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“Happy Birthday, my dear Elara, Happy Birthday to you!” Mom sings the song completely off-key, with Dad giving her the tightest hug, her face almost fully engulfed by his arms. Elara is overwhelmed with joy, smiling with her teeth in full view as Mom takes photos, Dad’s booming laughter enveloping the room, the flickering light from the candles on the cake, displaying the number 8 prominently, bathing her in a warm yellow embrace. The living room smells of melting wax and a plethora of aromas from countless sweets, candies, and savoury treats, overwhelming the senses. Across the table, her little brother laughs uncontrollably, watching his sister in full embrace, and throws a napkin paper plane at her. Her mom now rushes in and hugs her, pulling her even tighter. “Make a wish, my love,” her mother whispers. Elara gazes intently into her eyes, feeling her warm breath on her cheek. The rest of the family start clapping, smiling wildly, singing once more. She blows on the candles. The flame flickers, moving rapidly back, and the world suddenly shatters into blue. The scent of food, the warmth of the candles, the light breeze swaying the curtains slowly, and the embraces are gone. It is replaced by the sharp smell of damp soil, rotting moss, and the slight drizzle tapping gently on the body, creating puddles around Elara. Elara gasps, convulses, inhaling the cold, brittle air, snapping from the golden light and the gentle winds in the dining room to the twilight in a mutated, lush green, untamed forest with gargantuan trees surrounding her. Elara is sitting on her knees on overgrown, deep dark green plants and shrubbery. Bioluminescent moss grows thick and voluptuously up the tree trunks, illuminating her surroundings in a subtle green-gold colour. Elara’s crystal-jagged lattice, her biological markings etched into her neck and collarbones, glows a subtle blue. She slumps to her left side on the forest wet floor, raises a hand to her face, feeling the cold, metallic implants fused to her jaw, eyes and head. She hears the clank and grind of her implants, readjusting to her position. The biomechanical umbilical cable, thick as a forest vine, pulsing, synchronised to the rhythm of her markings. It remains securely connected to the back of her head, in her cortex. She slowly gets up and reorients her body to her original kneeling position. She looks around the clearing, and nine others sit in the mud in a perfect, silent semi-circle, their cortices also connected to the umbilical cables. They are all slumped forward, eyes rolling in a quiet trance, drooling as they experience visions. At the centre of the connected cables stands MOTHER, a towering, black monolithic mainframe from the Old World, humming in a low, deep vibration. An ancient server, rusted, overgrown with vines engulfing it, absorbing the light with little to no reflection. In the distance, vehicles hover, parked neatly together in various shapes and sizes, some of the spacecraft still running, their Blue Shardian gravity inversion drives preparing for sub-light flight. “Are you OK?” A rough voice breaks through the dripping monotony of the forest. Elara looks away gently from the mainframe and sees another person standing over a dilapidated, centuries-old terminal, with features and garments similar to hers. It’s Adoman. He looks concerned, a green glow illuminating the lines of his face from the terminal. Pale, angular jawlines define their faces, and they wear enveloping, pitch-black hydrophobic tactical garments with the same dark red insignia on their backs and the sides of their shoulders, tight matte fabrics suited for combat, fitted with magnetic holsters for their energy weapons. Adoman’s cranial implants join to his jaw and down his neck, reflecting the sheen from the monitor, his crystal lattice red, subtle and opaque on his neck and down his right arm. “It was my birthday. I was blowing out the candles.” Elara says with a fragile, raspy voice, giving out a synthetic wheeze from her bionic throat. Tears cut through the grime on her face. “Mom and dad held me so tight. I felt so cherished.” Adoman looks down and puts his hand on his head, slightly shaking with concern. He is managing the countless devotees waiting for their turn to experience Old World memories. He helps an older devotee who has come to his memorial pilgrimage every cycle without fail. He is frail and elderly, with long, frizzy hair down to his hip, wearing a white robe and a waterproof red garment over his head. Adoman seats him in position and connects the cord to his cortex. He jolts immediately, swaying back and forth. Today is a relatively quiet day, with just two hundred people waiting by the side with their tickets in hand. Adoman travels far from his enclave to work on MOTHER. It was discovered a few decades ago by accident, during a drone survey of land owned by a mining company seeking new Shardian crystal deposits. Instead, they found only an overgrown forest in this region, with a mysterious server and no other indications of civilisation. It is just this server and nothing else. A landing party was sent to study the mystery of this mainframe and transport it back to the city. It was immovable. With all the might and power of their tools, it would not budge. It was to be abandoned until one of the research members found a way to connect to it through the terminal and discovered ancient, long-forgotten data about sentient beings from a faraway world. Within a few years, implants were invented to connect the memories directly to the cortex. Imprints of long-lost lives that can be relived from any perspective. Intricately detailed, well-catalogued events of sentient lives, some exciting, some unusual, and some mundane. It became a fascinating study for the scholars of the remote outpost city of Lumiya, with such elaborate records of experiences that were fundamentally obscure compared to their ways of life. Many people from the city came to find out more and eventually made it a regular pilgrimage to worship the lives of others. The word spread through the sector, and many more would arrive to experience it; thus, the city retrofitted its soldiers to manage the influx into this remote region. Adoman, a retired elite assassin of the Obsidian Order, works the terminal. He’s the Overseer. He smuggled Elara in and registered her as a devotee from his enclave so she could experience it and give him company while he works for many months at a time at the pilgrimage zone. Now there are hundreds of desperate devotees from throughout the sector, from ground soldiers to high-ranking dignitaries, who come to experience lives they never knew existed. There are many prospective devotees on the ground shaking their heads back and forth in anticipation, waiting for their turn to plug in. Occasionally, the memories can imprint on the cerebral pathways too rapidly, blurring the perception of reality and distorting their real lives. Adoman realises this in Elara; her withdrawal arrives where she sits, and she immediately removes the heavy cable from her cortex. “They are not real, El,” says Adoman with his hand on her shoulder, showing signs of concern and sorrow. “It’s all just data. Remnants of a world that no longer exists. All dead. Gone.” Adoman lifts Elara as she looks visibly shaken with brutal withdrawal, her eyes darting to and fro. “Why do you like these false imprints so much? And always this one. The same one. Over and over again.” Adoman asks her, looking her directly in the eyes, holding her with both his hands on her shoulders. “BECAUSE… because I got to see a life where I was loved. Not grown in a lab!” Elara replies. Adoman patches and realigns her neural port. “It’s someone else’s memory. Look around you. It’s not perfect. It’s desolate and hard, but it’s still beautiful. It’s real. We are real.” “We are not real. We are artificial. We are designed. We never chose our own purpose.” Responds Elara. “You cannot keep doing this; it will permanently fry your memory conduits.” “Then I will die with something beautiful, instead of being tormented with the visions of what we did for the mission.” “Let’s head back to the enclave. My session has ended for the day. When you get back, run a deep cycle, and remove all of this. You will end up with a cascading bionic rupture. It’s not worth it.” Adoman holds her steady so she does not collapse and heads back together. Later at the devotee enclave, the devotees sit together and share their false experiences as if it’s their own. One shouts proudly that they rose in the ranks of the military, decorated for winning in battle. They don’t know of the enemies they fought, merely that they defeated them. Another whispers about their connection to weird and wonderful creatures that roamed the land. They describe it as 4-legged with deep, long furry hair that protruded along the ridges of their backs, so majestic that people rode them in the wind. They came in so many sizes and shapes. Such freedom and joy. Adoman gets meals for himself and Elara and feeds her. She is not able to eat on her own, still shifting and recovering from the overload of data. She is in pain but speaks of love and belonging. Mom. Dad. The words are sweet nectar, concepts so foreign and ancient they feel like pure magic. In this cosy, comfortable room, she is someone. A real person. She is not a survivor navigating a broken world. She is a daughter. All the devotees are asleep on the floor, aligned and parallel, connected and charging. The enclave is a pure metallic construction that was grown near MOTHER to house the visitors. The ionic shield has been activated to prevent entry during the downtime. Elara is on the floor, on her back, staring at the white, sterile ceiling, fidgety and nervous. Her neural cortex is glitching with false memories imprinted in her storage; she

Punchline! It’s not just comedy anymore. It’s a movement. The world is in conflict. Not necessarily on the battlefield, but in our minds, in our interactions, in the ever-present animosity and passive-aggressive thoughts we hold towards one another. Why? It’s worse than ever. Is social media to blame? It’s more complicated than that. The problem is greed. Yes, greed drives our incentives, shaping a world where money becomes the end goal instead of a tool to enable our true ambitions. Where did we go wrong? A series of unfortunate events and decisions that we must re-evaluate. It’s obvious: humans are better together. It’s not a race. It’s not a war. And yet, the prevailing mindset is one of domination. But what exactly are we trying to dominate? The obsession with being first? The fear of fading into irrelevance? Outdated models may be crumbling, but our addiction to the status quo keeps us clinging on, even when it hurts us more. Our conflicts and aggression have been artificially manufactured. Algorithms dictate that in order to maximise profits and “engagement,” we must be controversial, forced into pseudo-binary choices. “Pick a side!” they say. “Us vs. Them!” A common affliction. Identity and cultural lines are drawn, and people are reduced to mere commodities in a marketplace of division. It’s time to diffuse the tension and remind ourselves: we are more than just commodities. The awakening is happening. As reality sets in, we realise that the next phase of commodification is the mind, body, and soul itself. This is the last straw. Indigo Jedi and I know this truth, and the world is starting to see it too. A door has opened to spread this message. How? A spark of genius is upon us. There are four ingredients that make human connection irresistible: humour, good food, safe spaces, and music. We have embarked on an audacious experiment—one that seeks to dissolve divisions, not by fighting them, but by making them irrelevant. Our philosophy is simple: people are less likely to argue when they’re well-fed, less likely to fear when they feel safe, and far more willing to listen when their defences are lowered by a perfectly timed joke or the rhythm of a song. In a world where culture wars rage and algorithms thrive on outrage, our work is a quiet rebellion. Through cinematic skits, satirical performances, and poetic storytelling, we wield comedy as both shield and scalpel. But our mission goes beyond entertainment. It’s about rewiring the way we engage with one another, stripping away the artificial indoctrination drilled into us and replacing it with something more essential, more human. Our performances don’t demand change; they simply create the conditions in which change becomes inevitable. There is an alchemy in our approach, one that feels both ancient and radical. Long before politics and punditry, before headlines dictated our emotions, communities gathered around fires, sharing food, stories, and songs. Indigo Jedi and I know that this is our natural state—not divided, but connected. So, we continue our work, not with manifestos or megaphones, but with punchlines and melodies, with tables set for everyone, reminding us that unity is not something to be fought for—it is something to be remembered. It only works in our favour when we unite. We don’t have to fight fire with fire. We simply divert the fuel to where it matters—humanity. Are you ready for the new world? It’s now “Us AND Them”. VIJEV. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

Labels are meant for identification, but these days, they’re a form of masquerade—a double entendre, wolf in sheep’s clothing, smoke and mirrors, bait-and-switch switcheroo that can outdo Mata Hari herself. It’s a virtue-signalling false flag that captures your awareness and exploits your innocence. It’s a form of perception-hacking that burrows into your fears and influences your decisions for the worst kind of agenda - profit. Before this newsletter begins to call upon the Valkyries of Internet conspiracy, we are referring to real-world labels often used by the industry to trick your attention towards culturally obsessed artificially inflated lifestyle trends that are powered by powerful marketing and PR shenanigans to hook you in by shaming you for not having it, belittling your human values and forcing you into the mainstream of societal acceptance. It’s a form of cultural shaming - highlighting your flaws and inserting a Trojan horse in your perception making you receptive to the “new shiny object”. Everyone is vegan these days. Sugar-Free? All Natural? Of course yes! The facade makes you buy expensive alternative foods packaged as sustainable Eco-friendly earth-saving ambrosia that if you eat it all… the Whales will flourish and George R.R. Martin will finally finish his book. Meanwhile, the companies rake in billions of profits, doing more damage to the environment and, as importantly, damage to your health. So how do we navigate the tugboats of razor-sharp fool’s gold distracting us from what is important? Real good food. Human food. How can we identify the real healthy food out there, including real vegan food? Sustainable affordable nutritious food. This goes for AI as well! We slap that label on faster than lactose-free butter wrapped in a gluten-free ChatGPT. It’s everywhere! If a product doesn’t proclaim to the world that it doesn’t have AI, it will fall away as a mullet - irrelevant. Now AI is the ADHD term to capture the attention of ever-distracted consumers to make you buy anything. Coming soon - AI-powered vegan leather. Perhaps now there is a reason to go to Mars? VIJEV. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

It’s Season 3 of TechComedyLife. This is VIJEV, and we seek an emotional and spiritual understanding of our world to help us find our purpose. We don’t mean this in an abstract sense. Rather, we discuss practical methods to help you discover your purpose, even when you don’t know where to start. Did you know that if you ask people in careers or busy working lives what they would do if they had all the money they needed and no longer had to work, most can’t even imagine it? As dreamy as that sounds, many people I’ve asked can’t fathom such a hypothetical situation. What? No work? Free time to do what I want? Unheard of! They can't even fantasize about it. I’m stumped. It costs nothing and requires no effort to dream of an ideal life, yet they can’t? This happens for two reasons: * When people are fully absorbed in their work, all their time is consumed by it. There’s simply no time to consider anything else, and the work is often so exhausting that they have no energy left for other thoughts. Just work, eat, sleep, repeat. * More importantly, if people were to seriously consider a life outside of work, it would disrupt their mindset so profoundly that it could have the same effect as Neo being unplugged from the Matrix. It would force them to confront the reality that there is a life beyond work, and it feels safer to stay in denial. I’m with my guest, Deepak John, aka. Indigo Jedi introduces his story of Goobie and Doobie showing the value of doing things naturally where a high-performing neurosurgeon discovered that instead of expensive surgeries, it was easier and cheaper to solve those problems using more natural methods including diet and exercise. The interest in the video garnered millions of views as it proved that people want a different alternative way of living life. We talk about two methods of building on your purpose. That’s Architecture vs Archeology. Architecture – This is about building your life with the end in mind. Do you have a specific goal? Do you want to become a doctor or an athlete? It’s a system built on a blueprint that has been tested to help you achieve your desired outcome. For example, if you want to become an athlete, it involves fitness, training, and gaining the qualifications to compete, among other steps. There are specific, tried-and-tested methods to help you reach your goals. Archaeology – This methodology helps you discover your interests by exploring with an open mind, without specific end goals. It’s the idea of digging to uncover something, driven by curiosity. Just like an archaeologist who may not find bones on their first dig, they keep digging, not knowing exactly what they will find until they do. The “process of digging” itself becomes the goal, and the purpose reveals itself along the way. This is a systems-thinking process where you follow your inner calling, interests, and hobbies to build toward what you want in life. For example, do you love movies? Do you enjoy watching them? Do you find interest in the process of making them? Or perhaps you enjoy discussing them? There’s no clear answer and that’s the point. Lean into these interests, and where they intersect, you may discover a passion for filmmaking, which could lead you to become a writer, director, or perhaps both! Indigo Jedi then digs deeper showing us his path and purpose of living healthier using a technology called “Quantum Resonance” to assess the body, treating it with the right natural products, and eating healthy foods to build without having to rely on expensive pharmaceutical medications that often cause more problems and side effects. When you are living a healthy active life, you become more receptive to your inner calling. This calling will then guide you towards your purpose driven by your curiosity. What you end up discovering may pleasantly surprise you. - VIJEV This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

What will it take for us to co-exist as a human species where we work together, celebrate our differences, and help humanity realize we are stronger when we leverage our asymmetrical cultures, views, skills, and methods to help build our society? When did it become about us vs them? How did we start separating our “humanness” with artificial values, borders, ideologies and heritage that our humans created thousands of years ago? They were created to help us survive when our species lived in brutal times when survival was the only priority. We are no longer in those times but living in the fallout of a post-atomic radioactive culture still lingering on where humans cling to as a source of familiarity. Our autonomic habits will always find solace in the familiar when we are cornered or pushed to our limits. At least it's the world we imagine and yet not the reality today. The fear of being “eradicated” is a trauma response that overrides all common sense and does not allow any room for compassion or logical reasoning. The adage of extreme survival is to either eat or be eaten. How do we help humanity imagine a society where we can look beyond our selfish needs and desires as our driving force to survive? A drive that has blinded us to the fact that we are thriving but instead spend our energies looking over our shoulders in a constant tortured state. Is it that we don't trust anyone? Or perhaps we don’t trust ourselves? I envision a world where the best of our minds from around the world and every human being can live a life that makes it amazing just to be human. A society that values life for simply being us not measured by our incessant need to externally validate our existence separated by our artificially constructed values. It's this world where one is “rated” higher because of skin colour, nationality, culture, power, and material accumulation. What will it take? I don't have the answer. I even asked ChatGPT if would assist me with such a complex problem. This is the set of answers it gave me: * Education and Awareness: Promoting education that emphasizes critical thinking, empathy, and understanding of different cultures can help break down barriers. Education systems that include global history, cultural studies, and languages can foster a sense of shared humanity. * Communication and Dialogue: Encouraging open dialogue between different groups, fostering intercultural communication, and creating platforms for exchange can help people understand and appreciate their differences. * Economic Systems Rethink: Considering alternative economic models prioritising well-being and sustainability over profit, such as the doughnut economic model or cooperative business structures, could shift the focus from money to quality of life. * Collaborative Governance: Developing international institutions and agreements that promote cooperation over competition could lead to more collective problem-solving and shared progress. * Technology and Innovation: Leveraging technology to solve global challenges and to facilitate collaboration across borders can help unite people towards common goals. * Celebrating Diversity: Creating spaces and opportunities to celebrate different cultures and perspectives can help build mutual respect and appreciation. * Shared Goals and Challenges: Recognizing and acting on global challenges that affect all humans, like climate change, can create a sense of unity and common purpose. * Empathy and Compassion: Cultivating empathy through storytelling, media, and personal connections can help people see the world from others' perspectives. * Leadership and Role Models: Leaders who embody and promote inclusive and collaborative values can inspire others to follow suit. * Policy and Institutional Change: Implementing policies that promote equity and justice, and reforming institutions to be more inclusive and representative, can help level the playing field. * Global Citizenship: Encouraging the concept of global citizenship, where individuals see themselves as part of a global community, can help transcend nationalistic and divisive ideologies. * Conflict Resolution: Developing effective ways to manage and resolve conflicts peacefully can prevent the escalation of us vs. them dynamics. ChatGPT also suggested a mind map to visualize the solution: In my opinion, to begin such a process requires acceptance, forgiveness, love, and healing. We all have this in infinite abundance with no constraints or restrictions. It’s a long but worthwhile process to explore that will require patience but for humanity, it begins with the most important thing. Acceptance and taking responsibility. Quite amazingly, ChatGPT gave this path to healing and building a collaborative society. Where are you on this map? Most of us may need to start right on top: acknowledgement. One thing is clear. This path for humanity can only begin from within. It starts with us individually. What kind of peace can we have if we are at war within our minds? Never mind the wars that rage on between nations if we are fighting at home with our spouses or our neighbours. It starts with YOU. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

Are you ambitious? It's the dream we have of having a better more fulfilling life. The innate drive to create and do things beyond the norm. It pulls us out of our comfort complacent zone into a zone of achievement. It's also our collective drive to build and create new things that propel us due to necessity. We, unfortunately, took it too far. We did it to protect ourselves and were motivated by our need to survive at the expense of being human. We don’t need to dial it up to 11 for everything. With due respect to Spinal Tap. We are pushing harder, every day. For a goal with a void. An endless end. We constantly do… produce… accumulate. Productivity has never been higher. We now have AI developed to automate and increase our productivity even more to such a point humans will not be needed at all. What should we be doing if the robots do everything? Our fear of AI has not stemmed from the potential to replace human jobs. It is instead making us look at ourselves for having jobs that robots can easily replace. It's making us question what we CAN do with our lives. Something AI would never do. The human experience. What is the point of it all? Our sense of value has been hijacked by a system that assesses, grows, and rewards production and material accumulation. We have systematically externalized our value in the physical world. The result - even humans are too slow to meet the demands of “growth”. We have experienced this in the past and are still living in the perilous pursuit of external validation. Having ambition is amazing. However, we forget that love, peace, and joy are also ambitions. Ambition doesn't mean hard suffering towards a goal in the hopes the end will be more rewarding when you realize there is no end. There is only now. We are awakening to find a journey where ambition can be a rewarding joyous experience carrying you towards your ambition. Take the longer slower path, enjoy the view, and you will get there. We can live in a joyful world that is built toward the human experience. Old definition of ambition: DOing with external validation, producing as much as possible regardless of love, peace, or joy. * Optimized for profit as it’s often the major motivation. * Shortest cut to wealth. * Harmful to the planet, health, and our sense of living. New definition of ambition: BEing with internal value centered on the human experience. Living the good life that benefits all of humanity. * People, organizations, and even companies driven by sustainable harmonious, and joyful living. Companies can STILL be profitable! * Scenic route to wealth. * Sustainable planet. What’s the rush anyway? Note: I created the audio transcription for this post with ElevenLabs using a deep British voice. What do you think of the AI audio that was generated for this post? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

I'm a mind surfer. I ride the waves, exploring the vastness of the human universe, diving into the joy and sorrow each experience brings, uncovering hidden treasures sunk beneath my subconscious, ignored previously by my own choices in the pursuit of survival, false admiration, and shallow wealth. These experiences have moulded and directed me toward a newfound state of being. To delve within me, to unearth the true wealth lying dormant, neglected, and lying below in the deep by an environment that regarded human creativity as an inconvenience and a nuisance, that didn’t fit in with the goals of a society that quantified and qualified our existence based on our ability to produce and accumulate. I don’t know, what I don’t know. My instincts, which I often do not listen to, would correctly illuminate the unknown paths before me but I just refused to see it. My instincts are strong. I would fight it at every step as I stubbornly built myself an artificial current designed on the opinion of others and fought against the vast pressure of the ocean. My mind would eventually give in, almost drowning in my own thoughts. My instincts were forgiving enough to help me acknowledge and disrupt my facade and helped me paddle away from the old version, towards a world with no name nor destination. It is me being me, discovering the enigma within with no preconceived prejudices or ideologies of what I “should” be. I thus become what I am through pain, helping me feel out my soul like a tugboat, bump after bump, guiding me towards the natural path filled with meandering dimensional states of being. I then learn from the bumps, harnessing my instincts in full flow, adjusting and transforming along the way. I find myself experiencing life as a mind surfer, trusting myself, guided and powered by the waves, wave after wave, without trying to change the ocean. Destination Unknown. Note: I created the audio transcription for this post with ElevenLabs. What do you think of the AI audio that was generated for this post? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

Before you chase me with your oil lamps, paraffin lighters, and acid from your backup batteries, hear me out. VIJEV here being a bit more serious for this piece. South Africa is a relatively young democracy having to create its own path and way while it was already on the back foot long before we had our general election. The ANC is known for their struggle in changing our landscape from the old to the new but the leaders that once were are long gone and the ones that are still alive are indeed ageing faster than your prized Gorgonzola. Their style of thinking and application no longer applies. Compounding this they are resting on their laurels of fighting for freedom and thus have the permission to do whatever they like. They can do no wrong. They simply do not understand their place anymore. They don't even acknowledge it. If you believe South Africa is leaderless then you need to be that leader. You need to be the person that is missing in this world. That being said, trying to fix or increase our electricity isn’t the issue. Otherwise, it would have been fixed years ago. There’s a bigger issue at play. The best analogy is of a drowning child. You can do all you want… try to feed the child, educate, and care for it but as long as it’s still drowning, it’s a lost cause. It’s even worse when the child doesn’t even know it’s drowning. There’s simply no awareness. So we need to put aside our incessant need to fix what is already broken from a legacy era that was created for the few and do something that is much more profound… ACCEPTANCE. This means to first acknowledge that the child is indeed drowning - pull the child out of the water and THEN we can decide how to rehabilitate, grow and nurture. What does this mean in the real world? It means to accept our shadows of the past as part of who we are, forgive and make peace with the past. It’s our own shadows as well that we need to accept. The versions of us that are still living in the past as a form of survival. If all we do is survive, we will never be able to thrive. There’s no peace if we cannot heal first. Right now South Africa is circling in trauma and blame, depending on your background/age/political leanings: * It’s apartheid’s fault or colonialism or more recently Jan van Riebeeck because he arrived on the shores of South Africa in 1652 causing all the damage we have today and are waiting for the beneficiaries of the descendants to give it all up to others so people can move on. OR * It’s the new government / ANC / African’s fault because they are corrupt and don’t care about governance nor the competence to do anything properly, i.e. “mismanagement of funds” as we often see in the news. They are completely to blame for the decade-long loadshedding South Africa is now experiencing. No one is taking responsibility for it now. In order to get past all of this, we need to accept where we are in life, history, and our circumstances. Everyone is now just a victim. I don’t know which one is worse… The ones that leave the country and complain to others or the ones that are still living in South Africa complaining and unable to get out. Why would you want it to fail? What are you trying to prove? That you’re right? That everything is going to capitulate? South Africa has been deemed a failed state since the 1990s. If you believe in failure, then it will become true. What you say will become true. We have been trying to fix an old system that was designed to be exclusive and cannot be changed, at least not fast and cost-effectively, to be inclusive for all South Africans. We have been holding on for so long. This is a legacy system that was built by the old regime that no longer cares about the future and welfare of South Africans. They have mostly left and worst of all, very often, spew hatred about the current state of the country. South Africans need to let go of the idea of what South Africa was or “should be”, especially from those that created the problem in the first place. It was apartheid and now it’s apathy. The endemic sinister nature of South Africans self-evaluating the country, I realized the people who caused the fire are blaming the country for not putting out the fire quickly enough. A defence mechanism to simply absolve of all responsibility and simply not care. I met an inspiring entrepreneur named Sanjay Bikramchund who has taught me how you can build and create opportunities even in the harsh economic environment with gratitude and attitude. I met him at a family birthday party and I had to record our conversation, have a watch here: We are here NOW. All of our problems are due to the past and our inaction in the present. This is where we are. South Africans as a nation need forgiveness, healing, and love. This is our only path to acceptance. That’s the best we can do and that’s what we can control. We then need to disconnect from the idea of who we were and build a new future. NO BLAME! It is what it is. No deflection. Our struggle is no longer external. It’s all within us. How do we build from here? I found my love of expression through comedy. Standup comedy to be specific. How do we get people together to forgive, love and accept? Get people together and laughing of course. The rest will fall into place. Are you waiting for permission or to be elected to make a difference? What will you be doing? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

This is VIJEV and let’s talk about storytelling. I’ve been learning how to use AI for storytelling, including trying out ChatGPT and even Notion AI to assist with creative writing. I’ve created a story with my own plot, characters and twists. I then asked AI to help rewrite some of the sentences to be more coherent and of course with better grammar. I then took the story and fed it with ChatGPT again to create a narrative that had a bit more sarcastic humour to suit the style of a noir detective story set in a sci-fi world. Imagine that I baked the cake and the AI helped with the icing. Here it begins. Synthetic Murder It was a dark and stormy night. Yours truly, Detective Vaj Appan, playing gumshoe in the city that never sleeps, because really, who could sleep with all these factories running? The city is Amartek, 2049 AD. A Tuesday, 6pm. At least the nightlife was consistent, if you're into the whole burnt oil from the East and charred masala from the West kind of vibe. And let me tell you, folks, this metaphor for my life couldn't have been more original. My duality: half-man, half-cybernetic, all-confusion. Now gather 'round, kiddos, because I'm going to share the thrilling tale of that one fateful call that changed my life forever. I mean, really, how could it not? It was the warehouse factory, where they discovered a human supervisor, deader than disco, murdered by an automaton. Unthinkable! It was like one of those cheesy B-movies that nobody watches. But here's the kicker: with a gaggle of detectives available in the area, who do they assign the case to? Yours truly, Detective Vaj "I-Swear-I-Know-What-I'm-Doing" Appan. Because this was one of those sensitive cases, and they needed someone who could straddle both worlds. So who better than the guy who has electronic spare parts to make me whole? Ah, yes, the automatons. Or robots, or AI, or "mechanical overlords," or “job stealers” or whatever the kids are calling them these days. They were our trusty, efficient workers who put us, humans, out of business. No incidents for years, and then suddenly, a bump in the night. I was stumped, flummoxed even. Was it an accidental glitch, or was someone pulling the robotic strings? This city hadn't been shaken like this since Windows 3.1 came out, and that's ancient history, my friends. So there I was, stepping into the dilapidated warehouse factory like I owned the place. The first thing to assault my senses was the charming aroma of rusted metal and oil, a real olfactory treat. The once silent machines were now whirring so loudly that I could hardly hear myself think. So, with grim determination, I made my way to the late human supervisor's office, the door stubbornly locked from the inside. But never fear, for Detective Vaj "Who-Needs-A-Warrant" Appan used a key, a true testament to my detective prowess. As I entered, I was struck by the tidiness of the office, a stark contrast to the chaotic factory floor. Everything had its place, except for the corpse sprawled on the floor. That's our dearly departed supervisor, alright. Upon close examination, it was obvious he'd been strangled to death. It all seemed too personal, like a high-stakes game of robotic Twister gone wrong. The automaton's muscular arm was covered in human blood, with clear signs of a struggle. Reliable machines, huh? Colour me unsettled. Well, well, wasn't this a riveting mystery straight out of a pulp fiction novel? So there I was, knee-deep in this case, sauntering out of that factory with all the ambience of a robotic assembly line, and boy was the city skyline a painter's cliché: orange and red as a digital firestorm. Time to hit up the supervisor's stomping ground – The Binary & Biryani, where your meal came in two modes: hot or not. As I strutted into the joint, the spice factor sucker-punched my nostrils like a prizefighter, taking me down memory lane where lactose-free yoghurt offered me cool reprieve. Mrs Kamala, the owner, waved me over like a fond aunt with an open booth and an open heart. "Detective, the supervisor is dead, it’s just too tragic for words. A good man has gone too soon," she lamented. I nodded in solemn agreement. "A heartbreaker indeed. Now, any odd happenings the night our dear friend made his last curtain call?" I asked. Promptly, I requested a peek at their surveillance records – you know, those things that track your every move like a hawk on a hot tin roof. I sipped my masala latte, as steamy as the footage Mrs Kamala pulled up for my eager eyes. The late, great supervisor waltzed into the scene, placing an order for his go-to grub – biryani with a side of lassi. He checked his watch like the White Rabbit with an appointment, and after shelling out some dough, he headed for the exit. But alas! A stranger materialized, bumping into him with all the grace of a tipsy android. Profuse apologies followed, along with a lassi clean-up operation. They swapped a few words, and our dear supervisor beat it, the mysterious man hot on his heels. Mrs Kamala, bless her soul, said the stranger was a regular. I offered my gratitude and pocketed every morsel of intel I could. As I weaved through Amartek's bustling streets, my guts churned like a load of laundry on spin-cycle. This tale was shaping up to be darker than a moonless night on Mars. I had to hustle before things went further south than the asteroid belt. On the blackest of nights, when the shadows swirled and the streetlights failed, I stumbled upon the man who had shadowed the supervisor, like a pixel chasing a byte. He was lurking in the alley, the perfect setting for every crime noir story, chomping on something that looked like synthetic betel leaves while exhaling puffs of smoke that would make a fog machine proud. Cautiously, I walked towards him, slapping on my lead detective smile. He sized me up like I was a commodity on the intergalactic black market before flicking his cigarette to the ground. "What do you want?" he barked, voice gruffer than a malfunctioning audio speaker. "Oh, you know, just asking about your latest stalking escapade outside The Binary & Biryani," I said. He didn't even bat an eyelid and said, "I just wanted to chat with him. That's all." "Well, it must have been a conversation to die for... 'cause he croaked later that day," I quipped. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" The man's face could've been carved from an asteroid rock. "I don't know what you're talking about." replied the man. With eyes narrowed, I scrutinized him like a detective in a holo-movie. "You'd better start singing, or it's off to the station for a little chit-chat." He let out a sigh that could've powered a small wind turbine. "Alright. I followed him, but only to whisper sweet nothings of caution in his ear. He was meddling in matters that were strictly off-limits." "I can't say more, it's dangerous like a black hole. But listen," he paused, surveying the scene for eavesdropping automatons. "There are those who aren't thrilled with the metallic takeover of human jobs. They're itching to blow the whole system to smithereens, and they'll destroy anything in their path. So just watch yourself." My mental gears whirred faster than an overclocked CPU. Sure, automatons doing human work had been a sore spot since we played God and created AI, but who wouldn't prefer a cold, calculating machine to, say, a disgruntled artist? Efficiency had soared and the world had become a safer place, but these anti-automaton factions just couldn't resist the allure of good, old-fashioned work that humans are meant to do. To them, work is the reason for living. With a nod, I bade my informant adieu and exited the alley, thoughts swirling like neon advertisements in the smog-filled air. These factions had been quiet, snuffed out by government crackdowns. But had they risen like the phoenix from the ashes? And why now? My hunt for evidence had turned up zilch in the warehouse, except for one suspicious killer automaton. No witnesses to spill the beans. A gripping tale, indeed. Back at the office, my fingers danced over the keyboard like a 22nd-century jazz pianist who never skipped class, as I sifted through the work and maintenance schedules. You see, these automatons get their nightly tune-ups with firmware updates, like an insomniac's bedtime story. The rogue automaton had a hiccup in its routine, a little dance number right after a remote update, precisely an hour post-supervisor-slaughter. Convenient. These updates were shipped from the mother of all AI suppliers, IAW - Integrated Automation Works. Digging into their cyberspace innards was like hacking into your sibling’s computer searching for hidden exotic games they stored in sub-folders titled “work”, but after an arduous dance with firewalls and encryption, I traced the IP address to an abandoned warehouse that had seen better days. Cops swarmed the place like an alien invasion, discovering a faction camp so blatant they might as well advertise it with a neon sign. It was like unearthing a relic from a bygone era; a faction thought extinct had sprung back to life just to ice the supervisor? My overworked synapses tried to connect the dots. How could these amateurs infiltrate the digital fortress of IAW without an inside man? Of course… there had to be an inside man. The plot thickened like molasses on a cold winter's day. Maybe the factions were a convenient scapegoat, a smokescreen for a deeper, darker agenda. I had to chase the truth, and my instincts whispered that the man in the alley was clutching more cards than he showed. Time for a reunion. Steel nerves and a mental encyclopedia of potential plot twists armed me for the inevitable confrontation. I had to pick this guy's brain and pry open the secrets of the factions and their puppet masters. The answers I sought could shake up the city, and the world, and redefine our understanding of human-automaton coexistence. But failure

It's VIJEV, and April has brought a refreshing coolness to the Southern Hemisphere. What better time to discuss self-reflection? Despite our relentless pursuit to uncover the world's mysteries, we often neglect the most crucial mystery of all – discovering ourselves. This unexplored territory holds the key to our identity. In this video, I speak to Deepak John and Naledi King about discovering ourselves and using the tools available to understand it, and we go through their methodologies of uncovering problems in our lives. You then find the connection that reveals who you need to be and let go of the idea of what you thought you needed to be. From birth, we absorb knowledge from our surroundings, and with our instincts, we craft a vision of the life we aspire to live. However, external factors beyond our control sometimes impose an alternative path. War, family, toxic friendships, societal pressures, and work are just a few examples of circumstances that may divert us from our potential. It's only upon recognizing that we are in "survival mode" rather than "discovery mode", that we can shift our perspective. We have followed the lessons we've been taught, so we must forgive ourselves for not knowing better and for those around us who meant well but didn’t know either. Indeed, it is through adversity and pain that we ultimately awaken to our true selves. What is the authentic self? It is an unknown and mysterious part of discovering the self. There is no destination, merely an experience as you unpack the gift in front of you as you await your surprise. The authentic self is your real you. The one that no one else can find, except you. You can only find it when it's forged with your courage and painfully acknowledged and understood. We need a way to know the where and why. We don’t need “the what” for now. It’s like being an archaeologist. You dig and reveal the bones underneath. You may not even know what the bones look like. What you know as an authentic person is… the bones are there. To look is to take a set of actions to understand where you are currently. Your Awareness - Do you really know where you are? The pain indicates how far you are straying from your true self. This is the analogy of drowning. You may be drowning, and your instinct is to thrash at the water. You can’t understand why it’s not working. The worst of all… you are not **aware** that you are drowning. The best remedy is to follow these 2 areas to uncover your pain and understand why you are drowning. 1.      The world you see, is who you are. If you are loving, you will see loving people. If you are hateful, you will see hate. See what you are really seeing in the world. 2.      Look directly and acknowledge the way you react to your triggers. What makes you angry? Sad. Shame. Frustration. Understand and study it head-on. What makes you anxious about the past or the future all the time? If you are not in the present, you will not be able to solve the problems you really have. Coming to terms with it is the best way to find your present self. Once you build the basic awareness, you begin to realize that it is only YOU who can fix it. This is where you take responsibility for your life and actions. Then you can start working on the framework to build up your life. 1.      Physical - Do physical things to move your body that gets your blood flowing. Even better, doing something you enjoy that moves your body. For me, it’s strength/weight training. This form of exercise has allowed me to become fitter and physically stronger. A strong body provides the framework for the next important part. Your mind. 2.      Mental / Emotional - These are exercises to get your mind fit. It can be in the form of meditation or breathing exercises that helps your mind disconnect when necessary and help you focus on what’s important. It can also be a form of connection where you can enjoy the company of the people you love, spend time with your family, etc. I discovered stand-up comedy. What better way is there to connect with people, and make them laugh? During peak Covid, while we were in lockdown, I learnt how to draw and use upcoming art tools where I discovered Midjourney for AI art. 3.      Nutritional - What you eat matters. When you also eat matters. Understand your body and find out what makes it work and what foods can harm you. I found out that excessive sugar and dairy cause problems. I had issues with allergies and gut pains. I needed to take medication to treat it. When I simply changed my diet, it was no longer an issue. You will save yourself so much time and energy when you feed your body right. One size doesn’t fit all so this is something you have to find out and test for yourself. 4.      Intellectual - This is where you do the things that tickle your mind. Something that gets the brain to work. Even better. Do something that you enjoy. In my case, it’s writing and diving deep into one of my favourite past-times - Science Fiction. Imaging new worlds creatively allows me to tell stories and help build worlds that never existed. Finally, in the chat, we get introduced to a concept called “The Drama Triangle”, which is explained by Naledi King in the video. The Drama Triangle, a concept first introduced by psychologist Stephen Karpman in 1968, is a model of social interaction that reveals the interplay of three distinct roles: Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer. In this dynamic, participants may switch roles within the triangle, perpetuating a cycle of drama, conflict, and negative emotions. The concept aims to help individuals identify and break free from these unhealthy patterns, thus enabling them to shift from a victim mentality to a creator mindset. The concepts are further explained quite well by Dr Amy E. Keller and the image shows you where you might be in your mindset. When you get through these basics, the connection with yourself becomes stronger and clearer. The only way to improve and grow is to consistently work on this and you will keep uncovering magic about yourself. Trust your instincts. Let it guide you. The journey is only the beginning when your first discover this, and you begin to explore. Destination Unknown. VIJEV. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

Start writing today. Use the button below to create your own Substack and connect your publication with TechComedyLife This is VIJEV and it’s time for another podcast. It’s our first, fashionably late one for 2023. We talk about the latest development in the world of AI. ChatGPT is all the rage. It has become a window into our souls. It’s the first time we can see a new form of AI, called AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) in action. It’s not just a tool created for specific things, e.g. autonomous cars. It’s intelligence that replicates the general human thoughts and knowledge that can assist us in whatever we need, from helping us with 10 ways to improve our content SEO to the creative realm of music and art. The more AI advances, the more we question its place in our world but more importantly, what becomes of us in an AI-dominated world? If AI automates art and music, then what is the point of being human? Isn’t there a limit to making AI do everything? The key to freeing humans from menial, repetitive jobs so that our minds may focus on higher-level, more creative challenges is automation. In light of this, we can go farther ahead and build interplanetary space travel, possibly even teleportation, with the arrival of quantum computing, AI, and human ingenuity working together. AI will be essential in handling the fundamentals because humans are prone to making mistakes. The work will not generate the expected outcomes if it is repetitious and dull, and it will frequently be incorrect. The structure of our government serves as the best illustration. When money is typically "mismanaged" because it is succumbing to the most flawed and insidious of all human behaviours —greed. It can theoretically be entirely automated with no human intervention, such as in the case of tax collection and budget distribution. The other effect, of course, is the abuse of AI to automate as much as possible which will completely rip the economic structures we are so used to. The LinkedIn post below clearly shows us what “AI outsourcing” is going to look like. Not since the advent of computing will we see such a monumental shift in the way we work. We are now questioning, what should humans do at all if AI does everything? Let’s think bigger. Perhaps the idea of human existence should not be to just “do things”. Let work be taken care of and humans can live and experience things. How many great inventions and creations are we missing because there is a genius out there working every single day to make ends meet and having no time to work on anything creative? What if that person had time and invented faster-than-light travel or a cure for cancer? Our transition will be painful. The way we work will feel like withdrawal symptoms. Therefore we need to prepare for the transition and not just plug AI immediately. AI and automation, in general, are inevitable but we can choose how we transition and get humans out of the work mindset and living in the experience mindset. Have you transitioned yet? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

It’s VIJEV here. In this podcast, I experiment with a mobile podcast style where I “walk and talk” outdoors at the beautiful Golden Harvest Park with my long-time friend Mongezi Mtati who is a content creator himself and also hosts his own amazing podcast called The Lead Creative. I recorded it with the Rode Wireless Go II microphones connected to a Zoom recorder. I realized it was picking up a buzzing sound due to a limiter setting on the receiver so do bear with us on that. We live and learn. This podcast is two-fold. We talk about the amazing experiences one can have on a personal level and utilizing the power of communication to better understand our own reality. There are places everywhere in South Africa that Mongezi tells me with great enthusiasm and sometimes I wonder why we don’t see or share this enough. We are often force-fed negative information and news because the assumption is bad news spreads faster and therefore makes more money for the news provider. Thus, we see a lot of bad news, and hateful content skewing the online algorithms out there that only reinforce our biases. We would be forgiven for thinking that there is only bad news out there. This goes for the news providers as well who also assume that in order to monetize news, bad news needs to be promoted. This is indeed a vicious cycle. The challenge is thus to improve our worldview and seek out the positive that is often not told in mainstream media. This also applies to our individual realities, where we are ignorant of the echo chamber that simply magnifies the familiar ideas and sentiments we have about the world around us. It is hard to expand our personal reality because it means confronting our own limitations and admitting the shortfalls that exist within our ideas and views of the world. When it's simpler to point the finger at others, we must also accept responsibility for our role in making life the way we want it. The realisation is that if we accept that our shared reality shapes our personal reality, it is up to us to be aware of its constraints, seek out new experiences, meet people outside of our comfort zones, and have the courage to follow our instincts when they lead us to believe that something is wrong. Follow your heart, create and share content that celebrates life, and expand your shared reality evermore. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

This is VIJEV. I spoke with my longtime friend Mina Demian, who, in his 40s, found his calling in the field of coding after experiencing a personal renaissance. We dig deep and talk about finding your passion or, in Mina's case, rediscovering the profession of coding that he once did when he was much younger. People who code are typically in their 20s and work in startups. Product development is typically linked with recent college grads. Therefore, carrying this out now required a shift in perspective and the courage to follow your heart instead of what society expects of you. Is this podcast about coding? Well, yes and no. It’s not all binary. We talk about what it means to work at something you enjoy doing well enough to be financially independent, have the resources to live responsibly, and have the support system required to follow your hobbies. The methods we use matter and do it with pride, in the open, and without condemnation. Not to mention, laugh along the way through the journey of understanding yourself, no matter how bad those jokes might be, laughing through all the failures you experienced that were valuable lessons in making you the person you needed to be. Life teaches us whether we like it or not and it is our responsibility to learn and change ourselves for the better. It is our job to be responsible and seek change in our own lives and it’s none of our business to change anyone else. Mina Demian is a professional coder and a passionate musician. You can find his work here: The Shibanski: Website Instagram Spotify This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

We are in 2022! It’s a mixed masala as we discuss what to expect in the year. Well, mixed masala, because I watched Dune, a new movie based on the legendary Sci-Fi author, Frank Herbert, where a society fights over Spice, the universe’s most valuable resource and it’s the only time my mom agreed with any form of Sci-Fi plots. We rock into the year with a mindset change. A change that adapts our thinking and behaviour to suit good living that nourishes the soul, not just our pockets. If you have been hiding under a rock, you would know we are entering the new phase of tech buzzwordercution (no this doesn’t exist so don’t Google it) aka., The Metaverse. Techbros love punting buzzwords. It’s how they hype the world and get us to spend more money on concepts. It’s just like fashion. It’s a trend. Trends sell, so we’ve adapted around it. My mind is still on the blockchain but somehow we have more to deal with. Is it a fad or is it something we can be a part of? And finally, who has watched Squid Game? A phenomenon that has taken the world by storm because it’s the era of Schadenfreude, more specifically - Schadenfreude entertainment. Now we’ve just made it scalable to everyone throughout the world with a click of a button. I can only imagine new forms of sporting experiences that combine Squid Game in the Metaverse. What a world. The possibilities are endless. Welcome to 2022. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com

It’s been a short while since we witnessed one of the worst cases of protesting and looting in our short democratic history of South Africa that took place in July of 2021. Our problems are only compounding with the gap between the rich and poor widening even more. We have a horrific statistic where our gap, based on the Gini coefficient, is the HIGHEST in the world. We love to blame in South Africa. It has been nearly 30 years since we held our first democratic elections and all we have done is either blame apartheid or the incompetence of the new government. As a result, there’s no accountability and thus no one feels responsible for fixing the issues because it’s simply someone else’s fault. We do an honest banter about the current problems and look at ways for all of us to collectively acknowledge that we indeed have a problem, willing to help and rebuild South Africa with accountability. This will require compromise from the have’s to help the have-nots. We need a system that fosters creativity and curiosity at all levels and most of all… Dream without permission or approval. The dreamers (the geeks, the engineers, the scientists, educators, and even the storytellers) are the ones who will put us back on the map. We just need to find them, nurture them, believe in them and the rest will fall into place. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techcomedylife.vijev.com