“Finally a story portraying the mind of a female fighter,” one of my readers said. Writing an entire book in first person can be a bit dangerous. We are always one step from jarring, and often too close to mixing your own voice and the character’s. Writing Yinyin was a blast. She was born in … Continue reading The Birth of Yinyin
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Magic, Science and Violence, part two
(Magic, Science, and Violence, imagined by artificial intelligence.) If you’re still wondering if Artificial Intelligence and Martial arts belong on the same table together, here’s a picture of MIT’s Machine Learning guru Lex Friedman (who is himself a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt) hanging out with combat sports legends Roger Gracie, Renzo Gracie and John … Continue reading Magic, Science and Violence, part two
Immortality hurts
Some cultures treat immortality as a metaphysical ability to cheat corporeal death. Others as the ability to transcend your own time through the memory of the next generations. What both sides will eventually agree is that immortality is earned, and it hurts. It always does. It takes sacrifice. Hard work. Beating temptation and hardship. Accomplishing … Continue reading Immortality hurts
Science, Magic, Violence, and the challenge of launching a book about too many things
Science, magic and violence aren’t strangers to each other. Conceptually, they may seem to be. For no three words can be more different. But the irony of this trichotomy is that they hardly never walk alone. Not in stories, neither in history. They come as a trio in tales of power. In journeys of enlightenment. … Continue reading Science, Magic, Violence, and the challenge of launching a book about too many things
A.I.’s self-portrait and the trigger of everything
It was Elon Musk who said the problem with AI is that for them, humans could potentially be like an ant farm. Something they would ignore if there isn’t on their way, but if they want to build a road and the ants are there, they would have no problem disrupting a situation, our entire … Continue reading A.I.’s self-portrait and the trigger of everything
Death, in the Style of Dr. Seuss (or the rise of Artificial Creativity)
Among the visual people, both the fine arts and design communities, there’s a lot of fuss about the development of Artificial Intelligence image generators. Personally, I care less about the debate around authorship and creative accomplishments of humans using tools like MidJourney or Dalle2, and more about the philosophical implications of it. In particular: when … Continue reading Death, in the Style of Dr. Seuss (or the rise of Artificial Creativity)
Michael Crichton, the Brainternet and me
Best-selling writer Michael Crichton had a formula. He would take a scientific idea in its infancy, and blow its implications through stories that were gripping and easy to understand. To his well researched science, he’d layer a visual plot and big ethical or philosophical questions we would eventually be forced to answer, because in one … Continue reading Michael Crichton, the Brainternet and me
The Dragon and the Little Bird
The first leaves had barely began to fall in the magic forest, when a hand-tall red bird came to challenge the magnificent green dragon to a fight. Frail but brave, she huffed her feathers and lifted her wings as if she were a big white crane. The scaley one laughed. Each of his scales alone … Continue reading The Dragon and the Little Bird
Martial Arts and the metaphor for everything
Every ten years or so, I step down from a respected black belt position and build my way back up from white in another style. It took me a while to understand why. But age, despite what is said, comes with some lovely benefits, such as perspective. Happens that the way up is really what … Continue reading Martial Arts and the metaphor for everything
Against the currents of social media, progress
It’s a normal behavior in everyone’s feed: we post our best moments. But combined with everyone else’s, we create an illusion that no one else struggles, which is the main criticism platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn often get. It’s true to jobs, beauty, travel… everyone seems to be living a life more perfect than yours. … Continue reading Against the currents of social media, progress
The Girl from Wudang 