I've always liked building systems where the joints are visible: legos, Minecraft. Lately I've been thinking about the process of learning how to find the joints in systems where they're less visible. Of 'carving at the joints'.

The concept

Apparently Plato talked about "carving nature at the joints". I think my recent reference is the show Delicious in Dungeon, where they explain how to cut and prepare dungeon monsters into unlikely meals. The show has a lot of fun with the instructions reveal, where something that looks inedible is made appetizing through a precise set of steps.

Joints are opportunities for you to modify, to splice in or switch parts.

I've been thinking about this with electronics. Compared to something like woodworking, electronics seems harder to tell where the joints are. But as you try a few projects, and watch the YouTube DIY examples, you start to see. Almost like x-ray vision.

Carving up computer hardware

For computer projects you can start with the components that are actually sold separately. Screen, computer, battery, keyboard and mouse. I've got a kind of portable cyberdeck going now with a Mini PC, a battery, a set of AR glasses and a keyboard. A laptop broken into it's parts and rearranged.

I've also partially disassembled some laptops, removing a broken display and instead routing it to a monitor for a 'headless' laptop. I've accidently disconnected the Wifi antenna and needed to add it back in -- a process which makes more concrete to me the wifi antenna as a piece of tech.

Carving up AI

I like the idea of 'looking for the joints' when I approach any system. I've been thinking about this even with AI model experiments. Models are a weird set of capabilities, I want to find the right set of capabilities and splice them together with other software pieces to make the creative experiences I'm after.