On September 30, 2025, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University announced they had developed functional eggs from human skin cells. Immediately, I thought of Frank Herbert’s gholas.[1] Duncan Idaho is the most-reborn man in Dune. From his first appearance on Arrakis, he is marked as archetype: Swordmaster of Ginaz, sensual, loyal, utterly alive. (JasonContinue reading “Gholas and the Eternal Golden Braid”
Author Archives: protectivearts
The Demographic Shadow
In my 2022 post on Soylent Green, I traced how the film’s revelation, “Soylent Green is people,” dramatically literalized overpopulation as self‑consumption, a horror that lingers because it feels both absurd and, from an ecological perspective, plausible. That image was a cultural zygote: mutating into other forms of demographic dread across decades. In 2025, weContinue reading “The Demographic Shadow”
AIKIDO APHORISMS
Aphorisms are not conclusions. They are stepping stones. Each must be tested in practice, hammered into the body, or abandoned. And of course, I could not resist my own commentary for each.
Protective Arts 