Author: Ryan Rivera
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Proof of Human
Suspicion hung on glances cast across the table. Sweat beaded on our brows. The heater blew hot air into the already sweltering room. It was a random hot November day. The quick switch in temperature left no time for the climate control system to adjust, the machinery just kept pumping out heat like it was…
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Shedding the Canvas
The painting hung before me. At nine by seventeen feet, its presence dominated the room and its scale enveloped my attention. I sat on a bench in the gallery and let the chaotic splatters and kinetic streaks pull me into Jackson Pollock’s world. I was on the fourth floor of MoMA, sitting next to an…
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8:05 PM, 8:14 PM
I timed the conclusion of my martini for exactly 8:05 pm. I sat at the lobby bar of the Algonquin hotel. Two women from Texas sat next to me. One, a woman named Nora from Dallas, was already a few sheets to the wind. The scent of juniper mingled with her sweet perfume. Rocco was…
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Catching a Vibe
I’m not very good at woodwork. I learned this the hard way when I took a sculpture class in college and decided, for reasons I can no longer fully recall, to build a Trojan horse. I’d imagine I wanted to say something about infiltration—this was 1999 after all. I had a sketch. I had the…
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A Context. A Frame.
It feels like my body has been stuck in survival mode for years. Like there is a persistent threat looming above. Part of it, I’m sure, is the 24-hour news cycle, American and global politics, social media feeds ratcheting up FOMO. There’s the reality of AI displacement and its related doom cycles. But I can…
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This. Changes. Everything.
Imagine a wooded landscape. A man, mud and clay applied in lines to his face and torso, grunts and howls as he smashes two rocks together over a pile of dried grass. Twigs stick out from around the edges. A spark flies off the flint and ignites the kindling into a small blaze. The man…
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Death and The Human Advantage
“AI passed the LSAT. AI won a writing prize. AI can out-code most early career coders. AI, AI, AI! AI is better than you. You should probably get a job in healthcare. Just not radiology, AI is really good at that.” The advancements—never ending. The psychological toll—immense. Can I stay ahead of AI long enough…
