🏝Buy an Island Fortress, I see Dead Chatbots, and Wall Gardens

Use that wall space for gardening

Jan 25, 2021

Hey everyone! Hope you had a fantastic week last week.

I made a wonderful discovery that I am soo excited to share with you.

As you know, I’m a tad obsessed with Vaporwave, Lofi, and all that fun stuff. Well, I’ve just discovered that for the low, low price of $1, you can buy over 250 albums of Vaporwave/lofi/experimental electronic stye music.

Seriously!

Bandcamp is a beautiful indie music platform that I’ve played with in the past - but I’ve never quite dove in headfirst.

Well, I dove in, and there are so many gems on this platform.

like this album or this one and I really like this one

From Lofi to Vaorpwave, there’s all kind of fun music to listen to. No subscription here - you just buy the music outright and stream - or download it.

Want all these albums to listen to? Well, just buy the entire digital discography of Business casual on this link for ONE DOLLAR - There are 285 albums here.

Just scroll down on this page until you see that Full Digital Discography and buy em all for a buck.

Well, I don’t blame you if you head to that link - buy them - and then get distracted clicking around for the next two hours instead of reading further.

But, let’s hop into today’s topics shall we?

🏝Buy An Island Fortress

Fancy buying an entire Island Fortress off the coast of England? (Photo Source: Christies International Real Estate)

If you fancy living at sea and defending your home against sea pirates, I’ve got the perfect place for you.

For the low low price of 5.2 Million - You can have your very own castle off the coast of England.

The property, which is called Spitbank Fort, is one of three man-made islands built in the water surrounding the Isle of Wight by the British military during the 1860s and ‘70s, according to the New York Times. Primarily a defense outpost during much of its first century, the fortress has assumed several different identities since it was decommissioned during the middle of the last century, including turns as a museum, nightclub and boutique hotel. (Source)

It’s had quite a life over the years - and now it seems open to being a private home.

Don’t worry about leaky foundations or crappy rooms though, It’s been pimped out!

Spitbank Fort was purchased by entrepreneur Mike Clare back in 2009, who extensively refurbished the 33,000-square-foot, three-story property, including adding a freshwater well. Rooms are arranged in two concentric circles around the center courtyard, with guest suites on the outside and a library and lounge on the outside. Other luxe amenities include two kitchens, a dining room that can sit 60, a sauna, training center, a pool, two sun decks, a fire pit and crow’s nest that overlooks the rest of the property and let’s you watch for suave spies. (Source)

Personally, I think it would make the perfect place to build some sort of Pirate haven or decentralized micro-city - reminiscent of the Kowloon Walled City that used to exist in Hong Kong.

There’s a fun anime about this kind of thing - It’s hilarious. Check out Black Lagoon.

If you’d like to wander down this Rabbit hole of fantasizing about floating cities, you should check out the Floating Island Project - which may or may not ever exist.

Take a look at the official listing for the house!

I want a Fort

💀I See Dead Chatbots

Several years ago I read this article about Eugenia Kuyda, who created Replika AI - a chatbot that seeks to “become you” the more you talk with it. Her inspiration was the tragic passing away of a friend - and she fed his old texts into an AI to get the sense of talking with him.

Check out Replika.ai if you’re interested.

It’s a wild app - the more you talk to it, the more it tries to emulate you. Sometimes its responses can be downright unsettling and uncanny valleyish.

I’ve had it say some weird stuff to me - The app gets finicky the farther you go back in time - so I don’t have one in particular to show you.

Anyway, I bring it up because Microsoft has created a patent for talking to the dead - as a chatbot.

This patent envisions a system for taking digital content from a person ("images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages, written letters," the patent says) and using machine learning to train a chatbot on replicating how that person would sound. Is this the future of customer service or a really creepy way to honor loved ones who've died? Maybe both! (Source)

Here’s the link to the patent that Mike Murphy with Protocol found if you want to look it over.

Sounds like that episode of Black Mirror, doesn’t it?

It’s weird to see this kind of stuff getting close to the mainstream. Chatting with the “ghosts” of the dead? It’s nothing but a shadow of that person - a mimicry.

Would having such a thing even be healthy?

I wrote about this in my first novel, called “Cemetery Lights” back in 2015-2016. If you’d like to read it - I can send you a PDF copy of it.

Basically - it’s a mystery set in a world where when people die - they are turned into a Digital ghost/chatbot. They maintain their worldly assets, and are usually confined to living in graveyards via tombstones. Usually. There’s a Detective, a Digital Ghost, and Assassin, and more involved! (Haha).

How long will it be until Microsoft “acts” on this patent: Will it be an idea forever - or will it become a real product?

Only time will tell.

🌳Build a Wall Garden

Have you ever thought to yourself - “What should I do with that empty wall in my home/apt/business?”

Well - I’ve got an answer for you.

Vertical Farming!

For the personal home, I bring you MyGardyn. It’s a really cool Hydroponic AI-augmented garden system for your home.

The AI assistant Kelby is pretty interesting - using cameras to monitor your plants and let you know when they can be eaten. There’s even an app!

You can grow a variety of plants. Here’s a list. (Image Source) They say you can grow your own stuff but will the AI app help with them?

MyGardyn is cool - but it’s not cheap. It’s $899 for the Starter Kit - but then there’s the membership to consider. 10 monthly plant pods and access to Kelby.

I know it sounds wild - but they’ve managed to turn Gardening into a Subscription service.

Buy the Product (MyGardyn) - then Subscribe for the Convenience of the app.

As someone who used to garden - I know how to keep plants growing. However, MyGardyn opens up the hobby to everyone. Don’t know how to garden? Don’t worry! Let the app take care of it for you!

Also - the idea of having fresh produce every month sounds amazing. There are quite a few things you’d be able to cut from the grocery list with something like this. No cap - I’m starting to sell myself on buying this.

BUT - what about the large scale version of this?

Like the great walls of gardens in those futuristic cities

That’s where Vertical Field comes in to play.

They envision bringing vertical Fields to all kinds of businesses

With wall-to-fork in mind, our portable urban farms can be positioned inside or outside of supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, educational institutions, and much more. Our vertical farming systems are easy to operate without any training or professional agricultural expertise. All of our produce is pesticide-free and grown on beds of real nutrient-rich soil for an experience that is nourishing, healthy, and natural. (Source)

This sounds AWESOME!

Here’s one of their farms - in a simple Container home. You could use this for anything - a restaurant, store . . . wow.