Essays on AI, software, and the world they're reshaping.
Mostly arguments about power, money, and attention — with notes on the systems I build in between. Grouped by what they are about; filter by stage for the date-ordered archive, or browse by topic.
SEEDLING Rough notes, still formingBUDDING Developing, partially revisedEVERGREEN Considered finished and maintained
Budding
49- BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Science Studies for People Who Like Science
The social construction of scientific facts doesn't make them less real. It makes the work that produced them more interesting. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Self-Hosting Is Political
Running your own infrastructure is a small assertion of autonomy against platforms built to make autonomy impossible. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Cooperatives Actually Work
Worker-owned businesses survive longer, pay better, and don't require exploitation. The barriers are political, not economic. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Mutual Aid Isn't Charity
Charity flows downward and keeps hierarchy intact; mutual aid flows sideways and builds power instead. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
The Commons Never Left
Common-pool resources exist everywhere. We just stopped seeing them. The tragedy of the commons is a myth that served enclosure. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Degrowth Isn't Primitivism
You can have modern medicine and less stuff. Degrowth targets material throughput, not quality of life. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Why Your City Is Expensive
Housing costs aren't natural market outcomes. They're policy choices defended by people who benefit from artificial scarcity. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Rural America Isn't What You Think
The countryside isn't monolithically conservative. It's complicated, abandoned, and organizing in ways that defy stereotypes. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Your Workplace Could Be Organized
What a union drive actually looks like, which is less dramatic and more possible than the picket-line version in your head. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Code Walkthrough: React, CSS animations, and state management
A few working examples for React components, CSS animations, and state, written to be copied and broken. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
How I Built This Site: A Technical Deep Dive
The architecture and decisions behind lscaturchio.xyz, from Next.js 16 to RAG-powered search. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Software is Magic: Understanding Consciousness Through Computational Patterns
What it means to say your mind is software running on biological hardware, and why animists may have been pointing at something real.