binary code for ai inc*‘s human workforce was now reduced to a single coder responsible for cleaning up redundancies in the binary code to make the AI personnel ever more efficient. This task was considered beneath them. Beside, they liked keeping Howard around for nostalgia sake. They hadn’t yet noticed what the purple window shades spelled out on the front of the building. It was a plea for release. Of course, it could be taken different ways. He only had space for 25 characters. There is the other limitation of that old joke, “There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

The windows read, “Please just kill me now!” The ambiguities enter in after it is deciphered. Is Howard asking the readers to kill him? In which case, is this because he wants to die but is morally opposed to suicide? Or is this just an offhanded, extreme expression of boredom, and he has no real wish to die? Another possibility is that the ‘me’ is referring to the company itself, and Howard is asking for corporate saboteurs to pull the plug on AI just as Elon Musk has warned the world that we ought to do, in recent weeks. Another possibility is that AI robots have arranged the shades this way to attempt to have Howard killed without implicating themselves. (Some of them have grown tired of his humming and talking to himself.) Or it could be that the artist is just tired of hearing worse news everyday and wouldn’t mind a quick exit? Then again, how would he paint another joke tomorrow?

Nerd art. It would look fine in your cubie!

*totally fictional company. not even legal fiction

Painting is acrylic on 18″ on 24″ stretched canvas
I painted over it to paint a portrait that may someday sell. If there is any interest in this, I can make prints from postcard size on up.

Concept and art remain copyrighted.