Brother Ying in Santa Cruz

Last Monday, Brother Ying paid us a surprise visit in Santa Cruz, while I thought he had left New York for Beijing the previous Sunday. When the phone screen flashed his name and number around 3:00 pm, I could not figure out where he was. “I am in Santa Clara,” he said, “I will treat you and Paul to a dinner,” he told me.

At 6:30 pm, I got home and saw a shining black Mercedes Benz sports car parked before our RAV-4. “Ying is here already,” I mumbled to myself. It was him. As usual, he got a good bargain for his rental: the rental company let him choose any cars on the lot. Of course, the Benz was chosen for a rate of $29 per day. “I remained on the left lane of 17 all the way, effortlessly,” he told us proudly.

We went to Riva Fish House on the Santa Cruz Wharf for our dinner. It was a beautiful evening. At the window table we three sat, enjoying the sunset and our generous seafood plates. Ying had the day’s special of snapper and polenta while we picked Mexican prawn and fish. Afterwards, we sauntered and visited sea lions perched on their usual three places at the end of the wharf. To our delight, we also saw many sea lion families resting on a wooden landing further away.

Paul drove us home on the scenic route. Sipping our green tea and sampling white peaches, we talked about our kids, their present and future, and new technologies. For the first time, we learned about the difference between the deep leaning and incremental learning robotics, and the possible realization of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the 21^st century. It would be a brave new world, that is for sure.

Around 10:00 pm, Ying bade us farewell to go back to his hotel in Milpitas. Early the next morning, he was due to fly to Beijing. “I will be back September 17,” he told us. His daughter is going to be a new student at Stanford.