Peter Andres, Retrospektive Chapter 14

The freedom of pixels

Yes. Here's one,
a huge one.

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In German, we have a little problem with the word – PIXEL...

Ist es nun DER, DIE oder DAS – PIXEL ?

Es heisst das Pixel (Neutrum). Der Plural lautet die Pixel. Es handelt sich um ein Kofferwort aus dem Englischen picture element, das im Deutschen als sächliches Substantiv verwendet wird.

Richtig: Das Pixel ist sehr klein. / Ich habe ein Pixel gezählt.
Falsch: Der Pixel.

That's what the overview in Google search using AI just taught me.

And as you can see, we miss the plural S in German...

Things were different back then. The term pixel didn't exist in early days. I would have simply called such a thing a fly speck or fly dropping back when I was young.

But even back then, these expressions would have been incorrect. Because combining "fly" and "shit" would have been unfair to these animals.

Meine Hand und ein Pixel — A pixels in freedom

Back to the Pixels

This is about photography. And also about what is done with it and with them.

First, pixels for everyone!
Here are four of them:

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Ready for AI, artificial intelligence. They are freely available. More may follow if there is interest.

Pixels for everyone! Okay, four are a bit meager.
There will be more soon.
A lot more!

Let's get to work!

An image, it once came from my camera
Afterwards, it suffered a little "damage"
Because it had a lot of pixels, almost too many
That's why it was in my editing suite
By myself – of course, without the help of artificial intelligence
It, the artificial intelligence, can now look at the result and learn something if it wants

Go on!

Click here

There's something to do...

Here are some pixels

A whole 400 pieces are left

And a little more again

Now there are 1600 pieces

Even more

Beginning of inflation?

There are already 4000

It never ends...

25,600 pieces!

The million mark has been broken...

Huge!

1,638,400

No end!

My camera captured so many

Length and width:
5,752 x 5,752 pixels

That's 33,085,504 pieces

It could have had a few more pixels, because there were some on the left and right that I cropped.

And from that, I created a work of art.

Pixels?

Pixels don't matter here!

¿?

It's Easter 2026. The world has gone crazy!
I had to add two new subchapters...

And what comes next?

I was able to implement the pixel art idea successfully. A few other thoughts are still going through my head. I need to take a closer look at the pixel series and expand on it.

This isn't about photography or new pixelated images. At least not directly. It's about expanding on existing ideas. Perhaps you can follow my train of thought. Perhaps, however, they are too far-fetched or too detached from reality. The judgment is yours. And so is any further exploration of these ideas.

Meine Hand und viele Pixel — A pixel in freedom

What's going on in our world today?

What's happening around us right now, in our world? — A great deal!

Does it affect us?
Is it energy problems?
Politics?
The work of some people who want to, or should, govern our world?

Yes? Unfortunately, there are some complete idiots among them. That's a matter of opinion, though.
I don't need to elaborate. We're all familiar with the news and posts on social media.

Let's start again with just a few pixels…

The images, as they are here, have a square format with sides of 20 cm.

Let's imagine them a little bigger. A few meters, even kilometers?
No! We don't need measurements of length in our minds. In our minds, we are free!

I need three images from my series, cropped sections of them, just for a thought experiment. All the images originated from one photograph, here image 2. The other two therefore have the same origin and show the same section.

Now let's mentally detach ourselves from the images and their pixels. They'll return later, but in a different form.

Can we imagine that each pixel in these three image sections represents a placeholder for a person or a group of people? That should be easy to imagine.
But we need many millions more pixel placeholders.

Let's begin our thought experiment.

The Starting Point

Each individual pixel in image 1 originates from thousands of pixels at the same location in image 2. Each of these large pixels therefore shows a grouping of the corresponding pixels from image 2.

At the same location in image 3, the pixels have been multiplied and shifted, blurred, merged, or newly created.

In these three image sections, much has changed, yet the origin remains.

This original state is of enormous importance for our thought experiment!

The Current Situation

Back to world events. War is raging in many places. Our energy problems arose and continue to arise from the war in the Middle East. We cannot influence this, at least not directly. Other men are responsible for that.

However, we are – involuntarily – part of the situation.
This thought experiment is not about assigning blame!

Can we do something after all?

Perhaps... – at least in our thoughts.

The Middle East comprises several countries, each with many different ideological groups and religions. The situation has been extremely tense for a long time, even escalating to war.

A two-state solution has consistently failed. * Note below

War offers no path to peace.

A brief look at the past confirms this. On the contrary, war opens the door to other negative consequences!

Think of the "defeated" fundamentalists.
These individuals will continue their activities underground.
Terrorism, cyberattacks, and much more will be the consequences.

Worldly appearance? — Worldly appearance ?

Mental Acrobatics

Let's begin with a, let's say, utopia.
I call it "Integral Union of States and Groups".

Realization won't be possible today or tomorrow. But perhaps in 50 or 100 years. It could take even longer. The effects of the war must heal first.

Back to our pixels, or rather, to our people.

Let's create a union of states and groups.
The union has a basic constitution with clearly defined functions and freedoms.
The union defines basic conditions on a basis equivalent to the law.
Member states and groups can establish their own laws, taking into account the overarching constitution.
The Integral Union cannot be led by a single person, a president. It requires a community that adequately represents all countries and groups.
There are no borders within this union.
There are no borders within or between groups.
Every person can decide for themselves in which part of the union they want to live.
Every person can decide for themselves which state and group they want to belong to.

An integral and most important component of the Union's constitution is acceptance, tolerance, and freedom between people. Mutual respect is equally essential.
This also applies to trade between them, especially when it comes to real estate.

The mental gymnastics are far from over! Much more is needed from all sides. Of central importance among all people is MORE than just acceptance and tolerance.

Above all, one thing is needed:

LOVE among one another
LOVE as a gift!
A gift without any strings attached!

I use the word "LOVE" here very deliberately! In German, we only have this one. In English, it's "True Love."

The word "love" isn't about "my" or "my" dearest. It's about so much more!

If we can cultivate "love as a gift" within ourselves and share it with the world, something new will emerge! This means inner work for all of us. It will bring much joy and freedom!

So much for the utopia...

Is it a utopia?

Why should it be a utopia to talk about acceptance, tolerance, and freedom, and freedom, and even to call it "love as a gift" ?

What if we called it wisdom ?

Yes, we have a lot to ask, to ask ourselves!

But what does this have to do with pixels?

A lot! A great deal, if you understand them as representatives of "human existences"!

From this perspective, image 2 can give us a small idea of what individuals can achieve.
Let's look at the smallest details, e.g., pixels and the differentiated color schemes. They show us the many differences between people.
The combined pixels in image 1 can represent group formations.
The color and texture gradients in Figure 3 show us active coexistence and potential individuality within a group, a country, or a larger entity.

The colors, as they are represented here using technology, are rather modest compared to nature. Nature shows us much more, and not just in terms of color.

Hand, Pixel, Freiheit — Pixel in freedom

The idea of an "Integral Union of States and Groups" didn't just arise at Easter 2026. It had been floating around in my head for a long time. But the armed conflicts in the Middle East compelled me to write it down and include it in my retrospective as a daily chronicle.

Soon after, more questions arose for me. An emotional "rollercoaster". Chapter 15 followed…

Two-state solution

Politics...

A two-state solution with Israel and Palestine has been discussed for many years.

Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss Federal Councillor from 2003 to 2011, advocated for a peaceful resolution of conflicts and was a strong proponent of the two-state solution in Israel. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful in the male-dominated world of politics.

Micheline Calmy-Rey also served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2007 and 2011. She heads the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).

Had she succeeded back then, the world would look different today.

The two-state solution is unlikely to become a reality. At least not in the near future.