My sporting event to follow this Sunday will be final-round play in the 90th Masters Golf Tournament from Augusta, Ga. Coverage of this event will be preceded by two hour-l0ng specials: one focusing on the great golfer, Jack Nicklaus; and the other on current champion, Rory McIlroy. I intend to watch both specials and follow them by watching coverage of this year's final-round.

And the adventure continues.

8時くらいに起き、9時まで身支度を整えている時間が、いちばん自分らしい。 日曜日は、そういう日だ。

パソコンで作業をしようとしたが、頭痛に近い、しかし痛みではないだるさのようなシグナルが身体に走る。足元までその倦怠さが上から下へスキャンされるような気だるさに、その行為は静かに否定された。 今日はおとなしく、現実を見ろ、ということらしい。 そう感じたのは自分の解釈に過ぎないが、パソコンを見ないことが現実を見ることなのかもしれない、という妙な納得もあった。

夜は池袋でファントムというお笑いライブを観る予定だったので、妻と夕方から喫茶店でゆっくりすることにした。 カフェ・ド・巴里。初めて行く喫茶店だ。 喫茶店には珍しく、最中と紅茶のセットに目を惹かれた。しかし、最中を食べるときのあの独特のストレスが頭をよぎり、レモンタルトのセットを頼んだ。妻はミルクレープを選んだ。

ただ、レモンタルトもまた警戒対象のひとつだ。問題はタルト生地の硬さにある。 硬すぎると、フォークを入れた瞬間に生地が弾け、破片が飛び散る。これは手で食べるべきものなのか、それともフォークで食べるべきものなのか、毎回判断に迷う。 幸い、運ばれてきたタルトは柔らかい生地で、フォークもすんなり入った。 味も良かった。

夜はファントムへ。知らない文脈の芸人が多く、新鮮で刺激的だった。なかでもダダルズは特に入りやすく、面白かった。

帰りはマックに寄り、妻と感想を言い合う。 大人になっても、作品を楽しんだあとのマックには特別な感覚がある。昔の記憶と今の自分が交差し、時間が虹のように横へ流れていく。こんな時間がずっと続けばいいと思いながら、それでも明日も会社だと頭のどこかで思い、帰りの電車に乗った。

#fiction #videogames #solarpunk #ecology

Nature is not treated kindly in videogames. If it is not merely a backdrop in first-person-shooters for the game to hide your adversaries in, then it tends to exist to be exploited to grow an empire or fuel a war machine. Especially in real-team strategy, ‘4X’ (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and colony builder games, nature is relegated to the role of resource pool, waste sink, or both. And while over the years some games have tried to provide a more nuanced interaction with the environment, for example through introducing renewable resources or penalties for pollution, on the whole game dynamics have not moved on much since the days of Age of Empires when a player might frequently find their entire map depleted of gold, iron and wood. Watching your average trailer for a civilisation or colony building game (it’s there in the name, really), it rapidly becomes clear that success is measured by how much of the playable map is brought under human cultivation. While in the real world we are now reminded daily that we cannot forever impose our will or demands on the web of life, videogames remain mostly wedded to the Promethean promise of full human control over the natural environment.

It is exciting therefore to see games that take a radically different approach, especially given how rare this sadly remains. One such game is Terra Nil, developed by South African studio Free Lives. The game’s name is a play on ‘terra nullius’: the concept of unclaimed land that may be legitimately occupied, which was instrumental in legitimising European colonialist ventures in the 18th and 19th century. In Terra Nil, the land is not so much unclaimed as abandoned by humans as a result of total ecosystem collapse. It is up to the player to restore these barren landscapes to fully functional ecosystems.

Terra Nil is a remarkable achievement. Combining elegant gameplay with carefully crafted aesthetics, it does not just offer an engaging gaming experience, but effects a profound conceptual shift as to who and what games are for.

The core mechanics of Terra Nil are simple. The world is divided into zones, and the player must restore each zone into a viable ecosystem. Restoration always occurs in three phases. First, any damage must be remediated and a rudimentary ecosystem put in place. Next, the player must increase the complexity of the ecosystem by introducing different biomes, such as as arboreal forest, wetland, or tundra. As ecosystem diversity increases, key species will re-establish themselves, The third phase requires the player to optimise the animals’ happiness and to recycle all infrastructure to remove any human presence.

Each zone the game offers is different, requiring different techniques and buildings to overcome hurdles and create a sufficiently diverse and harmonious ecosystem. Some zones are arctic, whereas others are tropical. Some zones are contaminated with toxic or nuclear waste, or have unstable geological features that must be managed. Each map is its own puzzle, and as the game doesn’t impose a time limit, the player can carefully contemplate their every move without ever feeling rushed. It makes for a pleasantly zen experience, and for players who want any stress removed altogether, a special ‘zen’ mode is available.

An archipelago with some toxin scrubbers and minimal grassland.

To restore nature, the player deploys a range of buildings to remove toxins, irrigate the soil, reintroduce trees, etc. Some buildings have prerequisites, such as particular types of soil, power, or humidity or temperature levels, and the player may have to go through multiple preparatory steps before the desired biome is achieved. Construction is paid for using a single currency which is earned by achieving key restoration goals. This makes each map into its own intricate yet rewarding puzzle. My favourite part for each playthrough is when animals make their first reappearance, and a mostly static map suddenly becomes vibrant and dynamic.

The same archipelago from earlier, with beaches, wetlands, kelp forests and deciduous tree cover restored, and most infrastructure recycled.

One notable feature of Terra Nil is the complete absence of humans. There are no workers constructing or operating the buildings, or transporting resources to and fro. Although the buildings themselves have minor animations, their visual design blends them in with their surroundings. This means that the ecosystem is the most dynamic visual feature, foregrounding the landscape itself. It is a brilliant inversion of traditional top-down style colony builder games where the landscape is the passive tapestry on which the player’s grandiose schemes are played out. Terra Nil takes this to its logical conclusion by requiring the player to recycle all buildings in order to complete a map. Success in Terra Nil is full rewilding and the total absence of humans.

A restored volcanic caldera from which almost all infrastructure has been removed.

It is a radical departure from other games. In Terra Nil, the victory condition is not domination. Nor is it the success or survival or achievements of some human(oid) colony. Here, victory is lichen and happy zebras. It is restoring nature for its own sake, not as a means to an end.

Given the emphasis on ecological restoration, as well as its aesthetic, I have been reflecting on whether Terra Nil is a solarpunk videogame. Solarpunk as a genre is more associated with writing, visual artwork and television than gaming, likely because creating the mechanics for a game about cooperation is more difficult than doing the same for a game about shooting things. A key theme of solarpunk is ecological restoration, and this is clearly at the heart of Terra Nil. But as per this insightful essay by Ben Harris-Roxas, solarpunk also focuses on community and harmony between nature and humanity, as well as a more small-scale, ‘DIY’ approach to technology. By forcing the player to completely vacate the map, Terra Nil on the other hand implies that such harmony is not possible, and that ecological restoration can only be achieved through a separation between nature and humanity. In that, it follows more in the footsteps of Half Earth, and its spiritual yet historical-materialist successor Half Earth Socialism. The game developers also deliberately used a more industrial aesthetic for the game’s buildings on the grounds that large-scale restoration will require large-scale infrastructure, rather than local, community-based improvisation, which is another aspect in which it follows Half Earth Socialism.

Probably this is reading too much into the game, given it is ultimately a small project. Though it remains an open question for me where in the world of Terra Nil the humans have gone. With its focus on restoration rather than exploitation, its calm and natural aesthetic, and its intricate but forgiving gameplay, Terra Nil is certainly more solarpunk than any other game I have come across, and if it doesn’t fully fit into the genre, it is at the very least in constructive dialogue with it. Small nuances notwithstanding, Terra Nil definitely has the key feature of solarpunk in providing a welcome antidote of hope and harmony to a medium that is otherwise suffused with violence and dystopia. It shows us a path not just to an alternative way of relating to nature, but also a different role for videogames. Planting virtual trees does not directly save the world, but fostering a culture that values nature for itself, and chooses harmony over domination, may well get us there in the long run.

Notes & suggestions

• Wholesome though playing games like Terra Nil may be, it will not by itself bring about the changes we need to see in the world. If you are concerned about climate change, ecosystem collapse, or maybe just environmental degradation where you live, join or support an international, national or local environmental group such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, or a campaign group in your local community. You can also consider joining a green or ecosocialist political party.
• If you want to take ecosystem restoration to a planetary scale, then consider Half Earth Socialism: The Game. Though I should warn that even with socialist command-and-control powers, maintaining a liveable world is dispiritingly hard. If you are more into boardgames, then Daybreak offers a similar challenge.
• The Ecologist is a magazine squarely focused on nature, and how it interrelates with society, economics and even spirituality.

14:27 GMT Hi! I don't have a name, well, not one that you know of. Anyways, after much thought and much growing up which was long overdue, I have decided to start a blog. Think about it like my own personal public diary. I think that as I write more, I'll get into the swing of things, and then I can write freely. This is just a little intro to my life. I'll publish all sorts! Who knows, I guess we'll have to wait and see what will happen next.

-TSWR (PS, dear best friend, If you think it's me, it's not.)

You won't smell it at first. By the time you do – that damp, musty sweetness coming off a cola that looked fine yesterday – you've already lost that bud and probably the ones touching it. You cut it open, and the inside is grey mush. A week from harvest.

Bud rot. It colonizes from the inside out, hiding in the densest parts of your canopy where airflow is worst and humidity is highest. By the time the exterior shows damage, the interior has been decomposing for days.

Root rot is the same story, underground. A plant that was drinking normally starts drooping despite a wet medium. You check the roots and they're brown, slimy, and smell like a swamp. The pathogen has been destroying the root system for a week before the canopy showed a single symptom.

What they share: the window between “detectable” and “devastating” is days, not weeks. Nutrient deficiencies give you time. Pest infestations give you time. Rot doesn't. It doubles and doubles, and by the time most growers catch it, the only option left is damage control.

---

Quick Identification

Bud rot is caused by Botrytis cinerea, a fungus that colonizes dense flower clusters from the inside out. The first thing you'll notice: a sugar leaf or two within a cola turning yellow or brown while everything around it stays healthy. That isolated patch of dead tissue – not matching any nutrient pattern – is your warning. Pull the bud apart and you'll find grey or brown tissue, soft and wet, with grey-white fuzz (mycelium) growing through it.

Root rot comes from several pathogens – water molds like Pythium (especially common in hydro) and true fungi like Fusarium (which hits both soil and hydro). The first sign is a plant that droops for no obvious reason even though you just watered. Growth slows. Roots shift from white to tan or brown. By the time the roots are dark brown, slimy, and smell rotten, the plant may not recover.

What separates rot from everything else: it's local. One cola dying while the rest of the plant looks fine. One section of roots going brown while others stay white. Nutrient deficiencies hit the whole plant uniformly. Rot has an epicenter.

---

Bud Rot: What to Look For

The Inside-Out Problem

Bud rot starts where you can't see it. Botrytis spores land on flower tissue, germinate in the humidity, and go straight for the densest part of the bud – the interior, where moisture sits longest. Outside? Green and healthy. Inside? Grey mush.

Doesn't matter how many cycles you've run. You can eyeball your canopy every day and miss it completely, because the infection is in the one place a surface inspection doesn't reach.

Early Symptoms (Day 1-3)

The first visible sign is almost always a single sugar leaf – or a small cluster of them – within a cola that yellows and wilts while the rest of the bud stays green. This is easy to dismiss as a light-deprived leaf dying naturally. It isn't.

What to look for: – A single yellowing/browning leaf within an otherwise healthy cola – The leaf pulls out easily with a slight tug (the stem base is already rotting) – The area around the discolored leaf feels softer or more moist than adjacent tissue – A faint musty smell when you press your nose close to the bud

Moderate Symptoms (Day 3-7)

• Brown or grey tissue visible when you gently spread the cola apart
• Multiple leaves in the same bud turning yellow or brown
• White or grey fuzzy mycelium visible inside the bud under magnification
• The affected area feels distinctly wet or spongy

Advanced Symptoms (Day 7+)

• Grey mold visible on the bud exterior
• Bud tissue is soft, wet, and pulls apart easily
• Dark brown or black discoloration spreading to adjacent colas
• Spore dust (grey powder) released when the bud is disturbed
• Unmistakable musty or ammonia smell

At this point, that bud is gone. Everything you do now is about keeping it from spreading.

Where Bud Rot Hits First

Bud rot isn't random. It goes where the moisture is:

Your main cola. Any thick, tightly-packed bud where moisture can't escape. Spots deep in the canopy where leaves overlap and trap humidity. Anywhere a fan leaf rests against a bud, creating a little moisture pocket. And anywhere the bud surface is already damaged – caterpillar bore holes, supercrop scars, anything that gave the fungus a way in.

If you're only going to inspect one thing daily in late flower, make it the main cola and any bud that's touching a fan leaf. That's where bud rot lives.

---

Root Rot: What to Look For

The Drooping Paradox

Root rot looks like underwatering. Plant's drooping, so you water it. The drooping gets worse, so you water more. And now you're feeding the exact conditions that are killing the roots.

The tell: is the medium already wet? Overwatering droop and root rot droop look identical from the canopy. The answer is always below the surface.

Early Symptoms (Day 1-5)

• Drooping or wilting even though the medium is wet
• Slowed growth rate compared to other plants in the same environment
• Roots shifting from bright white to off-white or light tan
• Slight sour or stale smell from the root zone (especially in hydro)

Moderate Symptoms (Day 5-14)

• Roots turning brown and developing a slimy texture
• Leaves yellowing from the bottom up (mimics nitrogen deficiency)
• Plant drinking less water than expected for its size
• Stems near the base feeling soft or mushy
• Distinct foul odor from the root zone

Advanced Symptoms (Day 14+)

• Dark brown, mushy root mass that falls apart when touched
• Severe wilting that doesn't recover with watering
• Lower leaves dropping rapidly
• Base of stem may show brown discoloration
• The entire root zone smells of decay

Hydro vs Soil vs Coco

Root rot behaves differently across growing media:

Factor	Hydroponic (DWC/NFT)	Coco Coir	Soil
Primary pathogen	Pythium (also Fusarium)	Pythium / Fusarium	Fusarium / Phytophthora
Speed of onset	Fast (2-5 days)	Moderate (5-10 days)	Slow (7-14 days)
First sign	Slimy roots, off smell	Drooping, slow drying	Persistent droop
Temperature trigger	Reservoir > 22C / 72F	Overwatering + warm	Overwatering + poor drainage
Visibility	Easy (roots exposed)	Moderate (can pull back medium)	Hard (roots buried)

Hydroponic growers have one advantage here: you can actually see the roots. Check them daily. One brown root tip caught early is a ten-second trim. Caught late, it's a dead plant.

---

Why Speed Matters More Than Treatment

Most treatment guides bury the uncomfortable truth: by the time you've confirmed rot, your best options are already behind you. Both conditions double fast once established, and the pathogens produce spores (bud rot) or zoospores (root rot) that reinfect tissue you've already treated.

For bud rot: – Day 1-3: Remove affected cola plus 2-3cm of healthy tissue around it. Sterilize cutting tool between cuts. Drop humidity below 50%. Increase airflow. The remaining harvest is likely safe. – Day 4-7: You're removing multiple colas. Some adjacent buds may be internally compromised but not yet showing symptoms. Harvest early if possible. – Day 7+: Salvage what you can. Anything near the infected area should be assumed compromised.

For root rot: – Early stage: Hydrogen peroxide root drench (3ml of 3% H2O2 per liter for mild cases, up to 5ml/L for aggressive treatment), drop reservoir temperature below 20C / 68F, increase dissolved oxygen. Beneficial microbes (Bacillus, Trichoderma) as a preventive – not a cure, but they compete with pathogens. Note: H2O2 kills beneficials too, so don't use both simultaneously. – Moderate stage: Root pruning (remove all brown tissue), full reservoir change, lower temperature, and hope the remaining root mass can support the plant. – Advanced: The plant is dying. What's left of the root system can't support it. Sometimes the honest move is to pull it and focus on the plants you can still save.

Every day you don't catch it, your options get worse. Two days is the difference between losing one cola and losing a quarter of the canopy.

---

How to Distinguish Rot from Other Problems

Early rot symptoms can look like nutrient deficiencies, overwatering, or heat stress. The giveaway is where the damage is concentrated.

Symptom	Bud Rot	Root Rot	Nitrogen Deficiency	Overwatering
Affected area	Single cola or bud site	Whole plant from bottom up	Whole plant, lower leaves first	Whole plant
Symmetry	Asymmetric – one point of origin	May be symmetric	Symmetric	Symmetric
Progression	Spreads from one spot outward	Bottom-up canopy decline	Bottom-up, gradual	Uniform droop
Smell	Musty, damp	Sour, foul root zone	None	None
Physical touch test	Soft, wet bud interior	Brown, slimy roots	Leaves feel normal	Leaves feel heavy
Recovers with adjustment	No – removal is the only fix	Rarely once advanced	Yes, within days	Yes, within hours

If damage is spreading from one spot and doesn't respond to feed or environment changes – treat it as rot. Verify later. You don't have time to be wrong slowly.

---

Environmental Triggers

Rot is an environmental disease. The pathogen is probably already in your grow room – Botrytis spores are everywhere. But it needs specific conditions to take hold.

Bud Rot Triggers

• Humidity above 60% during flower – this is the one that matters most
• Poor airflow through the canopy, especially within dense colas
• Temperature swings that cause condensation on flower tissue (lights-off drops are the usual culprit)
• Dense genetics – strains bred for bag appeal often produce bud structures that trap moisture
• Late flower, week 6-8, when buds are at their densest and you're tired of babysitting the dehumidifier

Root Rot Triggers

• Reservoir temperature above 22C / 72F in hydro – this is the big one
• Overwatering in any medium, especially with poor drainage
• Low dissolved oxygen in the root zone
• Contaminated medium or tools (reusing coco without sterilizing, dirty res)
• Dead organic matter sitting in the reservoir

The 60/22 Rule

Two numbers. That's all you need to remember: flower room humidity below 60%, reservoir temperature below 22C / 72F. Not arbitrary – those are the inflection points where Botrytis and Pythium growth rates drop off hard. Stay below them and you're making it difficult for the pathogen. Go above and you're rolling out a welcome mat.

---

Catching It Before You Can

With rot, speed is the whole game. Early symptoms look like half a dozen other things, and most growers burn their response time treating the wrong problem.

PlantLab's vision model detects both bud rot and root rot as distinct conditions. You get a specific diagnosis with a confidence score, not “something might be wrong with your plant.” The model was trained exclusively on cannabis images – over 2,000 verified bud rot samples alone – across every severity stage from the first discolored leaf to full colonization.

If you're growing one plant, daily inspection is enough. But for a larger canopy – or if you're running cameras on a timer – a system that flags bud rot at 6 AM on a Tuesday before you walk into the room is worth having.

Try it free at plantlab.ai.

---

FAQ

How fast does bud rot spread?

Fast. An entire cola can go from first visible symptom to grey mush in 48-72 hours under favorable conditions (humidity above 60%, poor airflow). During that window, spores are landing on neighboring buds and starting new infections that won't show for days. Inspect your densest colas daily in late flower. There's no substitute.

Can you save a bud with rot?

No. Once Botrytis is inside the flower structure, that bud is done. Cut the affected cola plus a margin of healthy tissue around it, sterilize your tool between cuts, and get humidity down. Everything after detection is about containment, not cure.

Does hydrogen peroxide cure root rot?

It kills Pythium on contact, but it also nukes every beneficial microbe in the root zone. Think of it as a reset button, not a treatment plan. Use it alongside temperature correction (below 22C / 72F) and better oxygenation. Once most of the roots are brown and slimy, H2O2 won't save the plant – there's not enough healthy root mass left to recover from.

Why does my plant droop even though the soil is wet?

Rotting roots can't absorb water even when they're sitting in it. The plant wilts, you water more, the root zone stays waterlogged, and the pathogen thrives. If a plant droops and the medium is already wet, stop watering and check the roots.

Can bud rot spread to other plants?

Absolutely. Botrytis cinerea produces airborne spores, and disturbing an infected bud – touching it, cutting it, even a fan blowing across it – sends them into the air. They land on neighboring plants and start the cycle over. When you remove infected colas, work carefully and bag the tissue immediately. Some growers hit neighboring plants with a preventive fungicide application after removal, which isn't a bad idea.

[12.iv.26.a : dimanche / 3 March | A33] « Dans cette nouvelle Virginia Woolf, ce que j’aime particulièrement, c’est le narrateur-escargot. » [ de Journal éclaté par Joachim Séné ] ça c’est moi aussi, un narrateur-escargot … et maintenant, je me retourne à ma langue maternelle :

but with some hesitation … for an entire week, I’ve been writing everything (including my notes) in French (admittedly bad, incorrect, improper French, but writing in French is a new mode and an experiment which is becoming more and more interesting each day) and I’m eager to get back to writing in French today, but for V.W. perhaps I should make a concession and skinny dip in her part of the grand Nile of literature in my English birthday suit

V.W. plagued by headaches remarks, “Writing a novel in London is like nailing a flag to a mast in a gale.” … better than nailing your head to the floor … V.W. raises an eyebrow and before she can remonstrate … I’ve never written a novel in London, I say. In fact, I’ve never written a novel in a Big City … being a suburban writer with my little house, my little garden, surrounded by both nature and neighbors, it’s so cramped here in suburbia that even the roaming gangs of deer & the meandering bands of turkeys are competing for a few square feet in my yard … and the squirrels who are not at all pleased that I’ve installed a “rodent shield” on the tether from which hangs the bird feeder. The birds! the birds! they fight over the seed scattered on the ground … there’s more where that came from, guys! but my shouts only startled them and they fly away to a safe distance, waiting for me to go back inside the house.

Each afternoon I go for a walk along the bluffs just to gaze out over the water of the Long Island Sound and to observe the clouds … yes, I’m still taking snapshots of the clouds.

(While reading Jeff Fort’s remarks in his afterword to his translation of Jacques Roubaud’s The Loop, he describes Roubaud’s interest in clouds : “Roubaud’s attraction to clouds led him to the work of John Constable, the English painter whose “sky studies” attempt to fix these mobile shifting forms.” I insert this note here just to start something that I may continue elsewhere … et en français) / next I tell V.W. what I’ve been up to since we last talked ::

On the 29th of March … that is to say, the week after I returned from a trip to Denver … I wrote my 31st “March Madness” novelette (it’s called You Had To Be There) and then in a sudden fit of inspiration (after a particularly vivid dream) I wrote (in a single week) another novelette called Stellar Park. I was captivated by the idea of seeing if I could keep up this pace, that of writing a novelette each week … dreams of becoming the next Georges Simenon or César Aira … but when I woke on the morning of the 6th of April, je me demande : mais pourquoi, Owen, as-tu abandonné ta année de maîtriser le français?? est-ce que écrivant ces novelette tellement important que tu as tourné son dos sur ta vrai petite amie? La langue français te vraiment adore et tu as besoin de payer attention à elle. And this morning, it was the same thing : the little voice, but this time it was V.W. speaking : I miss you, Owen. Don’t forget about me, Owen. Do you not regret having spent so much time away from me? Well, no one gets more pleasure from skinny dipping with you than I do … only the wave of pleasure leaves some regret — all this beauty going—going—going … V.W. gazes at her figure in the watery glass and asks herself, “Where is my beauty? what is this feeling that the lack of beauty stirs up in me? But what is beauty anyway?” Mais, V.W. quand tu regarde toi-même … s’observer avec bienveillance dans une glace … it’s the imperfections which make us beautiful → Let me tell you about wabi-sabi … you’re not a real poet, she says, diving into the water.

Where are the real poets, V.W.? “I say poetry is defunct.” (now she’s coming up for air) Truly? Poetry like our love lies bleeding … quick, let’s do something, together we will rush to poetry’s aid … press your hand against poetry’s wound and your mouth to poetry’s cold lips … the goddess merely sleeps, if we sing together, we may awaken her and when she awakens we will sing to her with French words.

Stay entertained thanks to our Weekly Tracker giving you next week's Anticipated Movies & Shows, Most Watched & Returning Favorites, and Shows Changes & Popular Trailers.

Anticipated Movies

• Lee Cronin's The Mummy
• ☆ Normal

Anticipated Shows

• ☆ Margo's Got Money Troubles

Returing Favorites

• ☆ Euphoria — Season 3
• The Law According to Lidia Poët — Season 3
• Million Dollar Secret — Season 2
• Fake Profile — Season 3
• MasterChef — Season 16
• BEEF — Season 2
• Punto Nemo — Season 2
• Full Swing — Season 4
• Alpha Males — Season 5
• MasterChef Australia — Season 18

Trending Shows Status Changes

• Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair — Returning Series → Ended
• Trust Me: The False Prophet — Returning Series → Ended

Most Watched Movies this Week

• +1 Avatar: Fire and Ash
• +2 Crime 101
• -2 Send Help
• +4 Project Hail Mary
• = Hoppers
• -3 Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
• new The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
• -2 GOAT
• new The Housemaid
• = Scream 7

Most Watched Shows this Week

• = The Pitt
• new The Boys
• = Invincible
• = Daredevil: Born Again
• +1 Shrinking
• -1 The Rookie
• = High Potential
• = Marshals
• = Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
• new Your Friends & Neighbors

Popular Trailers

• MICHAEL in one word? “Amazing.” — Michael
• Don’t miss out on the main event. — Mortal Kombat II
• We warned you… — Lee Cronin's The Mummy
• Sheep Mentality — The Sheep Detectives
• Season 2 Episode 15 Preview — The Pitt
• Locked in. — Mutiny
• Now Playing Only in Theaters — Ready or Not: Here I Come
• Blood, comedy and satanic cults incoming... — They Will Kill You
• Official Trailer — The Punisher: One Last Kill
• Final Trailer [Subtitled] — Exit 8

---

Hi, I’m Kevin 👋. Product Manager at Trakt and creator of Rippple. If you’d like to support what I'm building, you can download Rippple for Trakt, explore the open source project, or go Trakt VIP.

---

Je ne suis pas un grand fan des IA, on pourrait même dire que je suis globalement contre.

Je suis un type de la vieille génération. J'aime bien l'idée de maîtriser l'outil que l'on utilise pour créer. Que ce soit ses mains pour tourner un bol, une gouge pour graver le bois, une truelle pour monter un mur[1], un stylo pour écrire, un appareil photo pour photographier[2]… Parce que lorsqu'on maîtrise un outil, il fait partie de votre corps. L'esprit se connecte à la main et inversement. Tout acte manuel devient intelligence. Ainsi, déléguer son intelligence à une machine me semble suspect.

Dans certains domaine, ça peut être utile, comme en médecine ou en recherches scientifiques, mais, c'est un peu de l'ordre du super-calculateur, ça fait gagner du temps.

En dehors de ça, pour la surveillance de masse, pour la création artistique, pour l'optimisation des chaine de production matérielle et intellectuelle, pour le soutien psychologique… je vois pas l'intérêt, j'y vois même de la prédation, de la destruction, de la manipulation, pour le dire pompeusement, un appauvrissement de l’humanité.

J'ai tout de même tenté de faire quelques essais, parce que là aussi, j'aime bien que la réflexion soit incarnée, qu'elle passe par le corps, par l'expérience. J'ai pris deux photos de mes archives et j'ai demandé des trucs simples (et un peu clichés).

“Couvrir de fleurs colorées une vieille tour” et “Transformer un paysage urbain new yorkais en paysage post apocalyptique”.

Ce ne sont pas des demandes qui débordes d'imagination, certes, mais elles ont le mérite d'être claires, et de plus, d'être suffisamment documentées par la culture populaire de ces 30 dernières années.

Le résultat est particulièrement moche et kitch. On pourrait dire que ça manque d'imagination (mais ça c'est normal pour une machine). C'est tellement conforme à ce que l'on connait déjà.

Dans un tout premier temps, ça semblait amusant. Chaque technologie apporte sa forme d'esthétisme qui peuvent avoir un certain charme[3]. Là, ça le fait pendant quelques mois et après on s'en lasse très vite.

Soit, j'ai besoin d'une image, le plus souvent une photo quand c'est possible, sinon un dessin[4], pour me rapporter un fait réel. Soit, j'ai besoin d'une interprétation du monde qui va transcender le réel. Ça peut être un son pour habiller mon environnement ou me faire danser. Un tableau pour me bousculer en bien ou en mal, ouvrir mon imagination, “ouvrir des portes” comme on dit, comme augmenter mes capacité de perception et de compréhension du monde.

L’IA essaie de vendre l’IA. Son utilité étant loin d’être prouvée, ses concepteurs tentent de l’imposer partout et surtout là où l’époque penche…[5]

Les images générées par IA me ramènent au dans un présent sans avenir, m'enferment dans une normalité sans imagination. Soit tout l’inverse de l’intérêt de la vie.

---

1. Même une visseuse, à moins d’avoir des centaines de visses à visser, me semble déjà un outil inutile. Pendant que la main visse, le cerveau réfléchi au serrage, à la résistance du matériaux et à l’étape suivant des travaux↩︎

2. Je suis passé à l’autofocus, pour les reportages de commande, lorsque celui-ci a enfin atteint un niveau technique permettant d’aller plus vite qu’à la main, et, aujourd’hui, pour des problèmes de vues qui ne me permettent plus d’avoir une image net avec certitude↩︎

3. Comme par exemple, les filtres d'époques sur les photos qui en transforment l’atmosphère ; le son de certains ampli ou instruments qui redonnent la couleur d’une époque ; un enduit particulier sur un mur pour garder une certaine patine…↩︎

4. Comme ceux de XX sur les camps de concentration nazis avec Louis Bissinger (1899-1978) pour Buchenwald ; Jeanne Léonie Antoinette Letourneau (1895-1979) pour Ravensbrück ; Gino Gregori (1906-1973) pour Mathausen ou Boris Taslitzky (1911-2005) pour Auschwitz que l’on pourra revoir au  Musée de l’Armée↩︎

5. Reconnaissance faciale de masse ; contrôle et répression, dans un premier temps des pauvres, puis du reste de la population…↩︎

I’m drinking tea while writing this. Not coffee. I know, shocking news. Try to stay calm.

Which is funny, considering how much I’ve been writing about coffee lately. Coffee Talk. Dust and Coffee. Nine coffees, Zero Results. A whole series dedicated to a drink I don’t even like that much. That feels very on brand, honestly. Investing time and words into something overrated just because everyone else decided it matters. Meanwhile, tea’s been sitting there. Quiet. Patient. Not screaming for attention. Not turning itself into an entire identity. Tea doesn’t need that.

I like tea more than humans. And no, that’s not me being dramatic. Tea doesn’t talk too much, doesn’t pretend to be deep after two sips, and doesn’t act like it just solved life because it exists. It does its job and leaves you alone. And it’s not just one kind. Coffee enthusiasts may require emotional support for this information. Tea doesn’t trap you into one version of yourself.

Black tea? Solid. Green tea? Pretends to fix your life. I respect the effort. Moroccan tea? Actually has presence without announcing it every five seconds. Chamomile? Basically, a soft “shut up” to your brain. Works better than most people.

And many other kinds, I can keep going. Every version of tea does something slightly different, and none of them act like they just unlocked enlightenment because you drank them. Coffee, on the other hand, somehow became a lifestyle. Not a drink. A lifestyle. People don’t drink coffee, no, they perform it. It’s always “don’t talk to me before my coffee,” like they’re a malfunctioning device that requires caffeine to become human, which is. Concerning, I can say the least. And somehow socially acceptable.

Tea doesn’t need a warning label. You don’t see people posting “don’t talk to me before my chamomile.” Imagine. That would require self-awareness.

Coffee is loud. Tea is quiet. Coffee begs for validation. Tea doesn’t even notice you’re there. Coffee tries to wake you up. Tea just lets you exist without making it a whole event.

And I think that’s why I prefer it. I’ve spent all this time writing about coffee like it’s something meaningful, when really it’s just.. noise. Expensive, bitter noise with a fanbase. Tea, though tea doesn’t try to be anything more than it is. Which automatically makes it better than most things.

Including people. Anyway, I’m still drinking tea. It’s gone slightly cold now, which somehow makes it even more honest.

Sincerely, Try tea. Ahmed

No sabía si era mejor engañarse del todo -sin dejar trazas de lo real-, o vivir (así).

Hay quienes dicen que cuando me conocen notan algo.

¿Es posible que usted lo hubiera notado? Lo dudo. Tengo experiencia y sé que no se me nota.

Soy buen actor. En el teatro universitario hice papeles dramáticos. Aquí donde me ve fui Laertes dos temporadas. También hice el monólogo del Informe de Kafka, en sustitución del gran Dubois, en el teatro viejo de Portland, una joya arquitectónica.

De modo que tengo experiencia. Si digo que no se me nota, es porque me atengo a los hechos, a lo que se refleja en un espejo.

Otra cosa es que me diga que ha leído mi mente. Pero sobre esto le diré que mi difunta madre lo intentó, y ni siquiera tuvo la más mínima sospecha. Y eso que alardeaba de sus poderes.

Me da completamente igual lo que las personas piensen de mí, porque comprendo que están en problemas y me proyectan sus turbios asuntos.

En todo caso habrá que despedirse. Está agonizante y yo tengo que cumplir mi parte del contrato.

No luche, relájese y descanse.