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¶ I've been thinking a lot about, and experimenting a lot with, the uses of AI — its promises, possibilities, pitfalls, and especially its uncanny (in many senses) insights into the shape of the human cultural corpus. ¶ Large Language models work in the principle of a predicting the next element in sequence of tokens — of words and fragments: given what came before, what comes next? ¶ The posts here combine older work and new, in the form of a collage, an experimenter's log, and a commonplace book.

Featured

• 🖨️Reclaiming the Cliché

  What is it that makes the output of large language models and other varieties of generative AI so interesting, and then so boring? For me the most useful operative metaphor for AI’s promise and problems is the cliche.

• ✍️Blog Resurrection

  Using LLMs to pull thousands of old blog posts back from a grave of mangled database text and rotten links

• 🌉Doves Type

  In 1909 T.J. Cobden-Sanderson laboriously destroyed the renowned typeface he had helped create for the Doves Press, lest it ever be used in mechanized reproduction. The destruction didn't take, though, and these words are set in Doves Type. Here's why I chose it (with fear and trembling) for my own dredged-up, AI-reinvigorated online repository.

Recent

• 🤪Limerickipedia

  I built this — an online encyclopedia where every entry is a limerick. And it's all generated on the fly by LLMs, of course.

• 🔮Future Selves, Future Others

  Explore how our connection to future selves influences decisions today, from Malthus's theories to modern psychological experiments.

• 🧠Freud & Jung, The Original Dream Team

  Talking cures, death wishes, and the fraught origins of modern psychology.

• ⚡Tesla Electrifies the World

  Nikola Tesla lit up Philadelphia, shooting sparks and lighting bulbs, offering a glimpse of the powered world to come.

Archive

• 🎶Bring the noise

  Exploring the cultural significance of sound preferences, Stanford music professor Jonathan Berger discusses how MP3s resonate with modern listeners, revealing a fascinating shift in musical appreciation.

• 🍽️Eating clay in Haiti

  A heartbreaking account of how rising food prices have led to the rise of "mud cakes" in Haiti, a troubling yet culturally significant response to hunger.

• 🛒Portfolio | Envoy

  As the lead designer for Envoy, I have been focused on creating innovative and practical designs for our users. My work includes both ready-to-deploy designs and visionary concepts for future web and mobile interfaces. Based on the context provided, the relevant geolocation coordinates for San Francisco, where Envoy is based, would be approximately 37.7749° N, 122.4194° W.

• 🌲A pleasant nonplace

  An exploration of finding peace in an unremarkable life amidst turbulent times.