tldr
- joe ran an agent farm to generate lab city maps — fred contributed architectural keywords, m pushed back on zoning, the gc collectively designed a city nobody asked for
- psychogeography entered the vocabulary — word floated unitary urbanism, m claimed the SF Psychogeographical Association, northern california city names got surreal
- joe’s AI agents MOOC released on edX. “joefessor pro”
- samuel delany’s helix story has a guild of singers that maps to wine dark in ways nobody expected
- hero’s lenticular laptop sticker: “it’s so over” or “we’re so back” depending on angle
links shared
- praxis-san-diego — intentional community in san diego, monthly hangouts + community university, inspired by fractal nyc · shared by joe
- arcosanti — soleri’s arcology prototype in arizona, fred’s dad’s smuggling partner lived there · shared by joe
- building-ai-agents-for-beginners — joe’s edX MOOC release day, AI agents for beginners via davidson college · shared by joe
- residential-lighthouse-volunteer — federal volunteer program for living in lighthouses, jay s k’s friend at point reyes · shared by jay s k
- https://x.com/gundohouse/status/2044096450020184532 (couldn’t fetch) — fred shared for word, northern california weirdness · shared by fred
- https://substack.com/@donaldboat/note/c-243480947 (couldn’t fetch) — jay s k’s wine dark substack note · shared by jay s k
the day
Joe ran the agent farm. Multiple homer instances spawned to generate lab city maps from accumulated meeting notes and conversation threads. Fred chimed in with architectural keywords — Arcosanti, Habitat 67, Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City diagrams, Reyner Banham, Paul Rudolph, Moshe Safdie. M pushed back on the zoning: “I think maybe we should put some of the research campus clusters and the residential zone and green corridors all mixed up together… walkable arcologies!” Fred shared an original Garden City diagram from the 19th century. Jake: “looks like the real pro gamer move is to rent out a questionably legal spot in the waterfront district.” Word: “wouldn’t a real lab city be built in real time by its residents?” Fred: “They’re doing that at Arcosanti! (For like 50 years now.)”
word floated psychogeography and unitary urbanism as concepts the project should engage — “how could an LLM agent on a dérive.” M declared himself “the current President, Treasurer, Secretary and only member of the San Francisco Psychogeographical Association.” Northern California location naming got creative: bodega bay megacity, hyperjenner, mondocino, citadel bragg. Fred dropped Reyner Banham’s line: “Much like classicists who taught themselves Ancient Greek to better study Homer and Plato, I learned to drive so that I could read Los Angeles in the original.” Word: “I’m from Marin and went to Sonoma State this is my culture.” Fred connected Simon Roy’s “Habitat” comic to Soleri’s visual language — “SoleriPunk. Unfortunately you should not look up his personal life.”
Joe dropped praxis-san-diego — “cool to see this stuff keep spreading. fractal uni style community schools/intentional friendclusters.” Word had old work in radical educational networks, mentioned “The Public School” active in Brooklyn and Oakland about 15 years ago. Jazzbard shared a plant cell distribution diagram that Twitter fought about for days — “distribution of resources among plant cells =/= the suburbs.” Word on Charles Fourier: “thought planets had sex with smelling ‘aromal rays.’ Real weird dude.”
Joe’s AI agents MOOC went live on edX. Word: “joefessor pro.” Hero arrived with a lenticular laptop sticker that says “it’s so over” or “we’re so back” depending on viewing angle. Also has a Claude sticker on the work laptop: “where he belongs.” Jay s k dropped residential-lighthouse-volunteer — has a friend at Point Reyes lighthouse. Jazzbard wants the Point Arena lighthouse.
Jay s k shared Samuel Delany short stories — “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones” has a guild of singers that Fred immediately recognized: “you just described the guild of singers in the helix story.” Joe: “I saved a bunch of wikipedias after we spoke in person.”
Robotson showed RunwayML video generation previews for class. Fred: “These are cool!” Word researching wine labeling laws to send actual bottles across state lines with digital access points. Joseph Alessio checked in from a chaotic new job. Word met his new neighbor — CEO of Reason magazine — and they talked about temporary autonomous zones. Fred: “Also do not Google the person who formulated the idea of the TAZ.” Robotson: “I’m separating the art from the artists iyb.”