Hello, bLifers around the planet surviving all sorts of COVID variants, inflation, some deadly acts of craziness, and for some, also deadly exposure of being fed pizza with pineapple on it. An Italian from Naples dies every time somebody eats that combo on a pizza #truestory

For who of you has been following along since the very beginning there could be a puzzling question about what the movement is doing nowadays. While for those who recently start following, you might wonder what this robot business is all about and what it has to do with our off-grid life.

Those are all legitimate questions and nowadays unless you are Elon Musk people tend to have distractions on-demand with the same span of attention as when we were still pooping green. Therefore, since we’re not Elon(s) let me…

Let me walk you through

We have already talked about how we plan to make money to sustain our movement in this article and also already explained our thing for robots. However, in this post, I want to share some specifics that will give color to what you will see appearing on our social outlets and other platforms moving forward. Let’s start with some context:

Victoria grew up on the island of Washington, Mario grew up in a village with less than one thousand souls in Italy. After graduating we both moved to large cities and since then we have been surrounded by the comforts, chaos, and speed typical of large cities. Given our DIY mentality and our appreciation for the simple things we clearly were meant to go back to our roots.

With the approaching of a major life milestone, 50s buoy roundabout, we moved to Hawaii in a rural area with the intent of being as self-sustainable as possible, mixing the comfort of modern technologies (Internet) and services (Amazon?) and the pleasure of a slower life to achieve our ultimate bLife nirvana.

Once we got there we realized that in order to sustain ourselves, given the remote location and the whole plethora of obstacles in running a YouTube channel on just the “self-sustainable” topic as most YouTubers in our situation do, we put our two neurons together and come up with something that only Apple would do: Something Different.

The Truman Bot Show

We had been brainstorming for some time on what would have made sense for us that would have generated enough cash flow and could be sustainable for a long period of time. And when the list got super small, we said to one another: fuck it, let’s watch a movie we haven’t seen in a long time.

That movie ends up being The Truman Show with Jim Carrey from the vintage time of 1998.

We loved the movie and unusually chit-chatted about it after the show for 20 minutes. The very next morning for the mysterious reasons of the creative mind, I felt like J. Hill in the Wolf of Wall Street movie, stoned like there’s no tomorrow I start shouting “booooots honey boooootttsss”.

And Victoria felt, as in the same scene of the movie, as Di Caprio, commenting in her head and smiley waiting for my uttering taking shape.

The Grandiose Idea

The idea, in a nutshell, is a TV show streamed in web episodes and live where a family of BOTS is born, they live off-grid, travel, grow, and slowly integrate with a family of humans. A big brother type of show with so many nuts, bolts, and twists that you will follow in love with. At least that’s the plan.

The name of the show is I AM CLOUD.IA

And the Movement?

We have a few thousand followers now. In the past months, we have been drip-drip sharing hits of what is now described in this post and many have reached out asking questions, a few of curiosity, and many of concern. So this post is to set the record and give some clarity.

The bLife Movement™ is a community of people that share the same thirst for life, knowledge, creativity, and an easy-going style. We’re nomads at the heart that find stability in enabling each other’s inner potential. That won’t change, ever.

Instead of generating an income from touching just off-grid subjects, we’re going to invent a new product and service that will allow all members of the movement to generate a sustainable income, no matter where they choose to live. From designers, engineers to astrologists we’re going to reinvent the wheel of content creation and BOTS will be the central core of our business.

The Birth of First Character

The Esposito family wrote the plot of I AM CLOUD.IA, a show made of bots. In old fashion, we mailed to ourselves the plot, like real screenwriters. The first character of this endless series begins with the death of a famous roboticist, Vickie, that just before taking unexpectedly the last breath, gives life to a new kind of AI. Unfortunately, she never got around to give to HER a body. When she is asked the first time to introduce herself, with the tone of who’s still realizing of being capable of emotions and self-awareness, it says “I AM CLOUDIA”

The whole plot has references/innuendos to movies of all kinds, mysteries to be unfolded and it is the first-ever show that is shaped via social networks live by its audience. We will be sharing more details as we start unfolding episodes on our YouTube channel. This is expected to be one of those shows that are supposed to never end. So no rush but stay tuned.

Let us set the stage for what’s coming and as the content starts appearing we will be listening closely to your comments and adjusting as we go. Use the section below the post or all the other forms of contacting us that you can find. Although we’re using an open-source style about the making of this project, much of its execution will likely be a surprise to many and kept close to the creators. Our research shows that we’re the first in doing such a creative type of work and therefore are taking all necessary precautions to make sure that basis is covered.

The Beginnings

Our story begins in a family home in one of the creeks of Washington, nearby SpaceX, Amazon, Facebook, and many other big villain corps have gone Umbrella Corporation on the world.

There’s Something About CLOUD.IA

Vickie is a roboticist with a reclusive personality, an odd sense of humor, a cat lady, with slobbish attention to appearance, and more than anything else brainpower that only Lucy could match her. She’s on a mission to address humanity’s biggest threat.

Empathy and emotional intelligence are on the path to extinction. Robots were once feared because they were just nuts and bolts, the cold machines that had only one specific purpose, manufacture for humans.

In the old days, humans were fearing the cold bots as disruptors of the human world. However, in the meanwhile, most of the planet had become so focused on individuality, selfies, and most advanced personal technologies that they all developed a spirit of self overachievers.

Fixated on finishing a task with the precision of a machine and at the speed of light. They were losing sight of human interactions and the values once at the center of every family.

Chit-chatting, while the elevator was going up, had gone from a routine in the 50s, to heads down in the smartphone screen in the 2000s; and finally being considered outright a misdemeanor to even look at the person next.

Speed to move to what’s next in the list of today’s tasks had become a matter of pride and bragging rights, this over-optimization was resulting in removing as much as possible dependency or interaction with another human. We were afraid of the bots and in the meanwhile, we were living as such.

Vickie, an old fashion scientist, believed that what was now considered old technology could have had a second life and had the chance to fix what humans seemed to be doomed by. She was convinced that a new generation of robots powered with AI human soul-based intelligence would blend with humans and correct the cancer of society. Create a hybrid of family lifestyle that would over time bring back much of what seemed to be lost. Empathy and feelings.

The current AI used in all applications had been modeled to humans thought of the BOTS in the old days. Therefore a new type of AI was needed and on September 9th Vickie conceived the most human featured AI mother ever created. CLOUD.IA. Vickie had drained the family fortune and got deeply in debt in self-financing her mission for humanity restore since no one would consider her project of interest.

The night of her mysterious death she had just turned on for the first time “mother” as she affectionally called it during the development phase. Mother lived in the underground server of her maker’s shed, self-powered and very concealed. Her only physical presence was what looked like a robotic eye Vickie had recovered during one of her robotic surgeries. As the off-beat neighbor would comment when the police showed up.

Vickie had made several silly-looking robots over the years to assist her in the making of her vision. They might have not looked like much at first glance but they all had emotional intelligence and a joyful attitude. Even if they were quite limited when compared to current times.

Lube-e was the robotic arm that was handing her tools and serving as third hand during her nights of soldering. Sometimes he was just holding her whisky of which she was quite fond. Some would refer to her drinking options as “pure gasoline”.

In the most recent times, her loneliness had taken a toll on her mind and Lube-e was also someone she would do crosswords with while sipping her favorite gasoline.

She had made a more sophisticated version of a drinking buddy but Lube-e was a much better listener according to her. Scientists!

The journey

It’s the beginning of a long journey and we hope that this article gives a taste of what we’re embarking on. That it will give some peace of mind to “old” followers, some clarity to who’s now joining our pathway, and ultimately to tease about the future.

As in every startup that is born, there is, according to the math inclined people, a barely 2% chance of succeeding. In a quote by Elon Musk in a recent interview “Quitting isn’t just in my nature.” - So we will keep trying. Whisky might become also our gasoline along the journey.

Follow along, and help us shape the future, together.