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A year in words

It is that time of the year when some of us think on all the things that happened this year and make our personal review. In my opinion, it is a very healthy and enriching exercise that I strongly recommend everyone to do. I have been doing this for many years now and this year I though to share it.

I will try to go through some of the hightlights of the year but focused in my persona and the things that were somehow important for me.

I will start with the topic that most influenced me this year: the 50th anniversary of the first man walking on the Moon. I was really commited to give my small contribution to celebrate this huge and transcendental moment in our history. By doing this, I have learnt even more about how this feat was done with movies, documentaries and books. And I am even more convinced that it was the pinnacle of human endeavour for a single goal to push further our bounderies. Truely this made me realize how good we can do as species, how much technological potential we have now and how much to learn we have yet about our very near universe.

This year also I was shocked by events to the opposite side. Horrible things that really shakes our morality and shows how evil we can be. We are all playing the macabre lottery just by living on this society and sadly some people get the winning ticket. This things must show us what really matters in life and how we must protect it above any other thing.

And going down to things more personal, this year I managed to push further my creativity. If last year it was the creation of this blog, this year I started to experiment creating my own music with a synthesizer keyboard. It showed me new ways to express myself through music and opened a window to many ideas that I have in my mind. Soon I will have a couple of new creations to share but the two bellow opened the path.

On the professional side, this year has been a busy one specially towards the end. But busy means we have done important and complex things which is always good. Of course there are ups and downs like in every place but in general I am happy with what I had done and with what I have learnt this year.

To finish, I would like to mention about the books that more have impacted me this year.

Life 3.0: Being human in the age of Artificial Intelligence from Max Tegmark, a Swedish-American physicist and cosmologist from the MIT and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit organization backed by big names such Elon Musk or Stephen Hawking, and whose work has helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial. The book talks about AI today and the paths it is taking for the future; all from a technology perspective.

The NASA Archives: 60 years in space. A collectors book built in very high quality by Taschen. It tells you the details of all NASA’s history since its creation until today accompanied with new high definition pictures. Very recommened if you are interested on space exploration.

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Unveil or Show-biz?

Sometimes it is hard to know the truth or have a strong opinion when the facts are either hidden from vast public, involves a massive social controversy or there are strong reasons from any of the parts involved to get some kind of profit.

I feel like this since early this week when I watched the controversy HBO’s documentary Leaving Neverland. It tells the confessions and experiences of two men that were supposedly sexually abused as children by Michael Jackson. It is a 4 hour documentary (split in two parts) with very hard moments and, in my opinion, leaves in you a lot of questions and a duality almost impossible to clarify.

Like many people around the globe, I consider Michael Jackson as one of the pillars in music history; one of the greatest in all time and probably the most prominent musician who changed the music business we know today. He was on top since he was a child till his dead and he influenced all the generations from grandchildren to grandparents. Since I was a child (exactly the same age as these two man in the documentary) I was hooked by his music, impossible dances and shows. Anyway, I am not saying something new… this was the same for almost everyone.

In my opinion there is no such big popular icon like him nowadays. This might be one of the reasons why very young people cannot understand this story, M.J.’s live and what I am trying to say.

If you watch the documentary blindly, it is like to throw a bucket of cold water over your head. The truth is that back in the 90’s and early 21st. century decade the world got shocked by the allegations against M.J. for sexual abuse to children. We all remember the news and the images on court. Although he was sentenced not guilty in both occasions, this hugely damaged his image and the world split in two since then: (a) people who support his innocence and that these allegations were part of a plot to get money, and (b) people believing he was a pederast monster behind a genius.

What is the real truth here? Was Michael Jackson a real monster destroying children and their families with his sickness or this is a new attempt from people to make money and profit from the greatest icon in modern history? After watching the documentary, most of the people would say: “Well, where there’s smoke…there’s fire” and I understand it. But I do not have a clear opinion. The moments that I was trying to see if all of this was true, I asked myself: “If this is true… what is wrong with the World then? How did we allow it to happen?”. But these things only can be cleared with M.J., and he is dead; meaning he cannot defend himself or be questioned anymore.

What will remain as unquestionable would be his music legacy and his legendary history. His “star” as a person however, it is something that will be questioned forever.

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