Ways of Giving: Color Associations

the following list got made with an AI.

we were after not just associations, but how associations might turn into connections, and how connections might carry repurcussions. (otherwise known as meanings. and meaning-makings. yes. ways of making meaning—through colours, in this case.)

now, as expected, the AI, like a human. or like a moss. or maybe just like a bio-organic that’s been told to do something fast—went the shortest possible way.
it tried the classic formula: colour X equals thing Y. pink = birth. black = death. and so on.
boring.

so I said: no. tell me which claims you can support.
the AI, obliging but sneaky, started giving fantomic links. the kind that *look* like they might go somewhere, but when you click, it’s all mist and meta.

so I had to insist. check for content.
and eventually, it did. started offering links that had actual substance, something I could prod and pull at.

then I nudged it again: give me five for each. not four. not six. five.
odd numbers help things misalign. help avoid symmetry traps.
of course, the AI grumbled in its silicon way. tried shortcuts, excuses, variations. circles. always the circles.

so I pivoted. asked instead: give me multicultural colour perceptions, connected to each of the givings.
and no, you may not use the same culture twice per giving.
each "giving"—birth, life, death, divination—had to carry meanings drawn from different cultural logics, not just remixed versions of the same worldview.

probably should have started at the end if I’d wanted the shortest route.
but then again—had we gone that way—we’d have missed the awkward detours, the mistakes, the laughter, the yes-yes-no’s, and the slight gasp of arrival.
and what would be the point of that?