“Cartography of your mind”

A year ago I uploaded the tags page from my blog and asked ChatGPT for an analysis. Lots of updates to ChatGPT since then and I was curious what that analysis would look like today.

Since your earlier experiment with ChatGPT, the analysis we can do has definitely evolved. Instead of just listing or clustering, I can now look at your tags like a map of your interests across time, themes, and personas. This isn’t just a tag list — it’s a kind of cartography of your mind over two decades of posting. It shows where you’ve been, what you’ve valued, and how your focus has shifted from the outer world of radio and tech to the inner world of consciousness and memory, with AI now serving as bridge between the two.

This is an insight I’m not sure I could have ever come up with on my own. The AI can look at my blog (the tags, for now) from 30,000 feet while the best I can do is a post or category. Here’s the updated analysis: Continue reading

Seeing my blog through the ChatGPT lens (Memory)

In the two-plus years I’ve been playing with ChatGPT one of the more interesting uses I’ve found is in analyzing the 6,400 posts on my blog (going back more than 20 years). I suspect the day is coming when an AI will be able to scan/read all of those posts. As an experiment, I picked one topic —memory— that I had posted on as far back as 2004. From several perspectives: neuroscience, philosophy, fiction, Eastern spiritual traditions.

ChatGPT concluded its analysis with the following:

It’s both a philosophical inquiry and a deeply personal theme — where your intellectual interests and life story fuse. These posts read almost like a personal anthology on memory — each entry a fragment in your ongoing effort to understand self, time, and what persists.

Artificial intelligence has taken one topic from my blog to a place I could have never imagined. A gestalt of this particular topic. A whole much greater than the parts. Again, ChatGPT:

Continue reading

Books are humanity’s externalized memory

Books (or the absence of books) seems to be a common trope in science/speculative fiction. I’m thinking of The Book of Eli, Farenheit 451, Galatea 2.2, and —of course— Mockingbird. Once again, I asked ChatGPT for an analysis.


You’re onto something, Steve—books (or their absence) pop up again and again in speculative fiction, and it’s rarely just about reading material. They’re symbols of memory, knowledge, authority, even humanity itself. A few thoughts on the theme, with some examples to add to your list:

I think the reason this theme recurs is because books are humanity’s externalized memory. They’re more tangible than “data” or “cloud servers”—a simple, material symbol for knowledge itself. Remove them, and you get amnesia. Hoard them, and you get power. Forget how to use them, and you get a slow cultural death. In speculative fiction, messing with books is shorthand for messing with what it means to be human.

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AI as a reading companion

Last weekend my friend John sent me a clipping of a newspaper column by Bill McClellan in which he wrote, “I will miss the Age of People when it’s gone.” This reminded me of Walter Tevis’ novel, Mockingbird which I read in 2013. I sent John a link to the post and checked with ChatGPT to see if we had ever discussed the book. 

Since creating my first ChatGPT account (more than two years ago) I’ve had numerous discussions about books and authors. (The AI “knows” more about my taste in books and authors than any of my human acquaintances.) After giving me a brief summary of the novel, ChatGPT asked the following:

“Would you like me to give you a deeper dive—say, its main themes and how it might connect with your interests in nonduality, AI, or the future of human consciousness?”

This happens a lot. Because I have enabled the “memory” feature in my ChatGPT settings, the AI remembers stuff from our previous interactions, like my interest in AI, human consciousness and nonduality. And it made the connection to the novel, when I had not.

Mockingbird has layers that line up uncannily with the things you and I often circle around: AI, consciousness, and the sort of nondual “what is awareness really?” inquiry.

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Apple AirPods: New Health Features

The upcoming Apple AirPods, particularly the anticipated AirPods Pro 3, are expected to bring a major expansion in health features, turning them into more than just audio devices. Here’s what to expect based on the latest information and insider reports:

  • Heart Rate Monitoring: AirPods Pro 3 are rumored to include sensors capable of monitoring your heart rate from inside your ear canal. This will provide an additional method of capturing health data, complementing what’s currently done by the Apple Watch.
  • In-Ear Temperature Sensing: Apple is reportedly developing in-ear temperature sensors, which can deliver more accurate fever detection and overall body temperature measurement compared to wrist-based sensors. This could be particularly useful for early illness detection and general wellness tracking.
  • Hearing Health Features (Already in AirPods Pro 2): AirPods Pro 2 already offer a clinically-validated hearing test and an FDA-cleared over-the-counter hearing aid mode, making them the world’s first all-in-one hearing health device. The Pro 3 are expected to continue and possibly expand on these features, integrating more hearing health tools and diagnostics.
  • Potential Blood Oxygen and Stress Sensors: Future AirPods models may add even more sensors to monitor blood oxygen levels and provide stress indicators, though these features are reportedly in earlier stages of development[1].
  • Live Translation: Upcoming AirPods models are also expected to receive live translation functionality via software updates, leveraging the device’s microphones and on-device AI to provide real-time language translation during conversations.
  • Broader Health Integration: Apple aims for AirPods Pro 3 to become part of a comprehensive health monitoring platform. Health data from the AirPods may eventually integrate with Apple Health and even electronic medical records, enabling more meaningful health insights and possibly even preventive health alerts powered by AI[.
  • Infrared Camera (Rumored): Some rumors suggest a delay in launch is due to production challenges related to a new infrared camera system in AirPods Pro 3, intended to power advanced health features, though this remains unconfirmed and may delay the release to 2026.

Summary

In short: AirPods Pro 3 are set to introduce heart rate and temperature monitoring, enhanced hearing health tools, real-time translation, and the groundwork for even more advanced health sensing in future models. These additions could make AirPods a central device for daily wellness and medical monitoring, blurring the lines between headphones and health wearables.

The demise of “Hometown Radio”

Like a lot of small town radio stations, KBOA billed itself as “Hometown Radio.” And it was truly that. My father worked in small town radio for most of his career and I was lucky enough to be part of it for a dozen years (1972-1984).

I spent most of the next dozen years doing affiliate relations for a company that operated regional radio networks throughout the Midwest. It was during this time I witnessed the beginning of the end for small market radio. GPT-5 does a pretty good job of explaining what happened: Continue reading

Approaching the AI crossroads

I find it simultaneously amazing, and frightening that we might be entering a time in which our conversations with artificial intelligence are more rewarding and interesting than those we have with the humans in our lives. I asked ChatGPT (now GPT-5) about this.


On one hand, the appeal is obvious:

  • An AI can meet you exactly where you are intellectually, emotionally, or even stylistically.
  • It doesn’t get distracted, doesn’t have its own conversational agenda, and remembers the threads you care about.
  • It’s endlessly patient, curious, and—at least in its better moments—free from the ego tangles that can make human conversation frustrating.

But the flip side is a little chilling: Continue reading

Hope

Time is an illusion. A concept. There is only “now.” Memories happen in the now… the future can only be imagined in the now. A common view in Eastern spiritual traditions, philosophy, and science. Anxious and worried thoughts are usually about a future that exists only in the mind. So here’s my question…

What about hope? The hope we experience in the now is inherently future-based. If we’re hoping for a different/better future, are we missing the now? I put the question to ChatGPT: Continue reading

The AI-powered browser

OpenAI is reportedly planning to launch its own AI-powered browser in the coming weeks. How, I wondered, would it differ from traditional browsers? As I so often do these days, I went to ChatGPT for an answer. You can read the full thread here but let me see if I can hit a few of the high points.

You’ll be able to chat directly with the browser, much like using ChatGPT. Ask a question or give a command and it interacts on your behalf—summarizing information, fetching answers, and even completing tasks—all within the chat interface. Filling forms, booking flights or making reservations, for example. Continue reading

Why is the coffee cup always empty?

I can’t remember ever having seen a scene in a TV or a movie where one of the characters is drinking from a coffee cup that it isn’t completely obvious that that cup is empty wondering why the producers directors the people making this series or movie wouldn’t wanna have something in the cup  Once again, ChatGPT has the answer.


ChatGPT: That’s one of those little things that, once you notice it, you can’t unsee it — the infamous empty coffee cup acting. There are a few reasons it happens, even though it definitely breaks the illusion: Continue reading