I saw the bowls (clinamen v.11 by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot). A perfect generative piece because you can immediately understand how it operates but the results are no less magical. It feels very like something from nature in that way.
It was nice to be around a bunch of other people who decided it was something worth making the effort to see.
by N.K. Jemisin
The first time I read this I hadn't read much fantasy. Having read and enjoyed a bunch now this still stands out. I also hadn't read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Having that context - that the conversation about "who are you willing to sacrifice" has this history of being explored through sci-fi - added another layer.
The standout things for me are the world-building and the main character.
Experimenting more with tiling at different levels-of-detail on a sphere. Trying to make a little world.
Trying out the small Modos Paper Monitor dev kit on an overcast day at the park. The high refresh rate is impressive and seems great for writing and coding. Screen is glossy though.
I've held off on writerdeck builds for a while but it's really tempting to try and put something together with this.
by Jordan Ellenberg
I always feel mixed about reading popular surveys of a topic. They're never as exciting as reading something more targeted and idiosyncratic. It's a lot like listening to a greatest hits album - you sort of miss the rhythm and groundedness of living with an album or targeted investigation.
But it does give you a big picture that can help orient and bridge future reading. This book helped me connect graphs (of topics, of ideas) to the origins of geometry - and to think about how it's built on spatial intuition that we abstract out of the physical world. That is fun to think about in terms of how to represent knowledge in a spatial interface.
Slanted Magazine put together a great collection of digital tools including several of my Constraint Systems projects. It's really fun to see these in print!
Collapse, Push, Stamp, and Tri. Stamp remains one of my favorites.
CSS Paint
From https://solander38.com/stories/solander-38
I thought this, on why they didn't retrofit their old boat, was an interesting point about design:
by becky chambers
After feeling like Light was too mean I went back to the second book in this series which gets called (and is) cozy sci-fi. For most of the book, I thought it was pleasant if not gripping, then I got pretty drawn in and emotional toward the end. I still like chambers' Monk and Robot series better, but I'm definitely going to return to the other books in this series.
I liked the treatment of AI in this - though maybe surprisingly I didn't feel like it was too connected to current AI stuff. I think the portrayal of the AI characters was more about examining our own relationship to our bodies, boundaries, and psychology. That's true of the alien portrayals as well. I thought Sidra (the AI) feeling most comfortable high up in the corner of the room (like a security camera) was a nice, funny touch.
The pathology of generative AI is that it too easily allows substantial form without discernible intent. That mistake is harder to make when creating by hand.
Well put by caleb gross, and:
A human can show up to a task with an unclear mental model of what they mean to accomplish, and an AI can generate something anyway. “Write a letter of resignation for me to send to my boss.” “Hmm…I guess that looks good.”
"the lazy brown fox jumps over the quick dog."
glitching the embedding values and recovering
vector mix
by M. John Harrison
I had to push to get through this, mostly because the present-day story felt mean to me without purpose. It opened up towards the end, as I was hoping it would, and maybe it will continue to open up as I sit with it, but I don't think it will ever morph into a favorite.
It touched a bunch of themes I was hoping it would: making decisions through randomness (dice rolls) and how that might match with quantum theory; a multi-threaded narrative that weaves together.
New on Constraint Systems: Sphere Paint. Multi-player painting without edge.
A sphere surface is interesting because all points are continuous on all sides. You can respond, extend, or connect in any direction.
Testing
Working on a branch concept
Thinking about how our computers can support intentional work
My computer - featuring gruvbox light theme - in the rock garden.
Hermit WIP
Another pass
Now with active window