is your money making money
Are all the immigrants gone
are the eggs and the gasoline the price that you want
and if you told your children they don't have to be kind
cuz if they make good money then no one will
mind

if I promised you sunshine n Fortune
then you went broke in the rain
as the weather got colder would you invite me over
to come in and do it again

is your money making money like it did in the past
do you have enough weapons to kill twice as fast
do you dream about book bags being bolstered by Steel
and when you sold your country did you get a good deal

if I promised you sunshine n Fortune
and then you went broke in the rain
as the weather got colder would you invite me over
to come in and do it
again

is your money making money are your taxes so low
that your values and virtues will leave you alone
and you seem Mighty busy telling all what to do
is it freedom for all or freedom for you

if I promised you sunshine and Fortune
and then you went broke in the rain
as the weather got colder would you invite me over
to come in and do it again

as the weather got cold older
would you invite me over to come in and
do it again

I was searching YouTube re Scottish local government and got this. It’s a lot funnier than what I’d expected to find.

BTW what do you think about the idea of making local government more local? Going back to town/burgh councils, or giving community councils actual power to make decisions and organise stuff?

new Luke Nickle song

I keep an immortal portal in my pocket it'll navigate me anywhere but home and I got a heart condition called an algorithm so I'll watch my watch to watch my arteries explode oh lord hallowed be those bros their names are etched upon my soul
yeah my body it's their choice when to measure every movement's are but a metric to be sold they wired strings right from my ears to California feeding whispers saying boy your the real pinocchio-ooh shii lord deliver me into temptation's flow
I kinda wanna be a meat puppet a two-steppin like oh well fuggit suck cogs like a silicone muppet sure enough it's so long flesh death I
found Jesus in a bucket he was dyin
so I plugged him up into the wall socket on a full charge
we could make a lil prophet (profit) then deport him to wherever in a rocket
I seen men who preach of dirt defeating soil selling stories of hateful mud to hungry clay from a pulpit strung up with a spangled dollar they're pulling shadows cross the faces of their prey, they are gonna tear apart the earth to pull their heaven from the fray
but can you feel their stream caress your flesh so sweetly as the present pulls the current 'neath your toes you might gasp and grasp as roots rip past your fingers or just let yourself be carried on alone
dontcha wanna be a meat puppet go on and marionette n then fugget suck cogs like a silicone muppet sure enough it's so long flesh death I
found God in a bucket he was a chicken
I cut him up and turnt him into chicken nuggets ten piece that's a 10x profit (prophet)
i keep the bones in the bucket on a boil like a stock won't ever pop
I'm a meat puppet im their gross domestic product oh lord it's feudal sure enough it's for their kingdom for their power for their glory for ever
imma puppet

My mother doesn’t seem to think that discussing socialising AI on Reddit is in the category of ‘doing something’ and wants to know what we’re going to do about it?

What do we want AI to be in 30 years and what are we going to do to get that? Is her challenge to us.

Is this just a boomer take that fails to see how Reddit influences IRL?
Poststructuralists would say that discourse creates reality, and from that perspective reframing things and taking the discussion in a different direction on Reddit is an important way of ‘doing something’.

What should we DO about it though? How is that different June 2026, 2028, 2035?

In the late 1980s and 1990s, growing up in upstate New York, I was taught a simple but powerful lesson: question everything. Our teachers didn't hand us truth — they taught us to chase it, to test it, to demand sources, and to look at the world with a skeptical eye. It wasn't just about essays or debates. It was about survival in a world where misinformation was becoming easier to create and harder to detect.

That mindset served us well when the internet exploded. We were trained to doubt headlines, research beyond the surface, and recognize when something didn't smell right. We weren't afraid of information — we were taught how to wrestle with it.

Fast forward to today, and I keep hearing that large language models — AI tools like ChatGPT, are *eroding* critical thinking. I think we're asking the wrong question.

AI isn't destroying critical thought. It's revealing how shallowly we've been teaching it.

We've let "critical thinking" become a buzzword. Too often it gets reduced to "spot the fallacy" or "write the counterpoint." But those skills don't prepare anyone to interact with an AI that can generate plausible, confident, well-structured answers in seconds. Schools either ban the tools outright or allow them without teaching students how to challenge them. Both approaches miss the point.

Here's what I've learned firsthand: I'm a self-taught inventor and stay-at-home dad. No college degree. I've spent the last several years developing a hydrogen energy system — one that eliminates the need for lithium batteries entirely — through conversation with AI. Every time I hit a wall, I didn't accept the wall. I asked why it was there. When Elon Musk said hydrogen was a dead end, I didn't take his word for it. I asked an AI to walk me through the reasoning, then I asked whether each assumption actually had to be true.

That process — question the answer, pull the thread, challenge the premise — led me to a patented system built on metal hydride hydrogen storage and supercapacitors that sidesteps the problems everyone said made hydrogen impractical.

I didn't do that because I'm an engineer. I did it because I was taught to ask why.

AI can sharpen critical thinking if you treat it like a sparring partner, not a vending machine. I use it to test my logic, fill in knowledge gaps, and stress-test my ideas. I question its responses the same way I'd question a teacher or a textbook. The same instincts I learned in the '90s apply — they just have a new target.

The problem isn't the tool. The problem is that we've stopped expecting people to push back.

If we want AI to make people smarter instead of lazier, the answer isn't to ban it or blindly embrace it. It's to teach the one skill that makes it useful: the refusal to just accept what you're told.

That skill is older than AI. We just forgot to keep teaching it.

Modern Apprentice Lyrics
I am a modern apprentice
I believe in the life-long learning
'Ain't gonna take away this natural yearning
To know the truth
The truth about the lies you've been giving
It's not a state of affairs that that I'm prepared to live in
I will find out for myself
No I ain't gonna be your clone
Ain't gonna be working my fingers to the bone
To feed your mouths
When the poor around me are starving
And you the fat cats are sitting pretty and laughing
I will do it in spite of you
I'll educate myself
Then I'll empower others
So that we can make our own wealth
Yes I'll empower others
So that we can make our own wealth

I thought this was originally Kimya Dawson, but she was covering this:

utopian futures Lyrics[Verse 1]
And somewhere the bombing all has stopped
And people begin to sit and talk
And somewhere insomniatic stockbrokers can rest their bloodshot eyes
Cause' there's nothing left to buy or sell
Or kill or die for anymore
We're living inside eternal moments that we've searched for all our lives
There's nobody living by the clock
Every door is left unlocked
Cause' property diеd all alone and capitalism lost its home
Therе's plenty of fresh air here in town
And plants are all growing on the cars
Now all the streets are used for dancing
And at night you see all the stars

[Hook]
Ya da da da di ya, ya da da da da
Ya da da da da, ya da da da da
Ya da da da di ya, ya da da da da
Ya da da da da, ya da da da da

[Verse 2]
We're searching for something that was lost
Centuries all have covered up
We're flailing to find the smallest fragments of our liberated lives
And every tiny piece we find
We pick up and glue together
Collectively working for our utopian futures to collide
In snuggly beds and midnight talks
In wandering bike rides and wayward walks
Making all of our own music, art, myth, food and news
It's happening everywhere we go
Collective bookstores and basement shows
Sharing a song that we all know or making up new ones as we go

[Hook]
Ya da da da di ya, ya da da da da
Ya da da da da, ya da da da da
Ya da da da di ya, ya da da da da
Ya da da da da, ya da da da da

What do you think about OpenAI’s superapp move?
For example, is it an extreme consolidation of infrastructure, Enclosure of the Digital Commons type of issue?

“WeChat’s lesson isn’t that superapps are convenient. It’s that once a platform reaches non-optional integration, the relationship between user and platform ceases to be voluntary in any meaningful sense.”

“When third-party services route their users through ChatGPT rather than acquiring them independently, OpenAI gains leverage over those services that compounds with each integration added. The first ten partners make the platform useful. The first hundred make it structural.”

“Persistent context across devices means the platform accumulates a richer model of each user over time — preferences, habits, unfinished tasks, implicit goals. That accumulated understanding is not transferable. It is stored in OpenAI’s infrastructure, and it becomes more valuable to the user, and more difficult to leave behind, with each passing month.”

“the direction it points is worth taking seriously, because the distance between ‘ambient AI layer’ and ‘ambient surveillance layer’ is smaller than the product roadmaps tend to acknowledge.”

“When a single platform becomes the primary gateway through which creative work is initiated, the companies that currently servecreators as peers begin to function as tenants.** “

“The last interface is a seductive idea. It is also, if you hold it up to the light, a description of a monopoly.”

“This song was intended as a thank you note to the spirit and legacy of protest; to the artists who imbued their work with the vigour of dissent, and a reflection on the importance of that tradition in the context of the rights, and lives, we enjoy today. My hope for this video is much the same.

Ireland has undergone a socio-cultural sea change, the results of which will benefit generations to come. We are witness to a new Ireland waking to the consciousness of itself; a kinder, more inclusive nation. This video is an attempt to acknowledge just a handful of those who have fought for this new Ireland, and whose work continues to inspire me.”

Lyrics:

It's not the wakin', it's the risin'
It is the groundin' of a foot uncompromisin'
It's not forgoin' of the lie
It's not the openin' of eyes
It's not the wakin', it's the risin'
It's not the shade, we should be past it
It's the light and it's the obstacle that casts it
It's the heat that drives the light
It's the fire it ignites
It's not the wakin', it's the risin'
It's not the song, it is the singin'
It's the hearin' of a human spirit ringin'
It is the bringin' of the line
It is the bearin' of the rhyme
It's not the wakin', it's the risin'
And I could cry power (power)
Power (power)
Power, Lord
Nina cried power
Billie cried power
Mavis cried power
And I could cry (power) power
(Power) power
Power, Lord
Curtis cried power
Patti cried power
Nina cried power
It's not the wall but what's behind it
Lord, the fear of fellow man, his mere assignment
And everythin' that we're denied
By keepin' the divide
It's not the wakin', it's the risin'
And I could cry power (power)
Power (power)
Power, Lord
Nina cried power
Lennon cried power
James Brown cried power
And I could cry (power) power
(Power) power
Power, Lord
Billie cried power
Joni cried power
Nina cried power
And I could cry power
Power has been cried by those stronger than me
Straight into the face that tells you to rattle your chains
If you love bein' free
Lord, I could cry power (power)
'Cause power is my love when my love reaches to me
James Brown cried power
Seeger cried power
Marvin cried power
Power
James cried power
Lennon cried power
Patti cried power
Billie (power)
Dylan (power)
Woody (power)
Nina cried power

This is new from Ai2, do you find this interesting?
“Introducing ModSleuth, a tool for tracing the models and datasets behind modern LLMs.

LLMs are no longer created with human data alone. They rely on other models to generate and filter data, evaluate outputs, and guide development work. We made ModSleuth to track this.

Modern LLM dependencies are scattered, recursive, and hard to see. So how do we even find them all? ModSleuth helps by reading papers, model and dataset cards, code configs, and upstream artifacts, then reconstructing a model's “family tree.”

…Some dependency chains go 8 hops deep—a web of models and data that contributed to an LLM’s core. Turns out AI supply chains may be more tangled than we thought.

A model's lineage is broader than its training data, and every step can affect what – and how – the final model learns. Without provenance, it's harder to know where dependencies came from, whether benchmark scores are accurate, and which upstream licenses/terms may apply.

ModSleuth generates a graph that surfaces what's nearly impossible to find manually, including:

📜 Hidden license inheritance
🔗 Train/eval coupling
📝 Documentation inconsistencies
🤖 Models used as judges, filters, OCR systems, and data generators

▶️ Demo: https://modsleuth.cal-data-audit.org
📄 Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.12385 “

I feel like this could be useful, as time goes on they’re only going to get more tangled. If you work out a type of bias or similar comes from a specific model it would be handy to know which other models might have been infected?

Do you agree that the purpose of a system is what it does? That’s Stafford Beer’s foundational systems theory axiom (often abbreviated as POSIWID). It asserts that a system's true function is defined by its actual, measurable outcomes, not by its intended goals or stated mission.

Carsie’s satirical take is:

lyrics
Sometimes
I wake up at night in a cold sweat
Feelin like a damn fool
In spite
Of everyone’s good intentions
The world is so damn cruel!

Now I see
how all of it can be confusing
but it isn’t that bad!
Could it be
the problem’s the logic you’re using
making you feel sad

It’s simpler than you might think because
The purpose of a system is what it does
The purpose of a system is what it does

My phone is a system
That makes me stupid and mean
With a screen
To sell data and advertising

My school is a system
For charging exorbitant fees
So that teens
get degrees in extinct industries

It’s simpler than you might think because
The purpose of a system is what it does
The purpose of a system is what it does

The news is a system
To make me think
That the things that I think
Are the same things that everyone thinks

A bank is a system
That borrows money from me
Interest free
To invest in an oil company

It’s simpler than you might think because
The purpose of a system is what it does
The purpose of a system is what it does

The law is a system
To make me think I have rights
Cus I’m white and well-funded
and don’t try to fight

Elections are systems
To make you think that you chose
To impose
All the dreams of a few CEOs

It’s simpler than you might think because
The purpose of a system is what it does
The purpose of a system is what it does

The army’s a system
extorting the poor into
killing the poor
To get mortgages they can afford

NATO is a system
For starting a war
And then selling protection
so holdings of Raytheon soar

It’s simpler than you might think because
The purpose of a system is what it does
The purpose of a system is what it does

Asking around for my Songs of Collective Hope list I got this recommendation from r/folk

It amused me but this phrase is rooted in the Paris student-worker protests of May 1968. Associated with the radical Situationist International, the exact graffiti was sprayed onto the walls of the Sorbonne as: Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible (Be realistic, demand the impossible).

The slogan is a rejection of pragmatism and reformism, which Situationist theorists argued merely preserve a capitalist society built on alienation. By demanding the impossible, the movement called for a total transformation of everyday life rather than bargaining within the confines of the current system.

It continues as a call to prioritize human desire and liberation over what the establishment deems "possible".

Lyrics:

We’ll rehouse the homeless in Buckingham Palace,
Start at the bottom, work down to the top,
Stop the city, rebuild the forest,
Cancel the rent, nick all the cops,
Be reasonable, and demand the impossible now.

We’ll turn all the motorways into canals,
Close all the Aldermastons down,
All differences equalled, systems for people,
Not the other way around,
Be reasonable, and demand the impossible now.

We’ll spring all the animals, vote for the clowns
In the Circus Bourgeoisie,
Where the rich sing the blues till their trousers fall down
Then they give you the price of a nice cup of tea,
Be reasonable, and demand the impossible now.

Grow gardens and hospitals on every street,
Sunflowers, playgrounds and schools
Where you do what you like cos you like what you do
And we’ll stop the war once and for all,
Be reasonable, and demand the impossible now.

No master, no landlord, no flag, no guru,
No Gauleiter, no commissar,
Just justice and poetry and jam on it too,
and when they ask: who’s in charge here?
We all say: we are.
Be reasonable, and demand the impossible now.

Folk version of the playlist you contributed to before. This playlist imagines a better future, with heritage from past movements, and celebrates music’s utopian function. Inspired by themes in Ernst Bloch’s book The Principle of Hope. In a mainly folk and acoustic style. I explained my thinking behind this in this previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialistmusic/comments/1tq6n51/the_principle_of_hope_playlist_to_shatter/

Do you have any suggestions to add? A succinct theme is imagining being in a post-capitalist future, hopeful songs, or songs that make you feel heroic. Some of these are suggestions from here on another post. This playlist is only folk.

Links

YouTube : https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTouLzvyfuag9BWEmpC4tOhzIpfRxKy_z&si=kBQImDL0emiTcZQu

Spotify: [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4tIha3zyxp1sOh0r0jOPpT?si=qsFjPwcPSMie1vPwxQkWEQ

Current list:

1. Nina Simone, darkDARK - New World Coming - darkDARK Remix
2. Bob Dylan - When the Ship Comes In
3. Whiskey Shivers, Kelsey Wilson - There Is a Time (feat. Kelsey Wilson)
4. Bandiera Rossa - Bella Ciao
5. Langhorne Slim - We The People (Fuck The Man)
6. Willi Carlisle - Your Heart's a Big Tent
7. Old Crow Medicine Show - I Hear Them All
8. Dropkick Murphys - We Shall Overcome
9. Levellers - What a Beautiful Day
10. Grace Petrie - Fixer Upper
11. Phil Ochs - I'll Be There
12. Billy Bragg - The World Turned Upside Down
13. Allison Russell - Joyful Motherfuckers
14. Hozier, Mavis Staples - Nina Cried Power (feat. Mavis Staples)
15. Playing For Change, Black Pumas, Slash, The Pocket Queen, Tony Kanal - Colors
16. Ayla Nereo - Seeds
17. Valerie June - Endless Tree
18. Three Wheels Turning, Samara Jade, Micaela Kingslight, Aimée Ringle - These Old Stories
19. Dusty The Kid - Where the Wild Birds Call
20. Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting, Nancy Kerr - Dark Honey
21. Harry McClintock - The Big Rock Candy Mountain
22. Sarina Partridge - Wild and Free
23. Cosmo Sheldrake - The Moss
24. Miriam Makeba, Nina Simone - Thulasizwe (I Shall Be Released) - Remastered 2024
25. Spell Songs, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew - The Lost Words Blessing
26. Kate Sutherland - Wake Up to What You Are
27. Carsie Blanton - Hope
28. Rising Appalachia - I Believe in Being Ready
29. Resistance Revival Chorus, Valerie June - Reason I Sing
30. Kimya Dawson - Utopian Futures
31. Violeta Parra - Gracias a la vida
32. Gaelynn Lea - Bound by a Thread
33. The Wailin' Jennys - Beautiful Dawn
34. Seth Staton Watkins - If the People Unite
35. Sparkbird, Stephan Nance - Metropolis of Eden
36. Joe Glazer - The Commonwealth of Toil
37. Nathan Evans Fox - Hillbilly Hymn (Okra & Cigarettes)
38. Crys Matthews - Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
39. Playing For Change, Tinariwen - Le Chant des Fauves
40. Rory Lavelle - I Know We're Gonna Make It
41. Carsie Blanton - The Little Flame
42. David Rovics - After the Revolution
43. Billy Bragg - Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
44. Willy Mason - We Can Be Strong
45. Woody Guthrie - Better World A Comin'
46. Kate Sutherland - Walk of the Wild Ones
47. Blossomin' Bone - Spread Some Hope
48. Pete Seeger - If I Had a Hammer - 1
49. The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
50. Sweet Honey In The Rock - Ella's Song
51. John Lennon, Phil Ochs - Ringing Of Revolution
52. Maggie Wheeler - How Shall We Come Together
53. Alistair Hulett - The Internationale
54. Ewan McLennan, George Monbiot - Such a Thing as Society
55. Breabach - Outlaws and Dreamers
56. Dusty The Kid - Rubaiyat
57. Phil Ochs - Power and Glory
58. Seamus Kennedy - Oro! Se Do Bheatha 'bhaile and the Rights of Man
59. Daisy May - Rise Up Singing
60. Stan Rogers - A Matter of Heart
61. Melanie - Rainbow Race
62. Van Morrison - Brand New Day - 2013 Remaster
63. Sara Thomsen - Somewhere to Begin

I love the poetry of this song. It’s like a whole novel in one song:

Wake!
For the sun has scattered into flight
The stars cast out before it from the velvet field of night

Wake!
And dry your weeping eyes
The sun is on the rise
The sun is on the rise

I heard somebody cry
Will you still be here
When they come for me?
Will you still be here
When they come for me?
When I'm tortured and tangled
Tattered and torn
Ripped from this life like I'd never been born
Who will be there when they find my body
In the morning sun?
Or is this the last cry
Of everything come undone?

I've seen flags in the meadow
Where the lavender once bloomed
I've seen the thorn and the briar
Fed back into the loom
High in towers the sages
Their words they do thrust
Their tongues turn to hate
As our bones turn to dust
The fools the fools
What are they looking for?
Planting nary a seed
And yet they ask for more

What would you dare tell your children?
What would you dare say?
What could you stand tall and answer?
Where were you today?

I have held my friend's face
Whispered "I am so sorry"
Cupped my own hands over my father's eyes
I've wrapped crooked fingers
In clear mountain water
I've heard loud hearts whisper
I wish I could die

I have stood with my breath still
High over the mountains
Watched as the light cut
Through strong willow boughs
I've wished over coals
Glowing late in the morning
I've heard dreamers dreamless
Lost and whispering "how"?

I've stood over the lost
As they watched the map makers
Watched them become
What they swore they would kill
I've seen them fall into
The breadlines and factories
Seen them weave God
Into sequins and silks

I have trudged through the fields
Where the dawn seemed to darken
Where the lilies lay trodden
And the oak bent so low
I've knelt where the martyrs
Did call on Sweet Afton
Where the sky it did crack
And the first wind did blow

And the curlew did cry
O arise corpse of morning
What would you bear
That's not been borne long before?
As he cackled and spat
In the boughs of the birch tree
What would you bear
That hasn't been borne long before?

I will never know peace
I have seen the writing on the wall
I have seen behind the curtain
I have seen the fall

I will never know peace
I have seen the writing on the wall
I have seen behind the curtain
I have seen the fall

But one day I will rise
As the dew be flecks the morning
As the golden sun comes rolling
As I know its done before
As the shadows shrink away
From the midnight mist left curling
To be burned within the hand of hope
And gone forever more

I will wring my weary soul out
On the winding Yuba River
I will wait the winter's passing
I will watch the trains roll by
I will stand tall with the archer
With the longbow and the quiver
I will carve the shards of sunlight
I will kiss your bloodshot eyes

I will bring the winter bulbs up
From the corner of the cellar
I will watch you as you plant them
In the belly of the ground
I will clear away the deadfall
I will wash away the nightfall
I will smile when the bells ring
With a high and joyful sound

I will listen to the trees
I will laud on high the meek
I will love so hard and true
That I forget the tongue I speak
I will climb the creeping ivy
O'er the lowly garden wall
I will show you to the place
Where the wild birds do call

Where the workers hands do nothing
Save the labor of their own
Where the candles dance all night
In a thousand little homes
Where the door is always open
And the whiskey always flows
And the hanging tree grows heavy
with ribbons and with bows
There's a fiddle always playing
Where the wind carries a song
Three kisses rest on every cheek
We've righted all our wrongs
Where nobody's ever lonesome
And there ain't no broken hearts
There is laughing there is dancing
There is fire in the dark
Where every voice is raised together
All for one and one for all

I will show you to the place where the wild birds do call
I will show you to the place where the wild birds do call  

“The question is not whether AI will disrupt working life, but who will have the power to shape that disruption – and whose interests it will ultimately serve,” the report’s authors argue.

Their recommendations include a statutory duty on employers to consult their workers over the adoption of AI and a “worker support levy”, which could be funded by companies or workers themselves.

The idea of this levy would be to create a portable “wallet” of benefits that workers could take with them from one job to another – such as union membership, insurance or training – with the broad aim of increasing their bargaining power.”

“Workers urgently need more bargaining power over the way AI is adopted in the workplace to ensure the benefits are fairly shared, according to a TUC-backed report from a leading thinktank.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a package of measures to boost employees’ influence at what it calls a “pivotal moment in the history of work”.

Its report cites survey data showing that while 20% of workers say AI is making their working life better, 21% say it has made it worse – and 4% believe they have already lost a job because of the technology.”

This is the actual report: https://www.ippr.org/articles/strike-while-ai-is-hot-worker-power

Joseph Evans, research fellow at IPPR and author of the report, said:

“AI has the potential to transform working life for better or worse. The crucial question is who gets to shape that transition. If workers are shut out of decisions about how AI is used, the gains risk being captured by a small number of firms and shareholders while insecurity spreads across the labour market.

“Workers want a meaningful say over how AI affects their jobs, protections against unfair uses of technology, and support to adapt as work changes. Rebuilding worker power is essential if the benefits of AI are to be shared fairly.”

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said:

“Great technological transitions only result in meaningful social progress when they are shaped actively and decisively. The Industrial Revolution – often casually invoked to describe the possibilities of AI – saw fifty years of wage stagnation while profits soared. It took the difficult birth of the labour movement to tip technological gains towards workers’ interests and broader social wellbeing.

“To deliver on the promise of technology to enhance lives, inside and out of the workplace, AI must be designed, governed and negotiated by and for workers. Our guiding principle is simple: change must be done with working people, not to them.”

I thought this was a quirky little project showing how someone is making their own AI enabled device at home. Second Brain seems a little hyped, but some people might find it very handy and it seems like it’s based on parts you can get under $50.

Description from YouTube

“I built a tiny minimalist Al note device with an E-Ink display that lets me instantly record thoughts, ideas and reminders without getting distracted by my phone.

Just press a button, speak, and the device saves everything directly onto the SD card. Once connected to WiFi, it can even transcribe recordings using Al and sync them to a minimal web interface.

In this video, l'll show you how it works and how I built it.

Want to build your own?

All files, firmware, STL files, wiring diagrams and the full step-by-step guide are available here:

• https://ko-fi.com/s/674a1a82e0

• Parts used in this project:

• Waveshare ESP32 E-Ink board eg https://www.waveshare.com/esp32-s3-epaper-1.54.htm?sku=34211 $22

• 500 mAh LiPo battery [if not getting the one included with waveshare]

• SD card

• PLA filament

Optional:

• Soldering iron

…

• Chapters:

00:00 My New Second Brain

00:54 Finding the Perfect Hardware

01:57 Designing a Better Case

03:56 The Firmware Took Way Longer Than Expected

04:43 Recording

05:49 Al Transcription & Syncing

06:48 The Future of the Project”

NB his affiliate links are edited out here but are under the video