PACQUIAO VS. THE INVISIBLE MANA while back, we talked about artist Paul Pfeiffer and his project
Caryatid, where he digitally removed one of the boxers from the fight. Now, we have a video of Pacquiao where his opponent has completely vanished, creating the same eerie effect.
The technique behind this type of editing is complex and meticulous. It relies on three key processes: the use of previous and subsequent frames, analyzing footage before and after the key moment to reconstruct the background that the boxer was blocking; interpolation and digital cloning, filling the empty areas with fragments of the original image while adjusting light and shadows to make the manipulation seamless; and frame-by-frame digital painting, where, in more complex cases, each frame is manually retouched to ensure a perfect match.
The result is a surreal scene where Pacquiao throws punches at an opponent who no longer exists, while the audience continues reacting as if the fight were still happening.
# Watch video
It’s never too late to take an interest in fashion.
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS WITH SMARTPHONESImagine for a moment that ancient civilizations had smartphones. Instead of artistic carvings on stone or dusty manuscripts, the Mayans, pharaohs, and Roman emperors would have documented their daily lives with video selfies. What would their social media have looked like? What would Leonardo da Vinci have posted on his profile? And what if we had footage of the Titanic sinking, recorded by the passengers themselves?
Well, AI has done exactly that—recreating historical moments with mind-blowing realism, as if smartphones had always existed. From the Mayan civilization to the Victorian era, passing through the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece, these videos bring historical figures to life, capturing key moments through their own "cameras." Thomas Edison filming in his lab, the first woman to fly a plane sharing her achievement, or even the people of Pompeii recording their last day before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Beyond how fascinating and surreal these images are, this opens up a huge opportunity in education. Imagine learning history not through boring books full of dates and names but by seeing the people of the past tell their own stories firsthand. Not just reading about the Library of Alexandria but watching it in its prime. Not memorizing facts about the Persian Empire but listening to its own citizens narrate their history.
With technology like this, social sciences would no longer be that dull subject we used to hate. Instead, they’d become an immersive experience, capable of transporting students directly into the past. History told by the people who lived it, with a level of closeness we could only dream of before.
# Watch video
The slow-motion clip of the day.