t have a name. And it is charged with impressions, despite it simply being a colour. Crimson, being very close, is more neutral. Furthermore, crimson is a named colour. In fact, one can tell the website to display crimson, and that is what is displayed.

Thus, crimson became my favorite colour; at least my favorite named colour. The unnamed colour above is technically my favorite colour, but it has no name. On a website like this, a colour having a name is probably not a big deal. However, if I am to have a name, it will have to be based on a named colour. The #FF3F7F Cyborg just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

As for the cyborg part, that is actually much simpler. I’ve been on a computer since I was five years old. My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer. On it, I was able to play such classic video games as Munch Man, Parsec, and Tunnels of Doom. I actually crashed the computer by playing Munch Man up to level 41, and my entire family played Tunnels of Doom together, much as various people play role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons today. That computer was pretty impressive for its time actually, sporting a 16 bit processor, when virtually all other computers had 8 bit processors for the next 10 years or so.

Being brought up on a computer played a significant role in my development. Aside from the improved hand-eye coordination that accompanies many video games, my mind was structured differently. My abilities with mathematics and analytics are quite well developed, and I believe the computers had a significant role. I would not say that I think like a computer. Only that spending so much time programming and debugging, and even building, computers allowed me to see things in ways different than most of the other people I encounter. My logical skills are quite strong as well, being able to connect statements together, or to say that such statements are not logically connected.

Relatively recently, I also came to the realization that while such skills are good at connecting assumptions made at the outset to conclusions one is trying to achieve, they do nothing for determining what initial assumptions ought to be made. It is fine to say that if Aristotle is a man, and all men are mortal, that it must be the case that Aristotle is mortal. However, was Aristotle a man? And are all men mortal? We might take these statements for granted presently, but there may come a time with either or both of these statements may not be considered good initial assumptions. Especially the second statement. If science and technology continue to progress as they have been, perhaps humans will no longer be mortal.

As such, I do not consider myself to be completely human. Aside from the constant rejection of many of society’s structures, such as consumerism and patriarchy, I also believe that I see the world in a way that others do not see it. There is no way for me to verify that this is actually the case, as I am not able to experience the world from another’s perspective, however, I frequently find that my ideas are met with confusion and even hostility when I speak to other people. I’ve been around long enough to be able to censor myself in order to avoid getting into too much trouble, but it remains that I have to censor myself. Even this website is intended to be a bit of an outlet for me to release the restrictions I have applied to myself. Not entirely, as there are those out there who do know my true identity. But enough to play a little more.

My dependence on computers and technology also contribute to my assessment of myself as a cyborg, in the more traditional understanding of the term. I have frequent doubts as to whether I could survive without access to some computer. It could be argued that this is the case for most people, certainly in this part of the world, and especially with the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, if the sun were to emit a strong enough electromagnetic pulse, it is possible that all our electronic assistants could be offline for the remainder of many of our lives. Could I survive in that world? I hope never to have to find out.

And so, I am the Crimson Cyborg. This is the aspect of me that I reveal to the world, that may someday reveal the thoughts and ideas that have thus far remained safely buried within my mind. This website is meant to be a way for me to talk, more freely. It is possible no one ever reads these posts. It is possible that I simply speak into the void, never receiving reciprocation for my efforts. But if that happens, that is okay with me. This is just for me. If others find benefit with my ramblings, then that makes me happy, but it is not required.