iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 01/10/2026

Of course I have to squeeze some #education into my AI apocalypse single-webpage #game - there are now 58 reference links for the various advancements that improve your situation. Now you can waste four hours of your life while learning more about AI in an interactive manner. singularvalue.org

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 01/10/2026

singularvalue.org One webpage resource allocation game (works on mobile or desktop). Guide AI to superintelligence without messing up the world. Or focus on profit only. It's your choice. Link to Substack article about it in the first comment.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 25/07/2026

Certainty blocks curiosity Hence by negation, uncertainty aids curiosity Therefore uncertainty killed the cat Suddenly Schrödinger's thought experiment makes a lot more sense.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 22/07/2026

Geometry dash-style game on a $3 ESP32 C3 super mini board. 72x40 pixel screen, one button, 16 levels. Written in no_std Rust, MIT licensed. github.com/kf106/esp32-... #esp32 #rustlang #embedded #retrogaming #diyelectronics

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 16/07/2026

The more I know, the more I know how little I know.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/07/2026

I need my wife to stop anthropomorphizing our basil plants. Starting with a ban on giving them names.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 13/06/2026

I'm glad I got to write over half a million words on tech articles before AI came along. At least I managed to develop my own voice in time.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 13/06/2026

Investment opportunities require regulation because they fall on a scale from "honest", to "give insiders an unfair advantage" right along to "outright scam", and without full disclosure it's impossible to tell which applies, even with DYOR...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 13/06/2026

Legislating for things that don't exist is hard

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 12/06/2026

ILoveTaylorSwift is not a secure password, especially if your water bottle is covered with holographic stickers of her.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 09/06/2026

Just finished Pretenders to the Throne of God by @aptshadow.bsky.social and thoroughly enjoyed it Loved the way the structure of things was clarified. The demon kings are the equivalent of cloud service providers! Tyrant Philosophers is my favorite of his worlds (Final Architecture is a close 2nd)

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/06/2026

OSI layer 8: the human layer. We like to think we operate at a conscious level at all times, but if agency is sufficiently manipulated through dark patterns and default Pavlovian behaviors (e.g. accept all cookies), human attention and trust become just another layer on the computer network

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/06/2026

My wife asked me to sort the "lost souls" (our basket of mismatched socks). Instead I spent an hour building an LLM-powered sock-matcher. Camera, image piping, slick UI. She was so impressed. Then we tried it. Spent the next hour sorting socks manually.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 02/06/2026

Bought a Lenovo Thinkstation PGX for thousands of dollars, and cursing the fact that you have no idea if it's up and running? Spend a couple of bucks, and use this repo to know what it's doing by glancing across at the ESP32 board taped to it. blockchaingandalf.substack.com/p/monitoring...

blockchaingandalf.substack.com

Monitoring a Lenovo Thinkstation PGX

With the help of an ESP32-C3 Supermini OLED board

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 02/06/2026

You can use a $2 ESP32-C3 supermini OLED board as a status monitor for your headless PC. You know, when the PC manufacturer forgot to add status indicator LEDs or a screen to their device. It's licensed under MIT, so you're free to build on it as you please. github.com/kf106/esp32-...

github.com

GitHub - kf106/esp32-c3-supermini-oled-monitor: Small display unit for PC monitoring purposes

Small display unit for PC monitoring purposes. Contribute to kf106/esp32-c3-supermini-oled-monitor development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 29/05/2026

ZX Spectrum emulator on a $10 CYD (cheap yellow display) using the touch screen as a keyboard. So no extra hardware or peripherals required. github.com/kf106/cyd-zx...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 25/05/2026

A true mime does not seek permission.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 20/05/2026

I'm going to wish that a fantasy writer I read voraciously and whose work I love will write a book (or 3) in a world based on the Finnish mythology of the Kalevala (which has shamefully been overlooked compared to Norse or Greek mythology). And then I'm going to tag @aptshadow.bsky.social and wait.

Head of Väinämöinen by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1895, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4in%C3%A4m%C3%B6inen

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 19/05/2026

Strangely, of all the Eurovision entries this year, it's the Moldova one that has become an earworm.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 13/05/2026

My wife was furious with Crossplay today. "Is nudzh even an English word? The definition is noodge, but is that even an English word?" I resisted the temptation to tell her to stop complaining.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 09/05/2026

Let's be really clear: when a politician, influencer, or commentator starts their statement with "Let's be really clear," I immediately assume I'm about to hear or read total bullshit.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 06/05/2026

A month ago, when I called HMRC (the UK tax department), I was only transferred three times, and it only took 47 minutes. But then I got to talk to Jason, who seemed to know what he was doing. He did have to call two other departments though, to confirm.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 06/05/2026

- what do bondage, curves, and latex have to do with blockchain? - can werewolves help with business transformation? - does vodka help you traverse London faster? Find out if you watch Anthony Day and me talk about my latest book, Smart Contract Innovation. youtu.be/jkWPVTATJR4

youtu.be

Smart Contract Innovation Podcast with Anthony Day

YouTube video by Thinklair

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 05/05/2026

Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't change one's mind.' I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've changed my mind six times before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!”

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 30/04/2026

I don't have ADHD. At least, I think I haven't. I did a test to determine whether or not, but I got bored half way through it and gave up.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 27/04/2026

@amalelmohtar.com - is this a decent opening to a novel on time travel?

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 27/04/2026

AI is like politics - everyone I talk to seems to think their take on it is absolutely the correct one, regardless of whether they are massive fanboys, totally against it, or somewhere in between.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 26/04/2026

A good shower is like a top restaurant three-course meal, but with no calories.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 26/04/2026

Empathy that is a calculated move is not called empathy. It's called sociopathy.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 17/04/2026

Today's random thought: when flies partially digest their food externally, we call it disgusting. But when we do it, we call it cooking, and turn it into an art form. @aptshadow.bsky.social - as a bug-anthropomorphisist, what do you think?

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 15/04/2026

How the Finns sucker you in. "Our language uses the Western alphabet," they say. "One phoneme for each grapheme," they exclaim. "It's the most logical language on the planet," they promise. And then the horror begins...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/04/2026

The Three Laws of Enshittification:

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/04/2026

Short shameless self-promotion post. My publications look pretty cool when laid out on the floor. mybook.to/kf106

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 04/04/2026

My new book on blockchain innovation, smart contracts, the risk of quantum computing, and a whole bunch of other stuff is now available as an eBook. Check mybook.to/sci

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 30/03/2026

For the next 10 days my newest book is still available in hardback at the upcoming paperback price. mybook.to/sci

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 17/03/2026

When the master held up a mirror to the monk and asked, "What do you see?" the monk replied "Myself.” And then when the master shattered the mirror on the ground and asked, "Which one is you?" the monk hesitated. And then answered, "I thought sharding was planned for 2028." Book launch on 25/4!

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 10/03/2026

A startup I have been working for over the last five years has come out of stealth mode! Artema LABS, where we invent blockchain technologies. artemalabs.github.io/artema-inven...

artemalabs.github.io

Artema LABS Inventions Portfolio

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 09/03/2026

Exciting news: all the previous problems with the launch of my new book have been resolved! It will finally be available in print on 25 March, as a hardback, at paperback prices for the first two weeks. Leave a comment if you want me to send you a personal reminder.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 09/03/2026

Recourse: a topic rarely discussed in blockchain circles as it conflicts with the original idea of irreversible transactions. Blockchains were designed to behave like cash, but traditional finance relies heavily on recourse to allow transactions to be disputed and reversed. youtu.be/RgYlCsflHJY

youtu.be

Blockchain and recourse

YouTube video by Thinklair

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 08/03/2026

Got an old ZTE MF286 Tele2 router flashed with OpenWRT. The trick was to set the serial port baud rate to 118000 for the u-boot part of the device boot-up, which made ath> visible Only took four hours to work that out.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/02/2026

"A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to." Really? The greatest trick that wizards ever pulled was convincing the world that they had good time management skills...

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 07/02/2026

Conversation in the car with my kids (9 yrs old) this morning, on the way to the swimming pool: "Is 7racii famous?" "No, hardly anyone has heard the music." "Why is she so unappreciated?" "When did you learn the word 'unappreciated'?" "On Youtube." Note my clever deflection on the second question.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 23/01/2026

Whenever I get a notification from my mobile phone provider, insurer, power company, or rubbish collection service that "your monthly fees will change," they always go up. It's not always up, though.When my bank informs me that "the interest rate on your deposits will change," it always goes down.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 18/01/2026

I'm sure spending six hours writing an indexing extension for LibreOffice was worth it, as I am up to the letter R. Whereas without the indexing extension, I would be finished by now.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 11/01/2026

First draft of the Smart Contract Innovation book is done. 60k words, 215 pages. I'm waiting for the proofs, and then I can start indexing. Launch date is tentatively the last Thursday of January.

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Keir Finlow-Bates @blockchaingandalf.com · 03/01/2026

After a year of pulling at the same threads from different angles, I’m turning the work into a book. The working title is "Smart Contract Innovation"

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