Live long and prosper: welcome to my geek universe

Comics, books, games and shows I love — and how they make me reflect on what it means to be human…

I’m a geek at heart ever since I can remember. Playing and creating video games, reading comics and watching sci-fi shows, and programming are, to this day, my greatest passions. Some might say this is all “nerd stuff”, that only introverts who hardly ever get their noses out of a computer or a book like.

That’s not how I see it. I think these hobbies unleash our imagination and allow us to explore and create new worlds. To be honest, I don’t fit into that “introvert geek” stereotype. On the contrary: these passions connect me even more to other people and help me understand what it means to be human.

Ever since I was a child, I was passionate about computers, as I’m sure you can imagine. I was in the 4th grade when I got my first one, a ZX Spectrum with 48 KB of RAM. I was super excited to play video games, but my older brother taught me how to do something even more interesting: programming. That’s when I started to learn so many different languages, such as Basic, Pascal, C++, to Java, Python, Objective C, and Swift.

While my friends were out playing in the streets, I spent most of my time with my computer, coding. Actually, I was creating video games so that I could invite everyone to play afterwards. My friends at school would nurture their imagination playing in a rock band, painting or singing. I did that while I was programming, and reading sci-fi stories.

I started reading Isaac Asimov and other sci-fi books early on. The Robot and the Foundation series are my favorites. The first one is about robots, humanity, and artificial intelligence. If today we have robots vacuuming the floor or being programmed to drive a car, it’ll be really interesting when they start to look like humans, like in the Asimov books. The Foundation series, on the other hand, follows a 50 thousand year timeline in the future. Imagine how excited I got when I found out that Apple is producing a TV show based on that story. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like. Check out the recently released trailer.

In the future, I believe the robots will be just like us. When the machines get smarter, this makes me think about what will set us apart from them: our conscience, our passions, our personality? Or our search for connection, knowledge and justice? I believe our imagination is what makes us unique as human beings: we are capable of creating something from scratch, like a painting, composing, and writing.

Diving into books also took me to other worlds, such as Sociology and Psychology. Each person is a universe to be explored, and we are so unique and different is so many ways. This made me really curious to find out how we connect and relate to one another. Unlike machines, humans are really unpredictable (and that’s why relationships are so challenging, right?). At the same time, when I go on social networks, it gives me the impression that technology is making people more, and more predictable. Trying to be popular, and fit in, most of us are behaving the exact same way, following the crowd.

Comics are also a part of my daily routine ever since I was a kid. My all-time favorites were “Lucky Luke”, “The Adventures of Asterix” and “The Adventures of Tintin”. Recently, I’ve been reading “Fables”, “Saga” and “X-Men”. “Fables” creates an amazing universe and storyline: what if fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, lived in the real world, right in the middle of New York City? “Saga”, on the other hand, is a classic and has great storytelling, as well as wonderful visuals. It’s an interesting love story between two people from rival planets and that are trying to survive in the middle of that conflict.

I see comic books as one of the most creative expressions that exist, because the authors can illustrate and bring to life a universe that wouldn’t be possible to imagine in a book or in a movie. I often feel hypnotized by that imagination. I think fantasy is really important, because life is tough and, sometimes, we need to escape from what is going on around us. Comic books allow us to escape to another world and experience another reality.

And I still love to play video games. I’m always waiting for a new hero journey, such as a “Half Life” scientist, a war veteran from “Mass Effect”, a treasure hunter from “Uncharted”, a monster hunter from “The Witcher” or a delivery guy from “Death Stranding”.

“Death Stranding”, by the way, is a game that, in my opinion, is one of the most innovative games of the decade, as it reflects themes that affect our society today. The players get a feeling of isolation and try to put a broken society back together by reconnecting broken networks. Today, we are more connected than ever, but it feels like we’ve never felt more divided and lonely. The game touches on that reality, and also allows the player to experience what it feels like to deliver packages all day. I could write a whole article just about that, but, for now, I’m only going to say: “The future is in your hands.” and “I’m Fragile, but not that fragile.”

Now, speaking of TV shows, I’m a Trekkie at heart and I’ve watched each and every movie and episode of the Star Trek franchise. I’m also a big fan of “The X-Files”, “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”, “The Big Bang Theory”, “The Walking Dead”, “Game of Thrones”, “Schitt’s Creek”, “Sense8”, “The Expanse”, “Westworld”, “Stranger Things”, “Money Heist”, “Killing Eve”, “The Mandalorian”, “Sex Education” and “The Witcher”.

Some of them I watch alone or with my friends. But I love having my friends over to watch the most popular ones, like “Game of Thrones” or “Westworld”. On Sundays, I make popcorn, they bring the wine, and we watch the episode and then discuss it. I remember back when “Lost” was on, we had great conversations trying to understand what was happening and talking about all our theories. Watching movies or shows, for me, brings people closer together in a positive way. When we share what we love, we get more intimate with our friends.

Recently I just finished watching “Upload” on Amazon, a futuristic show that is really interesting and funny. When people die, they can upload their conscience to the cloud and have an avatar talk to people who are still alive. It’s super nerd! At the same time, it makes us question what is love, conscience and what is the point of living. It is a show that challenges us, not only intellectually, but also challenges us to become better people.

That’s one of the reasons I think it’s super sexy when someone says they love “Game of Thrones” or “X-Men”. By the way, did I tell you why geeks make amazing boyfriends and lovers? I will leave that to another article. Until then, live long and prosper — and stay beautiful.