10:16 AM in Brooklyn, New York Here I am bumbling around the internet in search of a door. I don't actually remember much of what the internet was like when I was growing up. I think I remember computer games, but I don't exactly remember how I booted them up. Were they discs? Were they applications? Were they websites? I'm not so sure. Did I even have a username and a password? If so, I don't remember what they were. It's hard to imagine that I would have been able to keep track of a digital identity as a 10 year-old in 2008, but I can't think of another way that access control would be handled on a piece of software. Perhaps because each instance of the game was a siloed environment, access control was essentially unnecessary. These were not networked things, as far as I remember. My experience of using the internet now is quite standard, I imagine. There are hubs and there are spokes that are actually also hubs, but verticalized, and I come each day to see what it feels like. Some hubs I commonly find myself on are X (formerly known as Twitter), YouTube, Substack (rarely), and Wikipedia. All of these hubs are designed to be self-containing. They are not really hubs. Nothing actually emerges from them. They may link you to places where you *could* theoretically go, but we don't do that because digital curators offering exits via links to their primary sources also offer commentary and summation of the journey you may have gone on without their analysis. I can't imagine a network topology that would be stickier. These self-referencing landing zones are so impressively magnetic that to even visit a webpage on your own without going through a hub feels like a real act of defiance. I guess it makes sense... All things seem to eventually compress and centralize. We don't want the complexity of managing our own webs and creating our own digital topology. Why do these things compress and centralize? Because this process is better in *measurable* ways, even at the expense of immeasurable loss. The aesthetics are worse and the feeling is mostly worse, but the measurable quantity of attention (time we spend on the platforms) rises and the efficiency does as well. It is *measurably* inefficient to traverse multiple webpages to buy something. You can actually create metrics to define this. That is one reason why all digital storefronts are being swallowed by Amazon. While it aesthetically and energetically sucks in many ways to buy something on Amazon, it is remarkably better in a very practical and literal way. I often dream and fantasize about what life could look like if I found a unique way to use the internet and digital technology more broadly that was perfectly fitted to my own values. These fantasies usually remain just fantasies, but I have made incremental progress in the last 4 years. But god does it feel good to imagine some harmonic techno-futuristic reality where we all interface with machines in a beautiful way. I read (in a tweet) recently that if LESS than 30% of what you say is stupid, you're not taking enough intellectual risk. I agree with this, so I'm going to now describe some stuff I'd like to exist, even if it's stupid. 1. I want a physical banking terminal 1. A piece of hardware that I can take with me that can only connect directly to other nodes. It will be how I manage my financials. I can connect banks, crypto wallets, Venmo, and store data relating to these instruments securely. It would only unlock via BOTH a biometric and alphanumeric key. 1. It would be designed beautifully and be a joy to use. 2. Lightweight, simple, but comprehensive. 3. Slightly customizable, but mostly just well-engineered to the point where you don't feel like you actually even *want* to customize it much 2. I want a computer that does not connect to the internet, but that can network 1. Here is what the computer should be able to do: 1. Connect to nodes that only store software for me to download and use offline 1. Examples of software include: music production (DAWs), photo editors, video editors, text editors, secure messaging protocols, cloud storage for data handling (in case of theft or damage), and AI agents 3. I want a new iPod 1. Yes, I do want that. 2. Small but useable. Can manage both local files and files purchased and downloaded from somewhere a digital store. 3. Lossless sound quality 4. Bluetooth and AUX enabled 5. Locally store listening metrics (maybe) My imagination is really weak today so I'll pause there. These are not that imaginative, but I want them to exist nonetheless. ---