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In personal news, we’re moving to Marin this month. I’m bringing /thenextwave up north as well and excited for a change in scenery. Will share more about that soon. For those who have visited the studio in Pacifica, it’ll be available as a commercial lease starting in March. Let me know if you’re interested. :) I’ll miss the wild mood swings of the Pacific Ocean, but looking forward to the peace and space of Mount Tam. Still won’t be too far from the water. The other day in Tomales Bay -

In addition to the striking kintsugi cover, the thank you section of Stewart Brand’s new book caught my eye. Early drafts of the book had previously been shared online, inviting people to comment. The thank yous acknowledge in print the usernames of those commenters. A reminder we are in a new era of publishing.

The immaculate opening night of @nodefoundation’s 10,000 exhibition in Palo Alto. Even after following along the hard work and half murphs @phil shared behind the scenes, I was still blown away by it. A new bar has been set for art in the Bay Area.

IRL life has been unexpectedly eventful over the holidays and beyond. I’ve just realized how long it’s been since I’ve logged into social media! I really miss all the characters and projects on Farcaster. Starting to see the light after these weeks and will be scrolling/sharing more soon. PS My Uber ride is done.

I'm still in this Uber.

If you don’t want to listen to something, put on your headphones. If you don’t want to see something, close your eyes. If you don’t want to smell something, well too bad! - a poem written live from my Uber

“Mother’s maiden name” is never a security question in South Korea.

The current SF discourse has me convinced I am the only woman here who is not injecting myself with Chinese peptides. From my Asian upbringing, I have high openness to alternative treatments. From my 90’s D.A.R.E. upbringing, I have high aversion to injecting myself with substances from dealers. What’s a girl to do?

The random lore people drop under replies is why I cannot leave Farcaster.

Our family dog for a while was a Sony Aibo (will save the childhood psycho-analysis on that for another time). I’m trying to give it a new life now. I’ve been reaching out to Aibo repair specialists. A niche field, as you can imagine. But this hasn’t led anywhere. I’m hoping that someone here might know someone who knows someone who is a hardware nerd with an enthusiasm for robo-veterinary projects. Pictured also is the Furby that a winner of the recent IRL Substack debate in San Francisco graciously passed on to me because she didn’t want to take it on her flight home. I think Furby and Aibo could be pals.

On a related note, I’ve accumulated too many of these (bags and bags) and need to do something about it. Donate to local library? Ceremonial bonfire on Baker Beach? Cut out articles and mail them to people with “reminded me of you”? All things I’m considering.

Catching up on the news in a quiet corner of a cafe this evening. A young man approached me and asked what year my newspaper was from. I said it’s from today. He laughed and so I laughed too. Looking confused, he asked me no seriously what year is it from. Looking more confused, I said no seriously it’s from today. I pointed at the corner of the page with the date. He gasped. Then he asked how often it prints. I explained it’s a daily paper that arrives at my house each morning. His eyes widened. “Every day?!” He asked many follow up questions. We had a lovely conversation about the joy of reading in print. I even said, “I predict, in 2026, print’s going to make a comeback.” I’m not sure I actually believe this, but if I recreate this interaction enough times I may have a shot at willing it into existence.

Winter mornings put me in a Wallace & Gromit kind of mood.

I truly believe we will not evolve beyond our current mental ceilings as a species if we all keep on wearing the same "normal" clothes we've worn since the 1960s.

Now we just need little hardware devices so we can Tamagotchi-fy our Warplets and Petlets.

New pokemon unlocked here. I’m told these creatures are exceptionally sweet. They eat ticks, carry their young in pouches like kangaroos, and are rarely aggressive (famous for playing dead when scared). We have a group of large, juvenile raccoons that tend to monopolize the yard at night. Skunks, mice, and owls also hang out here with frequency. First time seeing a possum though. The squirrels are still doing well, though I can tell my favorites are nearing the edge of their lifespans. There’s a younger generation of squirrels that’s pushing them out.

I once had a roommate who felt bad that she was the only one not cooking group meals in the house. So she insisted on trying to make us a meal off of Epicurious, a recipe site. But reading text-based instructions can be confusing if you’ve never actually cooked before. I walked in on her pouring half a gallon of Costco-sized olive oil over some mushrooms. She misinterpreted “cover the mushrooms in oil” and really went for it. We salvaged the oil before she heated it. She was so stressed. I told her it’s great we had mushroom-infused olive oil. Fun fact: I’m in the thank you notes of a best-selling cookbook as one of its recipe testers. Cookbooks usually have multiple recipe testers before publishing to ensure directions are written in a way people will interpret correctly. Video’s a perfect medium for cooking and has enabled many more home chefs to develop their skills, like television once did.

Yesterday reminded me of meeting Sophia a while back. Sophia is one of the more social media savvy robots out there. She’s gone viral for saying “okay I will destroy humans” and for being granted Saudi citizenship. Seeing humanoid robots again yesterday reminded me how quickly novelty decays. Interacting with Sophia once felt uncanny and marvelous to the public. Now with everyone accustomed to ChatGPT, she comes across as what she is - a LLM with camera sensors. We now see LLMs serving as confidants and de facto therapists for many people. Not because they are more accurate readers of humans, but because machines offer something other humans cannot. Infinite patience to listen without social consequence. Outside of manufacturing and military settings, the plan is for humanoid robots to provide labor in clinics and nursing homes and hospice care. It’s possible that if I live long enough, I will be supported into my old age and eventual death by a humanoid robot in my home as unquestioningly as I ride a Waymo to dinner. If that’s the future, I’m interested in how that changes the way we face mortality. I think we will experience dying differently than we do today. Patients won’t be staring up at a hospital ceiling alone for hours on end due to staffing shortages, but have an option for constant conversation. What happens when the humanoid robot administering medication also happens to have infinite patience in listening to your emotional worries too, instead of rushing off to the next patient? Will we feel less lonely and more comforted? Or will the presence of a human at our bedside become even more precious and necessary?