Portals, Perspectives, and Practical Tasks

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Morning routine. Philosophical conversation with Jim at Coffee Culture about Michael Levin's work, consciousness, and photo portals. Paul stopped by. Dentist appointment. Beer at Suds with Tim. Andromeda Sprint Review with Mark discussing MCPs and Boston Dynamics robots. Exercised.

A day balancing abstract thinking with concrete errands

January 7, 2026

These notes describe the events of Wednesday, 01/07/2026.

I drove to Coffee Culture Annex to meet Jim. We started with a discussion about purpose as it relates to Michael Levin's work and goals, exploring the implications around definitions of consciousness, cognition, and intelligence. The conversation evolved into Jim's photo portals project—still images that link to and act as entry points into spherical images. Jim wants to use this photo portal work to illustrate these subtle and complex topics.

We discussed the relationship between the portal and the sphere, and different layouts for presenting that particular space. The conversation took a tangent about the range of expression available in photo portals, observing that any field-of-view inside a spherical image is essentially a flat image that could itself be a portal into another sphere. We noted that linked spheres already exist in virtual tours used in real estate, though Jim's artistic application pushes beyond mere documentation.

I shared the triptych work from the Joey set to show a different kind of relationship between multiple images. The conversation moved to visiting galleries and puzzling over what makes art, discussing art as a filter—basically identifying the people who appreciate it and the intention of identifying those people. We created an intent to visit an art gallery together sometime.

Back home, I worked on capturing notes from the Jim conversation and ate soup. I'm feeling a cold coming on, so I took some DayQuil. Joey sent a note saying she's available on Thursday. I cleaned up the kitchen, worked on organizing the Backlog thought, and sent a survey to see where people are at on Project Hail Mary. Paul stopped by to check out the cherry wood.

Current snapshot of my equipment rack
I rescheduled the KAI conversation from tomorrow to the 12th, and handled assorted negotiations related to the family camping weekend. I worked on creating an MCP server that provides access to my internal wikis. Walked to the dentist to get a filling replaced, then walked from there to Suds where I talked to Aaron and had beer with Tim, who gave me a ride home.

The Andromeda Sprint Review happened in the evening. Mark showed up and we discussed the homestead thing he sent. I demonstrated the MCP server development for Claude integration with internal wiki websites, showing how to set up GitHub servers for development and access internal web servers through Claude desktop. We explored how MCP enables secure connections between systems while overcoming network access restrictions.

I showcased using Claude to create visual graphics and diagrams, exploring multi-modal AI capabilities, speech-to-text integration, and text-to-speech technologies. We looked at AI-generated technical diagrams in SVG format for network configurations, and I discussed the Brain API for journaling and data synchronization across platforms.

The conversation moved to future technology—AI tools in automated customer service and IoT device control, and Boston Dynamics humanoid robots now owned by Hyundai. We discussed predictions for robotics adoption beginning in 2026, with AGI estimates before 2030, and the possibility of robot rental models similar to historical IBM mainframe leasing. We touched on "bossware" surveillance software evolving to capture work patterns for AI training.

After that, I soaked in the hot tub, watched an episode of Ancient Civilizations about Charlemagne, and caught some Hogan's Heroes. Woke up early and worked on a home assistant design, worried about the mechanism for making donations to KAI.

The day wove together multiple threads—philosophical conversations about consciousness and artistic expression, practical tasks like dentist visits and credit card payments, technical work on journaling systems, and ongoing coordination of family and social commitments. It rained hard for portions of the day, accumulating 0.72 inches. The rhythm alternated between solitary work sessions and meaningful conversations, each mode feeding the other. Jim's photo portal concept particularly stuck with me—the idea that any view contains infinite potential doorways, that perspective itself creates recursive possibilities. Sometimes the most interesting technical problems turn out to be aesthetic ones in disguise.

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