by Peter Watts

This was my second time reading Blindsight, the first was as an audiobook. I'm not sure what drew me back - I think I saw someone mention the vampire-thing online, which I remembered. And I remembered it being somehow about consciousness in general, but I couldn't remember the specifics. I've been enjoying rereading fiction I read a long time ago lately so I picked it up.

I definitely feel some connection with Siri Keaton. I can remember at times trying to decipher middle school social behavior and adjust my own actions to fit. And somewhere in that was the sense that "I'm smart. This is a puzzle I can figure out". But having that layer of analysis running all the time can be a hindrance, and can pull you out of sync with yourself. I had totally forgotten that some of Siri's relation stuff hit emotionally close to home for me. The trap of getting caught up trying to understand and enact the social rules of a situation rather than showing up genuinely definitely resonated.

Early experiments with a couple of prototypes trying to bring agents and space together thoughtfully.

I've got a new small, single-purpose screen section in my office area and wanted to document what's running, practical lessons learned, and some questions still unanswered.

Custom clock (not a screen), time-block visualizer, and camera-linked photo slideshow.

Camera and slideshow

A few months ago I built a large bookcase for the guest room + office. Then I decided that the lower half would be better utilized as a dresser.

The final (for now)

I partially disassembled the dresser and then replaced the front and the knob. This saved me from needing to make and fit drawer boxes. The old sides are still visible (that's how the dimensions happened to work out).

• AI-native research environments with and for scientists. A continuation of a lot of the visualization and system work I've done but with closer collaboration with the people who would use those systems.

• New primitives the foundations of customizable software (and even operating systems). I want to use the flexibility but find ways to provide continuity and stability for the user. Mental models that ground things.

• New hardware that use new AI capabilities to be more humane, calm, tactile and collaborative.

Embedding search now active on this very blog:

• Home woodworking DIY
• Embeddings
• Maps

I wanted my dock laptop to feel more like furniture - maybe nostalgia for the 'family room computer' from when I was a kid.

The box

It did feel different! But not too long after I went a pretty different direction for the room (less screen) and moved it down into the basement.

I wanted to document some of the work I've been doing at our house. I put up a bench seat + shelves + a sort-of sideboard in the living room in December. And I finally got our artwork up in a gallery wall a little after that.

Bench with custom dog cubbies and bookshelves. It's since gotten a cushion

The sideboard somewhat organized.

I was reading about using random selection of proportional tickets to schedule CPU tasks and wanted to try probabilistically selecting pixel colors. This effect was interesting but I think I was hoping for more structure or more of a feel like a physical process. Will keep exploring.

initial conditions read on scrawl

Site-specific - in the later stage of his career Robert Irwin switched to exclusively doing site-specific installations. He would go study a space and come up with an intervention designed to make you feel the space more. To make you aware of it. There was a lot of variety to what he used - sometimes landscape adjustments, sometimes scrim fabric. It focused on material and placement. read on scrawl

WIP booklog

Containers for thought - I've been doing experiments with book logging and album-focused music players. Partly because coding agents make dealing with spotify integration or a book database easier for me. Partly I think because in time where everything is changing it's nice to spend some time engaging with works of art that sustained attention and stay constant. read on scrawl

Making another custom spotify interface - focused on surfacing 6 random albums from a collection I've put together.

Thinking about phenomenology - studying your own subjective experience of the world - and how it might relate to a world of super-capable AI. Meditation can be a way of doing it. read on scrawl

Working on a book log, with multiple short entries per book.

I read "Turning the database inside out" by Martin Kleppman. I've also been thinking about better ways of providing concise context for LLMs. Both have to do with stream processing. Especially struck by the Kleppman description of state made up of derived data from an append-only log of immutable facts. Which I think is also how people are starting to do memory for agents. read on scrawl

Working with embeddings - particularly with the goal of aiding thinking - a lot of the challenge is where do you draw the line for chunks. Paragraph-by-paragraph? Essay-length? Book-length? read on scrawl

I watched the Welch Labs video about the 'bitter lesson' and I think it shifted how I think about LLMs a bit. read on scrawl