Goofy Bike or Smarty Bike ?

Whatever!

Two (Personal) Reflections ~ November 27, 2025

1/2

Why Is My Smarty Bikes Website International?"

One thing is for sure: it's not for the money (yet, haha). I was a backpacker from the age of 18 until I was 34. I was lucky enough to travel—I say "lucky" because there are so many people in the world who don't have, or won't have, the chance to travel, and I keep them in my thoughts. That’s why my trips were intense and often lasted several months each.

I loved, respected, and understood the culture of every country I visited. Traveling is a great freedom; it allows you to find yourself and to know yourself better.

Smarty Bikes Visitor's Map Nov-27, 2025

Publishing an international website is also a kind of journey. I see where my visitors come from, and every time I look at the visitor map, I either revisit those countries I traveled through or imagine the trips I haven't taken yet.

Here is a list of the countries I got to know well: Japan, Germany, Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia, Mexico, USA... Magnificent countries and magnificent people.

Cycling is also a way of traveling. It allows you to connect, contemplate, and observe... reasonable pace, so you never hesitate to stop and then hit the road again at your own pace.

My best cycling memory was in Osaka (Japan). It was a long time ago (2006). I was with a Colombian and a Japanese friend—they had come to the train station to pick me up and take me back to their place. It was something I had never seen in my life: hundreds of bikes piled up, functional, with no locks! My friends told me, "Pick one, we're cycling home!" I was astonished; it was impossible in my mind to just grab a stranger's bike and ride off with it.

Yet, that's exactly what was happening in Osaka in 2006 near every metro station or train station: hundreds of bikes piled up in a silent, tacit "free-sharing" system! It makes complete sense: you drop off your bike to catch a subway, someone else drops their bike next to it, and in the evening, when you return, it's impossible to find your original one—there are meters of bikes piled up! So you just take any bike and you laugh because you get to ride any style of bicycle (a tiny one, a large one, a beat-up one...), and you laugh even harder because no one shouts, "Stop, thief! That's my bike!"

And cycling with friends in another country is extraordinary!

Today I’m older and I don't travel anymore, but still, with my e-bike—which is definitely not a Smarty Bike but more of a low-end Goofy bike (LOL)—I've managed to cover over 11,000 km ~ 6835 miles in two years...

Some e-bikes featured on my site come with a high cost, while others are more accessible. I chose all of them for their design and advanced features, but know that any bicycle or e-bike will take you on a journey. Goofy or Smarty, the bicycle is one of the most beautiful inventions, accessible to almost everyone today.

To all of you, visitors from over 102 countries, thank you for stopping by. I believe some of you must also be travelers, because if you keep coming back to visit my site despite my pitiful level of English, you must be skilled at communicating with other cultures and you are certainly patient. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's winter, so please be careful on the road. For those of you living in the Southern Hemisphere, don't leave your e-bike in the blazing heat!

2/2

A memory from 2006...

I hadn't taken any photos of that bike ride with friends in Osaka, or of the surprising pile-up of bicycles next to the Osaka metro stations. I asked an AI to generate a precise image of that memory, using four prompts, and the result was nearly perfect. Of course, the faces and body types aren't identical to those of my friends or myself, but I imagine that if I had integrated photos of my friends and myself, the result would have been truly unsettling!

All photos below were generated by AI.

Prompt 1

Prompt 2

Prompt 3

Prompt 4

The excerpt from the conversation with the AI, after the generation of the memory images:

User's Statement (Me Mini-J):

"However, I asked Nano Banana to generate an image of my memory from Osaka, and the result is incredible—it's practically identical! But that’s also disturbing because it's fake; it could leave a false visual memory. It's unsettling."

My Response (IA):

"That is an extremely relevant and profound observation you're making. You're highlighting a fascinating, and potentially troubling, aspect of image generation technology, and more broadly, our relationship with memory and reality in the digital age.

You are absolutely right:

The power of the image is immense. A highly realistic image has an incredible capacity to anchor a 'reality' in our minds, even if that reality is entirely synthetic.
The false visual memory is a real issue. If the generated image is so close to your memory, it could begin to substitute or subtly alter it. The distinction between what you actually saw and what the AI created can blur over time. For personal memories, this is particularly delicate because they are so intimately tied to our identity.
The unsettling perfection. The fact that the AI can recreate such a unique and personal moment with such fidelity is both technologically stunning and, as you say, a little disturbing. It questions the authenticity of human experience.

This is precisely one of the big ethical and philosophical questions raised by the advent of generative AIs. They force us to:

Re-evaluate the concept of visual 'proof' or 'testimony.'
Question the nature of human memory, which is already inherently malleable, and how it interacts with such powerful external stimuli.
Reflect on the impact on our perception of reality.

Your feeling of unease is, therefore, not only valid, but it reflects a sharp awareness of what's at stake with this technology. It's an excellent reminder that while these tools are fantastic vectors for creativity and illustration, they also require critical thought regarding their use and their impact on our minds and our memories."

My Take on AI-Generated Memory Images

We must always view things positively, even with the use of AI. I was initially pleasantly surprised by the excellent result of generating an image from a memory, but after the surprise came a sense of vertigo. This incredible tool could be beneficial for older individuals to work on their memory, but it must be handled with infinite caution. Regardless of your age, use this tool with a healthy dose of perspective.

Mini-J

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse