One of the first things I did when I got my first iPod touch was pull up the podcast app. At that point in my life (early teens), I was held back from what I now consider my "true self" by social anxiety and awkwardness. I kept to myself, because I was afraid of being embarrassed or ostracized. I realize now that a lot of it was in my own head... but eh, who cares about that. The point is this: I isolated myself, and podcasts were my safe space.
Specifically, history podcasts... Maybe other teenagers employ other methods of finding comfort, but the soothing noises of Mike Duncan's "History of Rome" or Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" put me to sleep most nights for a while there. As a result I came into high school knowing an awful lot about specific historical facts and trends. I was really annoying to my high school history teachers.
Fast forward 10ish years, and I'm a software engineer. I think there are a lot of things to learn between history and engineering, mostly related to understanding trends and how dynamic, unpredictable forces actually produce outcomes quite predictably.
I'm in a stable enough place in my life where I want to get back to basics. And with LLMs taking over software development, it got me thinking about the importance of tokens. Creating them, uniquely, creatively, and with gusto. An LLM can generate tokens, including assortments that appear somewhat unique. But all LLMs are trained on things such as this article. Or a history textbook. But we are quickly running out of genuinely new information, or old information processed with modern sensibilities. My fear is that if we lose writing, and the love of it, we may no longer be in the drivers seat when it comes to AI.
All that being said, I'm starting this to put my own spin on the last 100 (more like 150) years - specifically, to see what my take on it is. I specifically want to understand the evolution of modern technology, which has accelerated so much so quickly, it almost seems to break trends with the rest of history as we understand it.
I would love to someday be able to publish some of this as a podcast - because I like yapping. For now, I will focus on writing and researching.
See you this century.
James