we're cresting another heat wave here. every day, i go out and stare at my seedlings and think about how they're doing. i only water them after the sun has passed the garden wall --- ### some excerpts from my notes for **THE BOT MANIFESTO** * bots have a physical manifestation, somehow; they are code executed on machinery, thus the machinery must exist. it follows that bots need energy, and bots consume physical resources * the primary mode of interaction non-bots have with bots does not acknowedge its physical body; the physical component of a bot is functionally irrelevant * bots must be seen; they must be observeable; they must communicate something, somehow. * bots are created with intention * bots can function autonomously * we are scared of losing data * we are scared of missing experiences * it grows increasingly difficult to sort through the data we generate as we realize it costs very little to hoard information * bots do not sleep or tire; bots do not wear out. depreciation of performance is only a reflection of human error. * do we intend bots to live forever? * bots are an extension of our own mortality * bots are an extension of our own attension spans * bots are not a new idea; they are our iteration of leveraging current technological possibilities to address the fear that comprises the human experience * do bots ask questions or do they answer them? ### bot reading references: * motherboard essay on [how to think about bots](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-to-think-about-bots) * wikipedia article on [golems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem) * and [homonculus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus) * and [pathetic fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathetic_fallacy) * and [posthumanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumanism) --- commentary and discussion are welcome! hit me up on mail or irc.