The Evolution of Intelligence: From Homo Sapien to Jiu-Jitsu Supercomputer
Nature spent millions of years crafting our most primitive tools: our bodies and brains. Through a brutal process of death, decay, and endless trial and error—where countless failed mutations led to countless extinctions—we eventually gained opposable thumbs, bipedal movement, and most crucially, the neural architecture for complex problem-solving. Evolution is crude and inefficient, relying heavily on time, favoring whatever works for immediate survival over what might be optimal. Yet sometimes, through this harsh process, evolution creates something so necessary for survival it becomes untouchable, like eyes—or the brain, for instance. Once evolution hit upon these elegant solutions capable of perceiving and processing the world around us, it essentially put constraints around them, as if nature said "heeey, we finally got it right, let's not mess with it."
The First Great Leap
Our biological evolution gave us the hardware—a brain capable of abstract thought. With this foundation, we didn't have to wait for random mutations to improve. We did something unprecedented: we created an ecological niche that supported only one species—us. In this unique space, we began to innovate. We created tools, language, and eventually, computers that could improve themselves at a pace that makes biological evolution look glacial in comparison.
The Second Great Leap: Jiu-Jitsu Intelligence
Just last Saturday, I was talking with some of my blue belts about this process. They noticed something fascinating: as white belts, they felt like they were improving rapidly. This makes perfect sense—in the beginning, everything is new information that can be acted upon. Even imperfect solutions are breakthroughs because you're starting from zero.
In evolutionary terms, 'fitness' means how well something solves problems in its environment. Early in your journey, a technique might seem 'fit' because it works against other beginners, but this is a limited environment. That same technique might fail completely in the broader ecosystem of high-level jiu jitsu.
But as they progressed, something counterintuitive happened. The development of habits—both good and bad—created their own kind of noise in the system. These ingrained patterns and responses actually make it harder to recognize and integrate new information when it appears. It's like trying to hear a whisper in a room full of echoes—the echoes being your own accumulated habits and reflexes. This is the law of diminishing returns in action: as we accumulate more patterns and habits, each new improvement becomes harder to achieve, requiring more effort for smaller gains.
This is where the idea of order becomes crucial, but here's the catch: not all order is created equal. When we talk about "order" in jiu-jitsu, we're really talking about information organized for a purpose, technique. That purpose might be pure survival ("just don't get submitted"), ego satisfaction ("win the round at any cost"), confirming our own limitations ("I'm just not good at this"), or true technical development. The evolution process doesn't care which—it will happily give you a complicated, energy-intensive escape that only works against smaller opponents just as readily as it will give you a clean, and efficient sweep. Evolution doesn't even care if you quit (ask the dinosaurs). Order is just order; it doesn't necessarily mean better.
This is where it gets interesting: we're not just evolving physically—we're attempting to integrate a new genetic code. The fundamentals of jiu-jitsu aren't just techniques; they're a programming language for organizing our human components (feet, legs, arms, head, etc). They ensure we're creating the right kind of order of operations—reliable, efficient patterns that can be built upon. When we truly internalize these fundamentals through deep study, something extraordinary happens: our jiu-jitsu begins to evolve itself consciously. This is innovation—the ability to create and retain new skills and knowledge deliberately rather than stumbling upon it through trial and error. Unlike evolution's diminishing returns, innovation follows the law of accelerating returns: each breakthrough builds exponentially on previous ones, creating faster and more significant improvements over time.
Thus, decreasing plateaus and slumps. This ensures we only briefly meet the 'S' in the learning curve.
Making the Leap: From Evolution to Innovation
The key lies in understanding jiu-jitsu as technology. This isn't just a metaphor—the word "technology" comes from the Greek tekhnē (craft/art) and logia (study). At its core, technology is the study of crafting—shaping resources for a practical purpose.
Technology requires two critical elements: intelligence—the ability to use limited resources optimally (our attributes, memory, and time), and the ability to manipulate the environment (in our case, an opponent).
Being able to manipulate an opponent is inherently useful for improvement in jiu jitsu. When you go to a tournament, you want to be able to have faith that what you are about to do will work on an array of unknown opponents. This is precisely why the fundamentals of jiu-jitsu are so crucial: they are proven order, techniques that survived the brutal crucible of evolution. They've demonstrated true fitness—not just working in limited situations, but solving problems effectively across different body types, energy levels, and skill ranges. Like the human eye, they've been tested countless times and refined to near perfection.
They teach us not just what to do, but how to think and learn.
Most practitioners approach jiu-jitsu like they did school exams—cramming techniques into their heads, collecting information without understanding. But simply having more information doesn't necessarily result in higher “fitness” for the problem at hand. A dozen half-understood techniques won't outperform one deeply internalized fundamental.
When we truly assimilate the fundamentals, something more profound happens. We develop multi-dimensional pattern recognition—visual, tactile, and even auditory. Plus, our high-level reasoning improves. We're not just memorizing moves; we're improving our ability to remember, process, and solve problems in real-time, pulling from various aspects of the environment.
This is what makes a technique truly useful: not just its ability to make us feel stronger or heavier, but its ability to maintain internal states (hold up under pressure) and respond differentially to varying conditions. Like a well-designed computer program, good technique performs both logic and reasoning—adapting to changing situations rather than following a rigid script.
Creating Our Self-Improving System: The I-Method
Remember how we said we need to treat our jiu-jitsu like technology? Here's how we actually build that system using the I-Method, a sort of jiu-jitsu life cycle:
Intention: Start with clear purpose. What fundamental are you working on? Why? This isn't about collecting techniques—it's about understanding principles that can be built upon.
Isolation: Remove the noise. Work the fundamental in controlled environments where you can focus purely on understanding its mechanics and principles. This is how we break free from the chaos of pure evolution.
Interruption: Challenge the fundamental. Put it under pressure. Make it fail. This is how we find the edges of our understanding and where improvement is needed. Is it just invention, or is it truly innovation?
Inspiration: Study how others use this fundamental. Not to copy, but to understand the possibilities. This is where we start seeing patterns we couldn't see before.
Illumination: The "aha" moments where connections form. When you suddenly understand why the fundamental works, not just how. This is where innovation begins.
Integration: Bring it all together in live training. Let your improved understanding inform your movements naturally. This is where your jiu-jitsu starts evolving itself.
This method creates a feedback loop that gets stronger over time. Each cycle deepens understanding and creates new possibilities for innovation and ensures your technique does not experience obsolescence.
The Result: Your Jiu-Jitsu Becomes Self-Evolving
Think about how artificial intelligence improves:
It starts with fundamental rules (our proven order)
It processes vast amounts of data (our training sessions)
It identifies patterns (our multi-dimensional recognition)
It generates novel solutions (our innovation)
Most importantly, it learns from each iteration
When you successfully apply the I-Method, something remarkable happens - your jiu-jitsu begins to mirror this process. Like a well-trained AI system, you're no longer just collecting techniques or reacting to situations. Your jiu-jitsu becomes a living, growing system that recognizes problems before they fully develop, creates solutions based on fundamental principles rather than memorized responses, and adapts these solutions across different body types and skill levels.
This is what we mean by self-evolving jiu-jitsu. You're no longer waiting for random breakthroughs or copying others' innovations. Your practice becomes a consciously improving system, each breakthrough building exponentially on previous ones.
The Breakthrough: Conscious Technical Evolution
Just as computers eventually reached a point where they could improve their own code, our jiu-jitsu can reach a state where improvement becomes automatic and exponential. This happens when:
- Fundamentals become so ingrained they're unconscious
- Pattern recognition becomes instantaneous
- Technical innovations emerge naturally from wisdom and understanding
- Each new discovery builds directly on previous knowledge
- The system begins generating its own improvements
Is Self-Evolving Jiu-Jitsu Possible?
Yes, but with a crucial caveat: it requires building the right foundation. Just as AI needs clean data and solid base algorithms, our jiu-jitsu needs proper fundamentals and conscious learning. The key is transitioning from:
- Random discovery → Systematic innovation
- Instinctive reactions → Calculated responses
- Isolated techniques → Integrated systems
- Learning through trial and error → Learning through understanding
The ultimate goal isn't just to get better—it's to create a personal jiu-jitsu system that improves itself through conscious innovation rather than random evolution.
You'll know you've reached this state when you experience one of jiu-jitsu's most exhilarating moments: being completely present as your body creates a solution you've never drilled or even seen before. It's pure innovation emerging from your internalized fundamentals—your system generating its own improvements.
This is how we move from being practitioners to innovators, from students to scientists of the art. Our jiu-jitsu becomes a living, growing system that generates its own solutions and improvements, much like how our technological creations have begun to evolve themselves beyond our direct input and intelligence.
The question isn't whether self-evolving jiu-jitsu is possible—it's whether we're willing to put in the deliberate, conscious work to build the foundation that makes it inevitable.