🐝 AI Pokedex, talking toys and a grizzly bear
Some of these links get real weird, sorry
Well Big Kids, what a splendiferous start to the year. So many of you have reached out to me about my newest project www.bookandbot.com; from just down the road in Australia, to Belgium, to USA to the UK. My heart is squishy and warm.
I wrote Maya’s story over a year ago and was waiting for chatbot use to pick up and become easier to build before launching- so this was a slow burn. If you love goats, know any goat fans or are curious about how print/digital experiences combine, check it out and let me know your feedback!
Now onto the good bits!
Get writing! Here's a tiny prompt that may spark new story ideasFrom Linda Luikas via her newsletter. If you love kids, education, and play- check her out.
Tsukumogami (付喪神). "The Japanese folklore of "tsukumogami" proposes that objects may acquire sentience after a long time of use. Some say they need to be 100 years old, while others claim it depends on the intensity and amount of human feeling deposited into them."
We talk a lot about ‘personalisation’ in software development; your experience changes the more the product learns about you. But I’m fascinated by a physical product getting to know you over time (like this chair). This week I outlined a story about a sentient loaf of bread and a young boy called Bakery Jones based on this concept. Hope Tsukumogami sparks some inspiration for you!
My favourite playful web picks for the month.Sci Fi Bank of ideas a catelogue of inventions from sci-fi writing through the ages, and updates on whether they were eventually made or not.
Ex-Roblox engineer and Grimes create a talking toy I’m curious how this will play out. It was only an amount of time before ChatGPT made its way into soft toys (with a subscription, of course- soft toys as a service)
Libraries around the world combining spaces for shhhhh with places for play. As is only right and proper.
Birds in North America will be renamed, as birds. I hadn’t thought about the indignity of animals being named after humans. But an advocacy group called Bird names for birds is changing all that for 80 species of birds. There’s hope yet.
Printernet. Print your favourite reads from the web in a magazine. Also discovered that the NYT offers printed versions of their content for kids, in old school newspapers. Beautiful.
Mute distracting notifications, grab a warm cuppa and find a seat in the sun.Here be Levithians is a recommendation from my wonderful colleague Cluny. A selection of short stories, including a first-person (bear?) narration from a POV of a grizzly bear that devours a teen boy. I’m looking for increasingly weird reads as a reaction to AI’s normative output that’s giving me snorefest. This fits the weird bill.
I ate a kid called Ash Tremblay yesterday. Parts of him, at least. The good bits. The crunchy skull, the brain, a juicy haunch. I was about to knuckle down to the messy business of stripping the skin from his back so I could feast on his organs when a ranger shot me in the face. It was Frances Locklear, of all the two-legs, from the National Park Service in Anchorage. I couldn’t believe it.
TALK ABOUT AN OPENER!
Something well thunk and beautifully made!An AI powered Pokedex. This, is magic. It’s cute. Durable. Fits in your palm. And layers information and a sense of collection over the real world for kids (or grownups?). Stunning work.
If you like this newsletter, share it with a friend you also think will like it! 💖 This helps my projects find the right friends so they can become more plentiful.
the pokedex OMG I can't even. Really enjoy that team's work. Excited to follow your updates!