On Humanity
In 2026, Homo Sapiens are a global species. There is no escaping your neighbor when the attention machine in your pocket brings you the whole world 24/7/365. I was raised to lead with kindness and treat every person I met the way I want to be treated. I try to live that. As a practical matter, that means seeing the differences in my fellow man, not to “Other” them, but to honor all of the journey that brought us together. So, when I see the people of the world I see a box of crayons of endless hue, all equal, and I want to wrap my arms around them all and make them a part of my life.
On AI
The genie is out of the bottle. I remember when I first learned about Moore's Law almost 30 years ago; that computing speed doubles every 18 months. The part that always goes unexplained is the exponential growth in computing power that comes with those speed increases. Combined they have made practical techniques that were decades old and opened up evolutionary avenues to take them down.
And those new techniques work. Really well. So well, in fact, that the greedy and the hucksters have shown up to make the term “AI” virtually meaningless. AI has become such a buzzword that “virtual” is starting to feel a little long in the tooth.
Let me be clear: Massive data centers spewing noise and heat and sucking up all the groundwater is not utopian. Generative techniques are not the key to the future Land of Milk and Honey. Data analysis that costs the rain forests is not going to create a world we all want to live in.
But...
The genie is out of the bottle and we all have loved ones to provide for. I'm going to stay ahead of the machines, so I'm not eaten by them. And maybe, just maybe, I can find uses for the technology that can make life a little bit better for some small part of the global population. There are horribly tedious processes in the work that I do and Natural Language Processing can perform weeks of copy-paste work that I might have to do in seconds, leaving me to quality check that work and spend more time performing the more value-added tasks that I actually enjoy.
On dirtylaundry
I am a huge supporter of The Beautiful Game, in particular, and sport in general. While there has always been corruption and uneven dealing, the degree and the magnitude of the corruption running through my sport and others is simply distasteful. dirtylaundry.site is my small response to the never-ending tide of corruption news that almost fades into white noise. I wanted to be able to see the line of connection between the people and the organizations responsible for the horrible headlines I have to endure between reports of the latest scores.
dirtylaundry is a semi-autonomous accounting of acts of corruption rendered as a 3-dimensional web of nodes. Every node is sourced and verified. There is no rumor or innuendo in the main graph of dirtylaundry. The semi part of semi-autonomous is myself and the (hopefully) growing team of editors and contributors who will fill The Hamper with solid leads and sources to fill the viewport.
On darkrogue
Since the dawn of Al Gore's Internet, “darkrogue” has been my preferred handle. It grew out of my occasionally being the sole person of color on my soccer team, the Rogues (shout out Dayton Rogues). I am ecstatic to be able to reclaim a URL and digital space that will let me play and express myself with new tools and toys.
I'm truly blessed that I enjoy what I do to put money in my bank account and I want to keep it up as long as I can. So you'll be able to see my ham-fisted efforts at data integration, football match analysis, and a learning management system, along with tools that I create in AI to make my job, and the process of learning for my students, more enjoyable and effective.
If you like something you see, or have ideas to collaborate to make the world a better place, reach out. <Cue Up With People singing “I'd Like to Teach...”>
Erik