Narrative vs. Authenticity in a Post-AI world

Low Level reports, “something is REALLY wrong with bug bounty“. What’s going on, is that people are using AI to find bugs in software and submitting them to “bug bounty” websites operated by computer security researchers. The problem is that the AI is hallucinating code and calls to subroutines, and the bugs don’t actually exist. This is becoming a huge problem as more false reports are now being submitted than real reports, and human beings have to go and check just to make sure the bugs are real in the first place.

  • Narrative: 1. a description of events

As it turns out, I’ve noticed this problem since late 2024 has started to affect online communities that I frequent, such as martial arts discussion boards on the internet.

  • Narrative: 2. the part of a novel that tells the story, rather than the dialogue

The thing is, just like with fake bug bounties trying to get money for nothing, a lot of people (people who should know better) are using AI to talk about martial arts in order to gain social standing by appearing more knowledgeable than they really are. They are trying to tell a story but the dialogue is strangely wrong.

The reason I am able to tell is because I have what is called authenticity. The reason I have authenticity is because I have been actually involved in Tai Chi and Chinese martial arts for a very long time. So it strikes me as very odd when someone suddenly starts speaking in a different “voice” online, or when they suddenly start using terms that have recently entered the popular language (for example, a topic flares up and specialized terms come up, then a few days or weeks later someone starts a thread explaining one of those terms, but the explanations are strange or wrong).

  • Narrative: 3. a way of explaining events to illustrate a set of aims or values

What really bothers me is that this is a kind of propaganda or lie. And people, most people, do not have the information or experience to recognize the lie. In some cases the people who are spreading this kind of misinformation are well-known within some parts of the community to have specific stances or experiences. When these people come out later on and things are different, or just a little too self-serving, and their platform is supported by logical and concise writing, my ears perk up. Inevitably, somewhere in what they are saying, are one or more severe flaws. Things that only someone with real, authentic training would notice. The confidence with which these people present false ideas and false narratives is astounding. Often when confronted, they will simply disappear, only to reappear in a week or two on another thread, with another strange comment.

I have realized there is only one way to deal with these people.

  • Authenticity: the quality of being true or what somebody claims it is

Well, now, therein lies the problem.

How do YOU know whether or not what I am saying is true versus what anyone else out there says is true? If you are new to the world of martial arts (or whatever subject is under discussion) you could easily be fooled by a liar trying to misrepresent himself using ChatGPT.

After quite some thought on this matter and a great deal of meditation I realized that the only way to fight this problem is to not fight it at all. Two things must be done.

One, the stage has to be changed. The idea that I am going to be able to “fix” or “correct” misinformation online isn’t going to happen, because the people doing this have a vested interest in spamming the internet with as many self-serving lies as possible. Even with a team of people this cannot be combated. No, what must exist is a trivial way that these people can be instantly dismissed. The answer is to have a well-established way of showing or checking someone’s credibility. Then, all someone would need to do is point out that someone has or does not have the credibility necessary to make whatever statements they’re making in the name of some long-dead master.

There are a few ways to do this but they all revolve around a form of certification and/or community response. I have a few ideas on how to accomplish this, but I think the best one is going to be something like increasing community participation in tournaments.

Tournament Promotion

The question then is how to get people to participate. Why don’t people participate in tournaments today? Well first, a lot of people, especially Tai Chi people, simply don’t consider themelves martial artists and the thought of competition never crosses their mind. That is okay. This is just drawing a demarcation line, and people can choose to stand on whichever side of it that they want. Critical mass will be the moment when that choice matters in terms of narrative and authenticity. When selling a book on Tai Chi depends less on production value and narrative and more on authenticity — that is the moment when this idea will be a success.

However, among those who do care about Tai Chi as a martial art, why don’t they compete?

A) No real incentive in terms of credibility, except maybe a “medal”. I.E. “who is credible to judge me?”

B) Time issues of some kind. Onerous procedures. Out-of-the way of daily life.

C) Money issues of some kind (travel expenses, time off work, etc.)

A for example. How many Gold Medal Tai Chi champions do you think there are in China? The IWUF reported that in 2023, in the Zhejiang (provincial) International TCMA competition, the Beilun Martial Arts Association (one association, alone) won 48 gold medals. It also reports that at the 4th world taijiquan championships in 2024, eight gold medals were awarded. It is easy to see how hundreds if not thousands of gold medals are awarded in China every year. How many moreso in America? And even if less, the assumption is if you win a Chinese tournament it’s better, since Kungfu comes from China and the standards are higher (that’s not an assumption, it’s a justification for the initial assumption). Point being, a gold medal is worthless for establishing credibility.

To solve time issues and issues of onerosity, make comparison (tournamenting) as easy as possible. Barebones, at least at the first level, allow consensus reporting between two people. This is how the Igo insei system works in Japan, and essentially how online chess ratings work (essentially, since there is a report system, so consensus is the default). Nothing wrong with adopting it here.

Finally, keeping things online when possible will remove some money issues such as needing to take time off work or to travel. Also, incentive can be created by paying people to participate (at least at the upper levels). My experience with tournaments in martial arts, chess and Go across Asia and America is that this is really the only way to establish credibility for a sports body unless you are representing a long-established regional club or sports organization.

Where is the money going to come from? Well this is the thing. Back to the beginning. Narrative and Authenticity.

The Golden Rule

He who has the gold makes the rules.

This is not a bad thing. It means that the people who make the rules are the people with skin in the game. That’s why paying people works so well to establish credibility; because on the flipside people assume that the money will be used to attract the most credible people possible. It wouldn’t make sense to hire people who don’t know Chess to participate in a Chess tournament. The money, at least to a degree, kicks-off the attraction of skilled people. Otherwise? “Oh! It’s so nice of online persona x or poster y to make a confident statement that is actually bullshit. Or for people to post fake videos on the internet. Or to use AI to lie about what they know.” Because doing so is cheap, and confidence does not equal credibility. Playing a game of chicken being as confident as possible about your bullshit and doubling down on it at every possible opportunity just makes the eventual collapse even more spectacular.

Put a cost on it, or demonstrate you have paid a cost, and it is already on it’s own a mark of credibility. Establish such a thing on an ongoing basis and suddenly you become the authenticity. Suddenly you control the narrative. This is how you chop off someone’s head in zen, ask them how much they would pay to get enlightened. The moment you have to put a cost on it, the fakers all start complaining. Those who are real rush at the opportunity to give you everything they have for the real gold. The real success.

The inside joke is that none of this is forced behavior. This is just the picture of a properly run and healthy community. The problem is our community today is not like this, it is run by people who have not suffered to achieve what they have, but have abused social media to gain followers, often for the purposes of making money, not to promote the art.

Confucius writes,「富與貴,是人之所欲也;不以其道得之,不處也。貧與賤,是人之所惡也;不以其道得之,不去也。」

“Wealth and honor are what people desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, do not dwell in them. Poverty and low status are what people dislike. If they cannot be avoided by proper means, do not escape them.”

Mencius comments, “The great man is he who does not lose his childlike heart and puts righteousness above material gain” (Mencius 6A:10)

Confucius also writes,「志士仁人,無求生以害仁,有殺身以成仁。」“The determined person and the man of virtue do not seek to live at the expense of ren (benevolence). They may even sacrifice their lives to preserve ren;” and 「賢哉,回也!一簞食,一瓢飲,在陋巷,人不堪其憂,回也不改其樂。」“How admirable was Yan Hui! Living on a basket of rice and a gourd of water in a shabby alley — others could not endure such hardship, but Hui never let go of his joy.”

Mencius comments,「富貴不能淫,貧賤不能移,威武不能屈,此之謂大丈夫。」“Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and lowliness cannot make him waver, power and force cannot bend him — this is what it means to be a great man.”

What is the meaning here?

Emperor Wen wore simple clothing, reduced palace expenses, and refused the construction of an expensive tomb. He dealt with matters of state in person and was deeply involved in governing using the principles of Ren and Li. Regarding Ren and Yi (Kindness and Justice), he reduced taxes, lightened punishments, and released prisoners. He also avoided un-necessary wars, choosing instead diplomacy and restraint. He expanded Han control through trade and business. This was a time known as the Rule of Wen and Jing (Jing was his son), a golden age of peace and prosperity in the early Western Han, directly attributed to his moral leadership.

Zhu Xi writes in commentary,

“To use the art of war properly, one must first have virtuous leadership, for the soldiers will follow the general’s character.”
Zhu Xi, Commentary on the “Art of War”

“To be a leader, one must first cultivate one’s virtue. If one does not cultivate one’s virtue, how can one lead others? A leader who has virtue will guide others with ease, for virtue leads to harmony.”
Zhu Xi, Commentary on The Doctrine of the Mean

The Next Generation

TO create a new society, to teach the next generation, one must be of the previous generation. Outsiders cannot come in and make changes. How could they? They are from a different system, a different style. If you are not a part of the lineage, how can you continue the lineage?

Even those with the best of intentions must first accept the truth. Only by accepting the truth can one understand what must be done next. Or else it is like swimming in the dark.

I leave you with a parable.

Lord Ye and the Dragon

葉公好龍,為之雕牆,畫龍、繪龍於屋;堂前柱上,刻龍也。真龍知而下之,葉公見之,棄而走。

“Lord Ye loved dragons. He had dragons carved on his walls, painted on his screens, and embroidered in his curtains. When the real dragon in Heaven heard of this, it was moved and came down to visit. But when Lord Ye saw the real dragon, he panicked and ran away.” (From: New Anecdotes of the Talk of the World by Liu Xiang (劉向) during the Han dynasty.)

Taiji Ten Ten

Taiji Ten Ten

  1. The energy at the top of the head should be light and sensitive
  2. Sink the chest and raise the back
  3. Remains relax with no tensions
  4. Distinguish full from empty
  5. Sink the shoulders and drop the elbows
  6. Use the mind and not strength
  7. Unite the upper and lower body
  8. Unite internal and external
  9. Continuity without interruption
  10. Seek Stillness in movement

1. The head should be upright so the shen (spirit) can reach the headtop.
This is informed by the 8 channel exercise, esp. fire channel and water channel.

2. Sink the chest and pluck up the back.
This is informed by the 8 channel exercize, esp. lung channel.

3. Sung (relax) the waist.
This is informed by the 8 channel exercise, esp. dai channel.

4. Differentiate insubstantial and substantial.
This is informed by the 8 channel exercise, esp, small channel exercise — but also by many others such as taming the tiger.

5. Sink the shoulders and elbows.
This is informed by the 8 channel exercise, but also by many others such as 9 movements of chen style foundation.

6. Use mind and not force.
This is informed by the 8 channel exercise, but also by standing or in brush knee fa li exercise.

7. Upper and lower mutually follow.
This is informed by many but press elbow exercise and single whip/an are good canidates.

8. Inside and outside coordinate.
This is informed by many but especially combined whirl arms exercise.

9. It is mutually joined and unbroken.
This is especially informed by silk reeling jibengong.

10. Seek stillness in movement.
This is informed by many exercises; it has multiple meanings. it could be informed by combined whirl arms, or standing. One aspect is sinking in transition.

Is Self-Defense Spiritual?

In Chinese culture and religion, self-defense can be seen both as a low-tech endeavor (such as farming, fieldwork or bodyguard work) and also, especially in terms of cultivation culture and religion, as a means to bettering one’s self and even to achieve enlightenment. Across Taoism and Buddism we find references to a culture of self-development based around a sort of fusion between yoga, qigong, philosophy, and martial arts.

I think the point should be made that as a sovereign spiritual entity (someone with a soul) it is important to be able to defend your self in the physical plane while still understanding that the other person is a sovereign spiritual entity in the same sense you are. Then, the removal of ego can be accomplished via the drive towards non-violent martial arts and the seeds of enlightenment will have been planted, leading towards the practitioner’s karma being changed by a lifetime of practice.

Another aspect to the removal of violence from defense is the foundation of a society; a society aims to keep it’s population safe. So when engaging in self-defense it is important to avoid cruelty and “excessive violence” whenever possible. The very definition of excessive becomes whatever society allows to seep through the cracks. If someone comes to attack you, this is already a violation of society. You are only allowed to defend yourself because you are able to point to society and say “You failed me;” in any other case your actions, in that they overstep society’s right to protect you for you, are to be seen as excessive.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36 seems to discuss a type of restraint from violence as in fact the pinnacle of kung fu; “It is better to maim than kill, it is better to break than to maim, it is better to strike than to break, it is better to push than to strike, it is better to throw out (push) than to strike, and the highest level is when the opponent does not feel the action of the push against him.” Heavily paraphrased, of course.

So considering we get a free pass from the ancients and society allows it, does that mean it is truly acceptable for one on the spiritual path to learn self-defense? Is it possible to respond to true violence in a non-violent way?

Diary of a Failure (Part 4)

So I had this friend, and he worked hard. No, I mean, he really worked hard. He trained 4 hours a day, then after that he taught classes at his teacher’s kung fu school. In fact for a while I think he had his own school. This guy was in the zone. He started early, maybe around 9 or 10. He was basically a “master”, or in-the-running to become one. He should have easily baishi’d and gone on to carry the linage.

Then when he was 25 he just stopped.

I mean boom, ok, it’s over. No more kung fu.

Ya wanna know what happened?

Really? You want to know what was the big deal?

He realized he would never make any money doing kung fu so he quit and got a normal job somewhere doing something like a chef or bus driver or accountant. You know, adult continuing education. It worked out for him. he has money now. I think, for a while, he tried (like so many others) to cross-over into some kind of functional training/fitness instruction. But in the end he became something like an accountant or a bus driver.

So yeah that’s it. Another life destroyed. Dreams crushed. A lifetime wasted.

There’s no money in this game. There’s no hope.

Fixing your Life (Diary of a Failure, Part 3)

I had a dream. I wanted to be just like my teacher. He was amazing. No, you don’t understand — there was a confidence about him — a strength, a power. When he moved the mountains moved. When he flowed it was the river flowing. I knew, I could see it. It was not like normal people.

One day I had to go away because I was young and I didn’t have any money. It was sudden. I wasn’t in control of my life. But I vowed to honor him, to never forget his teaching, and to remember him and one day to return and show that I was a good student. That I was worthy of being his student.

Decades passed and although I occasionally tried to look him up I was never able to find him again. From what I had heard he went to China to continue his training — not that I felt he needed to, but surely because out of everyone I have ever seen he was ready for it, he was capable of scraping together what little there was left for him to learn and reaching a new level. But over those decades the fact is I was never able to find him again, anywhere. There were whispers, here and there, but he was gone.

I tried to understand. This guy was good. He was better than most head instructors I’d met. But he had either failed, quit, given up or been forced into different waters. I couldn’t help but eventually make the connection between him and I, not in that I have any kind of skill, but that in the end life did damage to our dreams. It didn’t make sense that he wasn’t in the spotlight these days. That is who he was. If he wasn’t out there, it couldn’t have been his choice.

About midpoint, 15 years after I had met him (and a good 15 years ago) I ran into the former president of the New York Go Club. He and I became fast friends and he was a very wise man so he told me the real history of the club and he told me about the dreams, and the reality, of professional weiqi play in America. What he said struck a bell — it was all so similar to martial arts, to my experience and to the sad fate of so many others.

The old man teaching in the school gym. Clearly a master. So old, so unknown. When I looked twice, he was gone. Forced out financially, maybe, too old, maybe dead.

The school on augusta. So well known, so respected. But they’re just not there anymore. Finances. Maybe they are somewhere else, I don’t know.

You know what Mr. Go Club told me? He told me that it was dangerous to get stronger. Many people try and they end up destroying their life.

So I figured, what I had to do was fix my life first. First I needed money. A lot of money. I figured that out early on. What business do the poor have to learn martial arts? This is a truth not for us, but for them. Because you are not in control of your life.

This is the most important lesson I’ve learned. If you are serious about martial arts, stop training and go fix your life first. Otherwise it will only ever be a hobby for you. Then again, maybe that’s all you want. But if you want more, now you need to fix it as fast as possible. It takes a long time to align yourself to this. Personally I feel it was worth it. If I knew this lesson earlier I would have been able to start much younger. But I was always so poor and under-educated about money. I will make sure to teach these lessons to my students in the future, it is so important, not just how to throw punches and kicks!

Homesick

I’ve been living in Taiwan for 10 years and I’ve been back only briefly to visit relatives.

Recently I’ve planned a trip to Toronto solely to train in martial arts. Why? Because I haven’t found a better teacher anywhere in Asia. That might sound like hubris or blindness but it isn’t. I’m older now, and the fact is that the relationships I have formed in the past have a certain weight which lends them a trust and reliance which is not easily formed elsewhere. If it helps, consider the limitation mine and not that of those who live here.

As the day approaches when I spend my time in Toronto I have taken up photography as a hobby. As a result I have been looking at other people’s photos online, and as a result have joined some photo groups on Flickr related to Toronto. As I look at these images, memories stir. Biting cold waiting for a streetcar — but not too unmanageable. How life was like back then. Trying to find good work. Training in the park. University life, college life, and life outside of it. It is impossible to say how things would have turned out if I hadn’t gone to Taiwan. I am not sorry I left. It was for the best. Perhaps now that I have finally made my way in life I am allowed to feel homesick. Perhaps that is a benefit. I’m sure it is.

So here I sit, it’s 2 am in Asia right now, and all I can think of is what happens one hundred days from now.

I wish I could tell my teachers how much this trip means to me. It is the cumulation of my whole life. I’m not being melodramatic. It’s not hyperbole. It really is. The emotions behind it run deep, perhaps deeper than even I am aware. But in the end there is no point in talking about it too much. The best and in fact only way to deal with it is to channel it into physical exercise and photography. A while ago, I would have said wei-qi as well. But there are many sacrifices I have had to acknowledge, even though some of them have not yet been made.

If you want something badly enough in life you can have it. The question is what you are willing to give up to get it. Sometimes it is not as bad as you think and you can have your cake and eat it too. But the journey can be painful and tiresome. The way I got to where I am is a lot like that. In the process I had to disregard everything I held dear. And now, here I am, right now, here today, and I have the power to say that it is a new day, a new beginning. This is my secret power which makes me more than any superhero. I have the power to change, not just myself, but all of the people I used to know, and all the places I used to visit. In fact the whole world. So, tomorrow is another day.

Garmin Group “Canada Top Runners” Changes Leaderboard Metrics

This week for the first time, I will fail to win, place or show in the Garmin Groups “Canada Top Runners” and “Downtown Toronto Running”. I have previously reached first place since joining those groups. They have both spontaneously changed to “distance run” which disqualifies me as I have a Vivofit 2 and not a Forerunner or Fenix or whatever their running watch is.

Interestingly enough, prior to my arrival both groups were step tracking groups dominated by the same person (no need to name names). This person was consistently second by a margin of 10% to 20% while I was a member. In any case, the person is now first again and I am at the bottom of their group, so I quit their groups. I can no longer participate on a fair and even playing field, my (entry level) watch only reports step tracking.

I continue to dominate the “Let’s Move Canada”, “Garmin UX Taiwan”, “Vivosmart China” and other groups I am a member of. I am currently first in the 150k Step Challenge this week as well.

Soon I will back down from step diary challenges and devote more time to the splits diary and wuji diary. After I accomplish those goals my long term plans are to ease into a more traditional routine, keeping the same hours but replacing walking and so forth with mainly jibengong, forms and single posture repetitions should come very naturally. I will touch more on this process in a future post on the topic of cross training different systems.

I’m a little disappointed in the way Canada Top Runners and DTR groups have handled my presence, but in the end I was not planning on being long term competitive. Just establishing a baseline amount of training time.