Interconnected
Matt Webb — Designer, technologist, and co-author of Mind Hacks
A blog by Matt Webb. My notebook and space for thinking out loud since February 2000.
interconnected.org/homeI would know its presence only by the slop it left behind, slop as ectoplasm from where the ghost has been.
Matt Webb has been thinking out loud on Interconnected since February 2000, making it one of the oldest personal blogs still running. Posts wander freely between AI, design philosophy, computing futures, and cultural observation — a piece might start with a forgotten HTML file on his laptop and end at the idea of computers as haunted spaces. The joy is in the unexpected connections, drawn by someone with 26 years of practice at following curiosity wherever it leads.
Written by Matt Webb since 2000.
Regular
Publishes weekly or bi-weekly
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Independent Blog
English
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Examples from sci-fi of voice interfaces that stay on task
I wonder how you would design a really single-minded voice UI? Like, voice interfaces are really good now because of AI. But they’re so unbounded. If you’re having a voice interaction with a computer or with a device, you could end up having a conversation about anything. And while a voice UI is great within a domain, do you really want to be gossiping about movies or having a psychotherapy session with your fridge? I mean, at that point what even is a product? i.e. how would you have a single p...
Factories are just rooms
I went into my kid’s school a couple months back and spoke to the year group about manufacturing. Honestly it was the most rewarding speaking gig I’ve done all year. It was about the process of making my AI clock and I have a ton of pics from my factory visit to Shenzhen (mostly pics that I have only shared with Kickstarter backers). I talked about where ideas come from and the value of playing around, and how it’s neat to learn new techniques that you can combine together. I talked about protot...
Filtered for that which motivates form
1. It’s hot in London so I’ve been seeing a lot of handheld portable fans, usually with a strap so you can hang it round your neck. My faves are the ones with thermoelectric coolers in the middle of the fan: a small plate that is so cold that it is covered with icy condensation. It’s the Peltier effect (the plate is really hot on the back) and the first time I’ve seen a thermoelectric cooler in the wild. Here’s a thermoelectric handheld fan on Alibaba. Three quid each if you’re buying over a mil...
I am obsessed with these two ads
I didn’t know what a near-infrared LED mask was a week ago, and now I am obsessed with this ad from Omnilux. Because there’s a lot going on. The aesthetic of the mask itself is wild: the lines look like sinews as if the woman has been flensed But the schematic flesh is commercial! The logo on the forehead! Yet she has glossy hair and a spa outfit And is drinking a glass of white wine?? Let’s not get into the red glow through the holes in the face The ad copy is tight af, no messing around: ret...
Wet thoughts
Wet lab. “Wet lab” was a new term to me, I had to look it up – it’s a laboratory with chemicals where there’s spill risk etc. I have a physics background myself and the closest I came to liquids was liquid nitrogen, and when you spill that it just boils furiously and goes away. Don’t do this: if you put your open hand into a dewar of liquid nitrogen, you can hold it under the liquid at -196C/-320F because the boiling on the surface of your hand makes an insulating quilt. It’s a fun game. Closing...
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If you like writers who make you think about three things you weren't expecting to think about today, Interconnected delivers that almost every week.