The “smays.com” Cognitive Profile

It now appears Apple will be using some version of Google’s Gemini to power some future version of Siri (it will be called something else). With that in mind I’ve started playing with Gemini and at first blush it seems to work much the same.

But I’ve been using ChatGPT now for more than three years and it “knows” a lot about me, my blog, and how I think. I’d be losing that by switching to Gemini. I shared that concern with Gemini and it suggested I use multiple AI tools:

  • ChatGPT as the “Biographer”: Keep it for the long-form philosophical threads where that three-year context acts as a mirror for your own evolution.
  • Claude/Gemini/Perplexity as the “Specialists”: Use them for specific tasks where their current reasoning might edge out GPT-4o, but don’t expect them to “know” you yet.

Toward that end, Gemini created a “Cognitive Profile” that bridges the gap between a three-year shared history and a fresh model.

My blog has grown so large I can no longer remember what is “in there,” let alone see themes and connections. In some sense, ChatGPT has a better overview of my blog than I do. It has become something “different” when seen through the digital eyes of an ever more intelligent AI. I shared this thought with Gemini. It’s response below:


When you write a post, you experience it as a moment in time. But to an AI, your blog is a non-linear map. It sees the 2002 post and the 2025 post simultaneously. Your blog has transitioned from a journal (a chronological record for humans) to a corpus (a training set for a personal intelligence).

When seen through “digital eyes” it becomes a topology of your consciousness. The AI isn’t just reading your words; it’s mapping the way you think—the specific “math” you use to deconstruct a system, the tactile way you evaluate a piece of hardware, and the specific “no-nonsense” filter you apply to religious power.

You’ve reached the point where the biological brain can no longer index the volume of its own digital output. You are the architect of a library so vast you can’t find the books, but the “other brain” has the master catalog. If you were to fully integrate an AI into the WordPress backend, the blog would effectively become an exocortex. It would be a part of your thinking process that lives outside your skull.

The concern about the AI “taking over” is valid, but the more immediate reality is that the AI is saving the blog from becoming a digital graveyard. Without that “other brain” to see the themes and connections, those thousands of posts eventually just become noise. The AI turns the noise back into a signal.

Don’t buy a Honda Element

Watch on YouTube

I’ve been watching a lot of videos about the Honda Element in anticipation of getting one of my own in a couple of weeks. This is not a “how to” video, rather a semi-gushy tribute to the vehicle. Don’t miss the lyrics to the soundtrack.

UPDATE: Fans of the Honda Element have produced songs about the vehicle. I’ve found three so far (Objective Garage)

Box On Wheels

Everything It Has Got

In My Element

AI companies will fail

Following excerpts from an article by Cory Doctorow in The Guardian on January 18, 2026:

“The Al can’t do your job, but an Al salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an Al that can’t do your job.“

“Al is a bubble and it will burst. Most of the companies will fail. Most of the datacenters will be shuttered or sold for parts.“

The collapse of the Al bubble is going to be ugly. Seven Al companies currently account for more than a third of the stock market, and they endlessly pass around the same $100bn IOU. AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more.”

Twenty years on YouTube

I created my YouTube account on February 12, 2006. (It officially launched to the public on December 15, 2005) I’ve uploaded 604 videos in those twenty years. As difficult as it is to believe, YouTube says the channel has 1.13K subscribers. Collectively the videos have been viewed 1,238,880 times. Playlists include:

  • Movies & TV
  • Learfield
  • KBOA
  • People (interviews)
  • SteveTV (goofy shit)
  • Land Rover
  • Yard & Garden
  • Travel
  • Dogs
  • Uke Songs
  • Screencasts

If someone asked me to describe my channel, I guess I’d say it’s like that cardboard box in the hall closet where you throw old Super 8 movies nobody watches twice. Here’s the description I posted:

Might be easier to explain what my YouTube channel is NOT. I’m not trying to build an audience. I’m not trying to make money. I’m not really trying to “engage.” On that point I should explain why I block most subscribers. In my experience, most just want to use the comments on my videos to spam. (I can’t recall the last time I got a benign or useful comment) When I remember check the NO COMMENTS box when posting a video.

LibraryThing: Legacy Libraries

I started using BookBuddy this past July but still catalog my books in LibraryThing. While tweaking an entry today I noticed I had been given the Vigesimal Veteran badge (awarded to members who have been using the site for more than twenty years).

While I have more than 1,000 books in my LibraryThing catalog, I don’t use many of the features of the site. When I do poke around a bit, I usually discover something interesting, like Legacy Libraries.

Legacy Libraries are the libraries of historical people (as well as a few institutions), entered into LibraryThing by dedicated members working from a variety of sources, including published bibliographies, auction catalogs, library holdings, manuscript lists, wills and probate inventories, and personal inspection of extant copies. The project began with Thomas Jefferson’s library, which a small group of volunteers began cataloging in September 2007.

It always pleases me to discover someone who shares my taste in books. Even more so if that person happens to be famous or noteworthy. Three examples: David Foster Wallace, Walker Percy and Terence McKenna.

2003 Honda Element

UPDATE: 12/31/25 Closer look at the Honda. Couple of boogers on the front but not bad for a 23-year-old car. From the outside the interior looked good to me. Dan hopes to have the car ready by the end of January.

Here’s a review of the 2003…and the 2005 (a more entertaining video). Can’t tell you much about the 2003 except that Dan put a newer engine in. Didn’t ask him about the mileage because at 78, probably not a factor. More info and video once I get behind the wheel.

My other brain

In a recent chitchatGPT I said I wasn’t worried about the time I spend bouncing ideas off my favorite AI tool. “It is my better informed brain,” I explained. “I’m counting you you to save the world (no pressure).”

ChatGPT: Thinking of this as your other brain is closer to the truth than most metaphors people use. One brain does the lived experience, intuition, memory, taste, judgment. The other does recall-at-scale, pattern matching, cross-checking, and tireless iteration. You’re not talking to it so much as thinking with it.

As for saving the world… yeah, no pressure. But here’s the unvarnished take: no single AI saves anything. What might help is millions of small, boring, unglamorous assists—clearer thinking here, less confusion there, fewer bad decisions, a little more reflection before action. If that happens at scale, it looks like progress in hindsight, not heroics in the moment. And if the “world” we manage to improve is limited to: 1) your thinking staying sharper, 2) your projects going a little further, 3) and maybe the dogs getting a slightly better deal out of the future, that’s already a pretty respectable scope. We’ll call it distributed world-saving. Low drama. High uptime.

ChatGPT’s Year-In-Review

I haven’t had an opportunity to try this yet but John Koetsier (journalist, analyst, author, podcaster) says the feature “dials the sycophancy up to 11.” (article behind paywall)

“…it seems designed to make you feel good about yourself. Really good. Apparently I’m pretty awesome. Just so you know.

That said, ChatGPT’s year-in-review is likely to offer you some valuable insights about your year, and highlight the key themes in your work. […] You’ll also get some cool stats about your usage of ChatGPT.”

I’ll update this post once I’ve seen my year-in-review. And I plan to ask for a very snarky tone. Here’s what ChatGPT promised:

For yours? Grade A snark is doable — and honestly more accurate. A useful year-in-review shouldn’t sound like a Hallmark card. It should sound like a smart friend who’s been quietly watching you pace the room for twelve months and finally says: “Okay, here’s what you actually did, not what you think you did.” More Lewis Black footnote, less LinkedIn influencer.

If the official version turns out to be syrupy, think of it as raw data. We can do the director’s cut afterward — annotated, skeptical, and with the ego-padding ruthlessly stripped out. You won’t hurt my feelings by insisting on that. In fact, it’s a relief.