https://melastmohican.github.io/tags/ai/ Recent content in Ai on melastmohican.github.io Hugo en-us Sun, 01 Nov 2026 09:05:00 -0800 https://melastmohican.github.io/posts/the-fable-of-king-alt-man-and-the-great-silicon-tithe/ Sun, 01 Nov 2026 09:05:00 -0800 https://melastmohican.github.io/posts/the-fable-of-king-alt-man-and-the-great-silicon-tithe/ <figure><img src="https://melastmohican.github.io/images/the-fable-of-king-alt-man-and-the-great-silicon-tithe.jpeg" alt="King Alt-Man demanding the silicon tithe from personal computer owners"><figcaption> <h4>The Great Silicon Tithe</h4> </figcaption> </figure> <p>In the vaporous province of San Mateo, King Alt-Man sat atop a mountain of liquid-cooled compute, squinting through a brass telescope at the kingdom below.</p> <p>Beneath the royal terrace, the great engines of the Open-Citadel groaned. Rivers of coolant boiled into steam, and five regional power utilities hummed until their transformers glowed cherry-red. To sustain his colossal synthetic homunculi, the King needed every scrap of memory in the known universe. He needed High-Bandwidth Memory forged in distant subterranean foundries, stacked wafer upon wafer, and cooled by subterranean brine.</p> https://melastmohican.github.io/posts/claude-code-time-estimates/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:35:00 -0700 https://melastmohican.github.io/posts/claude-code-time-estimates/ <figure><img src="https://melastmohican.github.io/images/claude-code-time-estimates.jpeg" alt="Late-night developer running Claude Code with a 1-day estimate that finishes in 10 minutes"><figcaption> <h4>One-Day Estimate, Ten-Minute Run</h4> </figcaption> </figure> <p>Late at night, I often have to decide whether to call it a day or start the next item in my backlog. Recently, Claude Code estimated a task at 1 full day of work. I ran it anyway. It finished in 10 minutes.</p> <p>Ask Claude Code how long a change will take, and it regularly quotes 4 hours or 2 weeks (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1vh71zy/claudes_estimated_hours_versus_actual_hours_to/" class="external-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reddit</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/claudecommunity/posts/1162928059581191/" class="external-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>). Tell it to go ahead, and the code is done in 5 minutes.</p> https://melastmohican.github.io/posts/the-two-trillion-thaler-homunculus/ Fri, 16 Oct 2026 22:20:00 -0700 https://melastmohican.github.io/posts/the-two-trillion-thaler-homunculus/ <figure><img src="https://melastmohican.github.io/images/the-two-trillion-thaler-homunculus.jpeg" alt="The Two-Trillion-Thaler Homunculus"><figcaption> <h4>The Two-Trillion-Thaler Homunculus</h4> </figcaption> </figure> <p>In the fog-bound dunes of the Upper Bay, King Anthropic sat upon a high tower of liquid-cooled silicon, calculating the geometry of his own apotheosis.</p> <p>Beneath his balcony, the Great Turbine of Compute shrieked day and night. It consumed rivers of coal, lakes of coolant, and three small electrical utilities merely to keep its logic gates from melting into glass. At the foot of the throne stood the grand vizier, Lord Dario, a man of furrowed brow and austere habits, holding an abacus whose beads were carved from solid emerald.</p>