Consider this my relaunch on Substack. Many thanks to all of you who have already clicked ‘subscribe’.
If you’re reading because you know me in Real Life … thank you!
If you’re reading because my account “embodies the persona of a thoughtful critic who uses humor and insight to navigate through the complexities of modern societal issues, appealing to those who enjoy a blend of entertainment with educational or thought-provoking content.” [Grok AI summary of my X] – this is not where I’m going.
Don’t worry, I’m still happy to banter on X and through Substack Notes.
But for long-form articles, I’m returning to my original goal of looking at technical issues of interest to me – and hopefully, to you too.
My big-picture view is the same as it was two years ago – there is something interesting that will happen with the interaction of three megatrends: AI, IoT, and Blockchain.
Why Calliope?
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending.
If invoking the Muse is good enough for Homer, it’s good enough for me.
I wasn’t sure which of the nine might be involved with technical essays, as this genre didn’t exist in Classical times.
After some research1, I settled on Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. While I am not going to write in meter, I hope that I can structure these articles in a clear and memorable way.
And so - the Calliope Project begins.
What is Calliope?
Today, Calliope is an empty GitHub project.
Tomorrow?
My vision is of a social media publishing app. Something that helps me write without the distraction of being on the platform, and will also help push content to the places I care about.
The motivation behind the vision is to see how fast I can move with today’s AI tools. I’m focusing for now on the AI part of the triad, and leaving Blockchain and IoT alone.
Project Goals
“Scratch my own itch” regarding a publishing platform that lets me post to social media without distractions. There are existing products in this space, but I’m not worried about that, as I’m doing this as an exercise for myself.
Implement using Qt. Why Qt? Because I want to. I’ve used Qt in the past and want to explore parts of it I haven’t used before.
Test out AI-aided programming. Since this is my project, I don’t have to be paranoid about what the AI engine might sniff out about my super-valuable trade secrets, of which this project will contain zero.
Last but not least, practice building and documenting something in public.
Project Anti-Goals
AI-generated writing!
I assure you, dear reader, that I will remain human behind this keyboard. However, I will use and abuse ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai, etc. as my research assistants and sounding boards when writing.
Production Notes
The goal is to start producing these articles in Calliope itself.
Obviously, that’s not possible yet. This version was done the new old-fashioned way - beginning life as a Google Doc, then polished with the Substack editor before sending your way.
Querying ChatGPT and Perplexity, of course.
This might be hard to explain quickly. I was brainstorming with ChatGPT about what leverage I had in the artworld. It basically said I had none, no matter my stance, art work, or published writings. Several times I stressed the moral and intellectual assets in my favor, and it dismissed them. It was telling me I lived in a postmodern paradox and to lump it. It wasn’t until another chat on a different topic it told me, with historic examples, how effective moral and intellectual leverage can be. But when referring back to the CIA and the postmodern artworld it deflected, trying to disempower me. Which brings up its connection to the state department, which it also tried to deflect. Food for thought. Luckily I’m skeptical about it.