in our radial ontology
and for each player in those stories
and for each emotion
experienced by those players
assign a distinct emotion-color
with similar emotions
getting similar colors
we assume that most human branches
will have experienced some shades
of every flavor of emotion
but we have almost no evidence
of who what where and when
so if an artifact survives
that 'documents' a past emotion
let us light
an appropriately colored star
at that time and place
(a dimmed cloud
if these are
as usual
uncertain)
with unambiguous documents
shining in pure colors
and ambiguous
impure
and first let's map
the innovators of documentation
who purified an emotion-color
in a surviving artifact-document
for the first time
these stars will cluster strongly
around individual artistic geniuses
and cluster more weakly
across eras of more general genius
and the palette of colors
will gradually fill out
as overlooked
or taboo emotions are added
but even as more and more artifacts
survive
documenting more emotions
more clearly
we still have to doubt
the authenticity
of each particular depiction
that claims to pertain
to a specific branch
at a specific point
for publication usually
assumes a public
false
face
the advent of photography
meant that occasional
true faces
were captured at specific
times and places
and the advent of flickr
means that dozens of these are now published
every second
[rwwl]
