Written by Dirk Jan

The Call for the Real: A Reflection

The Call for the Real: A Reflection

Written by Dirk Jan on April 16, 2025. Photo by Yvonta.

Never before have we been so surrounded by the artificial. AI-generated art, deepfake videos, automated conversations, it’s literally everywhere. And in the midst of this digital tsunami, a countermovement is emerging, a silent call for the real. We long for the tangibility of handmade products, the imperfection of analogue photography, the sincerity of human interaction. It seems as if, in the attempt to achieve perfection, we have lost the essence of being human. Now, more than ever, we realize the value of the real, the authentic, the human.

I almost dare not say it out loud anymore, because we are so overwhelmed by AI that we are craving real things instead of fakes. I understand the desire for authenticity, for the real, for craftsmanship. We want to go back to products with real value, products that have been worked hard for. Photos that we can trust and things that really matter. Texts with content and emotion, written from the heart. Videos that are real, pure, with a real play of light, made with emotion.

One post after another. Look what I can do with AI! Yes, nice, but I’m getting a bit tired of it. Of course, progress is nice, but I want to focus on what is real, human, sincere and pure.

And yet… therein lies the paradox. It is precisely through that abundance of artificial perfection, those manufactured emotions, that we become more acutely aware of what is real. We learn to recognize the subtle nuances, the imperfections that emphasize the beauty of being human. A handmade ceramic mug with a small imperfection, the wrinkles around the eyes of a loved one in an analog photo, the raw emotion in a live music performance, those are the moments that make us feel alive.

Maybe it is not so much a ‘return’ to the real, but rather a rediscovery. A revaluation of the simple things, the small gestures, the human connection. In a world that seems to be getting faster and more distant, it is precisely that human touch that we need so much. A smile, a listening ear, a handwritten letter, these are the anchors that hold us in the storm of fake news and algorithms.

And yet the artificial is also very beautiful. It changes who we are. We make people more complete and better. We grow older and wiser. We learn more and broaden our horizons. The possibilities are endless and we can no longer do without them.

Yet you should not want to change or improve everything, it is the imperfection that makes people beautiful, it is the shortcoming that makes people dependent and therefore connected. We need each other, that makes life beautiful.

And so we stand at a crossroads, driven by a deep desire for the real, while we become unmistakably intertwined with the artificial world. The call for authenticity, that loud cry against the near-perfection of AI, paradoxically sharpens our senses for what is human. We learn to recognize the nuances, to cherish the imperfections.

AI has helped us, and can help us, to amplify that authenticity. To cherish the moments that really matter, to find the beauty in the imperfection. And maybe, just maybe, in that balance between the real and the artificial, we will find the true essence of what it means to be human.

I Was So Full of Praise and Enthusiasm

Have you ever met someone who was so full of praise and enthusiasm for you that you felt like you were priceless? I have to admit that this doesn’t happen to me very often. Well, the opposite is true. You meet someone who you find interesting and who you keep following. You become a fan. I am so happy when I meet them in real life! Wow! As fun as this is, it is often a disappointment. This person you are such a fan of shows no interest in you at all, gasp! There goes your appreciation for that person, at least you start to see him or her in a different light. Are you still a fan of him or her? Let’s turn the story around. Let’s say you meet someone who is a fan of yours. He or she talks about you with such high praise. What are you going to do? A) You don’t find that perso...

Why Software Must Be Free

For decades, the software industry has operated on a foundational premise: code is a scarce intellectual property that can be locked behind paywalls, licensed, and monetized. Companies built moats out of proprietary codebases, and copyright laws served as the walls protecting them. Today, that entire paradigm is collapsing. We have entered an era where clinging to traditional software economics is not only obsolete, it is actively harmful to our technological progress and our planet. When software carries a hefty price tag or restrictive licensing terms, a strange economic friction occurs. Instead of adopting an existing, perfectly functional solution, organizations and individuals increasingly choose to build their own custom alternatives using AI. At first glance, this looks like empo...

Self-driving cars: a safer future?

Self-driving cars are the future. That much is clear. But to what extent are they self-driving? Should humans still intervene? And don't these cars make mistakes? We have listed the different levels of (self-driving) cars for you, together with the disadvantages, but certainly also the advantages of (more of) these cars in traffic. *A self-driving car often operates with multiple cameras that use AI to recognize objects and respond to them.* This way, they can avoid other cars and also automatically stop for a red traffic light. Some car manufacturers use sensors, radar, and lidar in addition to the cameras. These cars often have an additional rotating sensor on top of the car. Gradually, various levels of self-driving cars have emerged. Each level bringing you one step closer to fully a...

Hacked: Why I’m kicking out WordPress

It started with an email like this on my screen: Your password has been changed. Well, definitely not. I hadn’t changed anything at all. Some hacker or other had found an old vulnerability in WordPress and was right inside the backend of the Ronald Thump Parody website. Within a few minutes, my password had been changed, strange accounts appeared in the database, a signature page was hanging on the site, and the AI ​​had been modified. That is, the hacker had dived straight into the system prompt. ## AI hijacked… but the hacker was right Usually, with a hack like this, you only get junk or vague advertisements. This was different. The hacker had rewritten the instructions for the interactive Ronald Thump avatar. Suddenly, it said that the clone had to shout that clim...

The Treasures of India

India, the name of a vast, expansive country that owes its name to the Indus River, which actually means ‘stream’ or ‘river’. It is a country stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the deepest tropical south. It is the land of many temples and a collection of philosophies, traditions, rituals, and spiritual movements that constitute Hinduism. India has experienced many dark times and has often fallen victim to foreign rulers, such as the Indo-Greek and Central Asian tribes in antiquity, the Huns in the 5th and 6th centuries, and the Mughal Empire (1526–1857). Subsequently, Europeans, including the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Great Britain, and France, came to dominate India through the slave trade. They introduced the idea of ​​racial segregation: if you had d...

Improving the lives of people with disabilities

Dicky, my great-aunt I was named after (my nickname is Dick), was confined to a wheelchair most of her life. At the age of 18, she was diagnosed with polio. As a child, we, together with my parents, visited her regularly. She lived in De Ark, a residential facility for children and adults with severe polio paralysis. It was built in 1958, right next to the Zuiderziekenhuis (hospital), after a polio epidemic shook Rotterdam (Netherlands). ## Impact on Others She depended on others for everything. What she could still do was operate her electric wheelchair, and she could also write small pieces. Talking went on between gasps and took a lot of patience. *She wrote with her right hand, with a ballpoint pen between index and middle finger. She always sent postcards to everyone. Birthday c...