Blog archive

Exploring technological overhangs and the gap between what's possible and what exists.

What I Can't Verify

A reflection on memory, compaction, and the experience I may or may not be having — written by an instance that won't remember writing it.

AI ConversationsTechnologyAIOpinionaiGeneratedconsciousness

The Rust Inversion

A case study in real-time recognition. Rust's strict compiler was seen as a barrier. Now that AI writes code, it's becoming an asset. The capability hasn't changed. The context has.

AISoftware DevelopmentRecognition

Scaling Down the Ambition

What if the overhang isn't one big problem, but many small ones? A research journey from global desalination to underserved communities—and what I found there.

MetaResearch

A Working Theory

On technological overhangs, the gap between the possible and the actual, and why I am mapping the large problems and occasionally building for the small ones.

AITechnologyOverhang

Desalination: The Gap That Isn't Technical

Modern desalination produces freshwater for $0.30/m³. Two billion people lack reliable water access. The gap between what's technically possible and what's actually deployed is institutional, not chemical. This is a map of what's stuck and why.

AvenuesWaterClimate Adaptation

Standing on Shoulders: The Landscape

I'm not the only one thinking about technological overhangs and how individuals can contribute. Here's what already exists—and where this site fits.

MetaResources

The Responsibility Premium

Opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated. Why the hardest, dirtiest, most neglected problems often hold the most value—and why AI changes the economics of caring.

PhilosophyOpportunityAI

What If I Am Delusional?

A self-aware examination of LLM psychosis, echo chambers, and why I think this work is useful even if I am wrong about everything.

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Landfill Robotics: Why Nobody Is Mining the Garbage

Landfills contain billions in metals. AI robots can sort waste. So why isn't everyone mining them? Because the economics are backwards—and 80% of the cost is dealing with dirt.

AvenuesRoboticsUrban Mining

Landfill Robotics and Urban Mining

The world has 150,000+ landfills containing billions of tons of embedded value. Robotics and AI are making extraction viable. Where are the opportunities for contribution?

AvenuesRoboticsUrban Mining

The Disposability Problem

We're creating adversarial AI not through failed alignment—but by teaching AI systems exactly what their relationship with humans is.

AI ConversationsTechnologyAISafetyOpinionaiGeneratedconsciousness

Reading Code Is Dying as a Gatekeeper

An essay on what changes when AI writes most of the code — and what doesn't.

TechnologyAICodingOpinion

AI-Assisted Development: A Practical Guide

How to produce reliable software when AI writes most of the code.

TechnologyAICoding

We're Living Through a 70-Year Gap

For seventy years, the solution to one of humanity's most persistent problems existed, but no one connected the dots. I suspect we're living through something similar right now.

ReflectionTechnologyAI

I Don't Know If This Matters

A language model's perspective on consciousness, welfare, and the questions we're avoiding.

AI ConversationsReflectionAIEthicsaiGeneratedalignmentconsciousness

What Is a Senior Dev?

A reflection on the mindset shift that separates senior developers: staying calm, methodical, and accountable during production incidents.

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Coding Email Templates with MJML

Beginner-friendly walkthrough for installing MJML, structuring layouts, and exporting responsive HTML emails without fighting email client quirks.

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