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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

Collected updates about my two walking robots, the stepper motor quadruped and the hydraulic spider. Includes more video of the spider leg testing. writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/10/… #Robotics #hydraulics #3dPrinting

Half of a robot chassis balanced atop a big plastic jug, so that the two legs attached to the chassis hang down on either side of the jug. There are gearboxes, motors with a braid of four wires coming out of each, and tendons attached to the legs in evidence.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

This month's AI topic is nested narratives - more common than you might think, not just a literary device! writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/09/… #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #SymbolicAI #NLP #chatbots

A set of Matryoshka dolls from Hungary. There are six dolls; they have cream-colored bodies with red flowers painted on them, deep red head-scarves, and carrot-colored hair. The largest doll wears an open-mouthed smile; the next two down are pursing their lips and blushing.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

LEG. Still needs the hydraulics and springs installed. Two powered joints and passive ankle. #robotics

An arthropod sort of leg (3d-printed plastic joined with thin wire) attached to a flat body piece and resting in a neutral position on a coffee table. There's only one leg, so the body is supported on a tissue box and weighted down with a drinking cup that has a picture of the Endurance moon lander on it. The leg angles up to a "knee" joint and then back down to a flat round foot.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

I don't like the amount of play (out-of-plane rotation) in the homemade bearing, but it'll be fine until it's not. It does feel like it'll still be able to turn under weight, which is what it needs to do. #robotics #3dPrinting

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

First print of spider body came out pretty well. There's a hint of warping at the base of the leg joint that sticks out, but not enough to ruin it. #3dPrinting #robotics

A 3d printer in the act of printing a large flat white object with very low infill percentage.

The finished object, a flat panel with some raised elements and holes.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2026

It is my honor to announce that I'm officially published in Analog - "Roots' Remembrance" is OUT in the September/October issue! For more about this story and how to read it: writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/08/…

Photo of a "red cage fungus," which looks much like its name, on a backdrop of leaf litter.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

Looking a bit more fleshed-out ... Now, can I pull off the build? #robotics #3dPrinting #hydraulics

A 3D model of a robot platform. There's a pump in the middle, two fluid tanks, and a little "house" to hold battery packs. Stubs of eight legs surround the edges, sticking up from the platform.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2026

I've been helping Acuitas remember internal states he's "experienced" and talk about them in conversations. writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/07/… #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #chatbots #SymbolicAI

A question mark formed by a "word cloud" of phrases and symbols. Some of the most prominent words are "I am," "here," "being," and "now." Prominent symbols include the Earth, a spiral, and various depictions of weather.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/07/2026

Plans and progress toward a walker robot that will use all that hydraulics work I've been doing! writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/07/… #robotics #3DPrinting #hydraulics

A 3D model of a little spinning "joint" attached to the base of a "leg," only one section of which is visible. There's a valve stem sticking out of part of the joint.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2026

More cleanup and polishing in this month's Acuitas diary. I added the last features to the new Episodic Memory, and worked on (but couldn't quite finish) rule-following in the Game Engine […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

A large classical building with a stylized American flag hanging between the columns of the front portico's colonnade. Broad stairs with several people on them lead up to the portico. In the foreground a city street with trees and five parked cars is visible.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/06/2026

Updates on the quadruped robot: writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/06/… I am about ready for final assembly and a proper test of the new motors, though that will have to wait until <gestures vaguely>. #robot #robotics #3dPrinting

A 3D model of part of a robot, showing four gearboxes stacked together with a "shoulder joint" connected to one side and a "spine" joined into the center.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/05/2026

Lots of miscellaneous improvements this month - I went back to *actually finish* new Acuitas features I started earlier this year! writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/05/… #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #NPL #SymbolicAI #chatbot

Standard logic gate symbols laid out as if they were circuit components, with traces running between them as if on a PCB, such that they form a stylized tree. Black-and-white art, ink on paper.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/05/2026

Haha (the circle is a motion detection target).

A camera feed of a messy living room. A tuxedo cat is sprawling in the middle of the scene, surrounded by various toys. A blue circle has been drawn around the end of the cat's tail.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/05/2026

Trying out my new I2C-equipped solenoid drivers and ADCs I got for the hydraulic robot. I am ready to control a bajillion valves ... #robotics #hydraulics

A bunch of electronics laid out on the floor of a medium-size cardboard box. There are a Raspberry Pi, there peripheral boards, three little solenoid valves, and two battery packs (one connected to the Pi and the other awkwardly alligator-clipped to some of the other boards).

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/04/2026

Who's moving jobs to Blue Origin and is over the moon about it? It's me! I start May 18.

A dark-blue starfield with a bit of nebula catching the light in places, and a cutout of a white feather superimposed on it.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/04/2026

I worked on improving Acuitas' trial-and-error learning algorithms this month, so he can get better at playing "guess my rule" games: writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/04/… #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #chatbots #NLP #SymbolicAI

Photo of a board game called Azul. An assortment of colorful square tiles are laid out on a five-by-five grid in the game tray. The rest of the tray has diagrams and empty squares that might be places to put additional tiles.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026

Looking good! The printed inlets look better since I 1) improved bed leveling, 2) randomized the Z seam, and 3) changed the model to thicken the flange and increase both the inner and outer diameter of the tube.

A black plastic water bladder swollen with water, attached by its inlet valve to a tube leading to a syringe.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/04/2026

Success #2: I do seem to be able to heat-fuse 3D-printed polypropylene with my polyethylene film. Despite being technically different materials, these are a lot more willing to be friends than PLA and PE. #robotics #hydraulics

Closeup of someone's fingers flexing two flat pieces of plastic (a little square of film and the underside of a valve stem) in a way that shows they're stuck together.

A sheet of plastic film with a valve stem sticking up from a little hole cut in the center. The top surface of the film around the stem bears the scars of melting.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/04/2026

First try sealing polyethylene film to a polyethylene tube, and it worked out! Besides matching materials, I needed pressure - the heat gun alone won't do it. Had to use the soldering iron behind aluminum foil. #robotics #hydraulics

The bottom of a translucent tube flared into a puddle of plastic and stuck to the underside of a piece of black plastic film.

The tube poking up through the top side of the black plastic film. The film is visibly distorted and tattered by melting.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026

Read: "Beneath the Rising" (Premee Mohamed). This was fantastic. It's the first good modern treatment of cosmic horror that I've read, and definitely my favorite of the books by new-to-me authors that I picked up to try recently. The pacing is excellent; the […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/04/2026

Shout-out to this ancient (I think it's 50+ years old) soil test kit I inherited from my dad's junk collection. All the reagents still worked. I'm a little low on nitrogen and probably more alkaline than a lot of plants prefer, but the garden is in good shape otherwise.

A metal toolbox with a bunch of reagent bottles, funnels, test tubes, and other bits loaded into it. The paper on the inside of the lid says "The sure way to a BETTER GARDEN: Sudbury Soil Test. Tender, delicious VEGETABLES ... and more of them." Similar advertising copy is partly hidden behind an instruction booklet titled "How to increase crop yield and improve quality by soil testing."

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/04/2026

The year's indoor potato starts, before I put them out. I also planted some straight outdoors, so this year the two groups can race. #gardening #plants

A bunch of potatoes in those little plastic pots that new plants come in, sitting on a rug in front of a sliding glass door. There is also a sleeping tricolor tabby cat stretched out on another rug just behind them.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026

Atronach's (second) eye, without wiring. Building up the first one gradually left me without an appreciation of how much tedious effort goes into assembling one of these. Not sure if I can really do anything about that in future iterations or not. #robotics #3dprinting

A 3d-printed "eyeball" with a camera in the center, inside a shroud in which it can rotate. The shroud is mounted inside a larger case that holds the motors and several circuit boards.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2026

This month's Acuitas diary concerns more bugs and enhancements in the Conversation Engine. It's been a tangled mess, but I am slowly refining it ... writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/03/… #SymbolicAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #chatbots

A grayscale oil painting of five human figures sitting in a loose circle, facing inward. It's very abstract with minimal detail.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/03/2026

Progress is slow, but in the background I am still gradually working on this year's robotics projects (these are ACE's gearboxes for the better motors, which I still need to buy). #robotics #3dPrinting

A bunch of black-and-white gearboxes, made from 3d-printed parts and ballpoint pens, scattered on a fuzzy blanket.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/03/2026

Read: "Draw One in the Dark" (Sarah Hoyt). Kyrie is just staying in control of her "hallucinations" about turning into a panther, when she learns one of her co-workers turns into a dragon - and is in big trouble with a lot of other dragons - and might've […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Cover art for "Draw One in the Dark," by Sarah A. Hoyt. A big blue dragon with curling horns that point back from his forehead is rearing up in the center, wings outspread and mouth open. A body, partly covered in blood, lies just in front of the dragon. A cityscape can be seen in the background.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2026

Read: "Unexploded Remnants" (Elaine Gallagher). The last living human stumbles on a superweapon containing an uploaded sapient mind, and must run a race across the galaxy trying to "defuse" it/him before power-hungry enemies catch up. I was excited about this […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Cover art of "Unexploded Remnants" by Elaine Gallagher. A woman in a brown coat is running toward the left-hand side of the view. She is reaching into a satchel on her near hip to finger a glass cylinder with metal caps on its ends; the cylinder glows and is full of swirling blue and green colors. The background is an outdoor bazaar, roofed with fabrics and crowded with odd-looking people.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/03/2026

It WORKED - for a few minutes. I had the needle oscillating around an equilibrium point and generating a PWM voltage as the phototransistor clicked on and off. I could drop a little carpet fuzz on it and see the avg voltage change. Then the op-amp mysteriously […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

A little needle connected to an electromagnet (the movement from an analog meter) shared a plastic frame with a t-slot optical interrupter. There's a tiny paper flag on the part of the needle that passes through the interrupter's slot, so if it drops too low it'll block the light path. This assembly is connected by wires and alligator clips to a circuit on a breadboard. Capacitors, resistors, potentiometers and a couple ICs are visible.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/02/2026

In this developer diary I revisit the Episodic Memory system and figure out how to observe its results so I can actually debug the thing ... writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/02/… #ArtificialInteligence #AI #NLP #SymbolicAI #chatbots

Art piece: colored pencil and ink. A horizontal view, half-underwater, half-overwater, of the "beach" of a coral atoll. Everything is rendered in brilliant blues. Above the water, the atoll in the distance rears up into shapes that somewhat resemble chess pieces: a castle, a knight, a pawn. Surf crashes against one side of the atoll; a steamship is riding the crest of a wave toward it. Below the water, the branching hard corals are visible close up; they have multicolored, faceted surfaces, like cracked glass. A chessboard also lies on the sea bottom, partly covered by coral crust. The board is set in the midst of play, but not with the traditional pieces; these pieces resemble paws, hands, tentacles, tree stumps, and other oddities.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2026

Recent work on Acuitas includes the slightly awkward debut of what I call the "self-teaching activity." The gist is that I want Acuitas to look for his own new reading material. Read about it here […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Illustration of a humanoid robot sitting at a desk and pondering a book, surrounded by stacks of other books.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2026

I haven't had the spare energy to chatter on social media much lately, but I've still got lots of projects moving ahead. Here's the mount and circuit prototype for the high-precision scale.

A breadboard with a bunch of components on it. Sitting in the background is a little plastic frame with the needle movement from an analog meter and a t-slot optical interrupter mounted in it.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/01/2026

Read: "The Infinite and the Divine" (Robert Rath). My friends are making me read 40K books again, and I'm gonna be hard on this one. No disrespect to the author's skill, he did a good job on this *thing.* But it's definitely not my thing. "Brothers of the […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/01/2026

New long-form book review: "Autonomous" by Annalee Newitz. On the whole I don't recommend this one, but it's fun to consider how well its perspective on AI holds up. writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/01/… #AI #amReading #bookstodon

Cover art for "Autonomous" by Analee Newitz. The severed arm of a humanoid robot is shown with the hand reaching upward, and a shackle clamped about the wrist. A chain attached to the shackle extends off the left side of the cover. The background is a flat dark blue. There's also a quote by Neal Stephenson: "Autonomous is to biotech and AI what Neuromancer was to the internet."

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/01/2026

Read: "Wool" (Hugh Howey). This was a re-read, and it felt just as good this time as it did many years ago. Howey builds a superb thriller out of the bizarre social dynamics of a society confined to an underground bunker. An interesting quirk is that the […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Cover art for "Wool" by Hugh Howey. It's just splashes of red and orange texture on a black background - it looks a bit like foaming lava, through a friend of mine thought it was supposed to be the foggy glass of an environmental suit visor. Also on the cover are a few blurbs: "The Sunday Times Bestseller," "The next Hunger Games" (quote from the Sunday Times), and "If the lies don't kill you, the truth will."

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/12/2025

This year I accomplished a lot, and it was exhausting. Join me as I appreciate what I was able to do and reassess my time management: writerofminds.blogspot.com/2025/12/… #AI #robotics #writingCommunity

Art of a flock of brown birds (swallows, perhaps) swooping up from the lower left. A single bird has gotten ahead of the the flock and appears about to touch a sun-like fiery globe in the upper right corner. The background is abstract; the birds are leaving a swooping gray wake on the left side, pale blue clouds surround the sun, and the rest of the scene is a flat light blue or white.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/11/2025

#Caturday seems like a good time to introduce Gwydion, my gift from the Cat Distribution System. I took him in on Wednesday and have confirmed with the neighbors that he's a stray who gets fed at several houses. I've been rather distracted by seeing to his needs since.

Close-up of a tuxedo cat relaxing on a blanket, looking forward and showing his bright yellow-green eyes.

A tuxedo cat lies curled on a blanket underneath a ratty old orange chair.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/11/2025

Christmas presents complete! This is a seven-letter build of Cees' Cryptex (www.printables.com/model/28937-cryp…). Tougher than I expected (a little elephant foot will throw off the letter wheel/encoder tolerances), but amazing once I got it right. #3dPrinting

Photo of a cryptex - a cylindrical combination lockbox with wheels that form a password when properly rotated. This one is partly open, showing the interior tube where you can store secrets. The endcaps are matte brown with silver accents, and the letter wheels alternate in marble and ivory colors.

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WriterOfMinds (she) @writerofminds.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/11/2025

I finally review the other Steve Grand book, "Creation," which is about how he made his video game "Creatures." Unlike Lucy, this project got finished, so it's more resolved and less speculative. The book still ends up in very philosophical territory […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

A screenshot from the original Creatures game, obtained from old-games.com. It shows a cross-section of three floors of a large communal house, including a kitchen, some kind of mechanical room, and a computer room. Part of an outdoor environment with trees and sunflowers is also visible. There are three norns in view; two appear to be interacting, and one of these has a speech bubble up and is talking gibberish.

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