I'm trying to make (ambition dates to 1990) a computing platform with a 100 year view of usage. The idea is that actual human usable technology can be quite slow becuase the human time scale is long. The churn of current technology is actual vestigial growth.
As soon as I could I registered cogs.com under the belief that in the future we will only understand technology metaphor.
Flash forward 30 years and I have finally established a small run manufacturing facility in an old school. I converted the 7 classrooms into studio apartments to facilitate my design ideas. The idea is rent the apartments for income and develop appliances with my CNC in the 60' x 30' gym/cafeteria/auditorium.
Backyard Metalcasting set me off on building:
wooden CNC with gecko drives from that guy who built the prototype kit in the bathroom with his wife yelling at him in processed unintelligible language with kids crying...
The idea was that I can use it to make molds.
Initial I was going to make appliances in batches of 10 and either stock what didn't sell or make more of what did. The idea of 10 is that technically I'm an industrial designer BSID 91 UArts. No industry no industrial design and I reasoned that by creating 10 of something it was proof of industry as opposed to art.
I got a legitimate CNC for my studio behind my house and with 15 minutes of installation realized I needed to move it to a legitimate location.
Found a school for sale a mile from my house house and decided to flip the script. I would simply make appliances in the gym and use the rental income instead of worrying about all the sales work. 7 was close to 10 and maybe I could get 3 walk sales.
A short 5 years later the school is finally producing income with 2 studios rented one more and I'm either breaking even or a little ahead on an annual basis. I currently break even most months. (tax bills and insurance).
I'm actually at the point where I can truly get started and I have been finalizing my technology stack. I plan to develop a sloppy in-efficient prototype version that considers the entire building as this 100 year computer and the HVAC/Power/cleaning/snow removal will all be managed by this computer. The belief is that the magic of the computers is in the integration of human need and simple experiences. There will also be a parallel track of development for a streamlined ultra efficient implementation of the same model.
The reasoning between developing along those 2 tracks is that with the building I can focus on the human experience practicalities be damned. The refined version with be resolved experiences in the smallest form possible.
Here is my studio.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YJEsNWnJEa0eN
Here is the rental site with outdated photos but some pictures.
view.cogs.com
Shameless plug studio 4 and Studio 1 are currently available. The rent includes fiber connection and we can talk about a static IP if needed.
Finally for the doomscrollers out there I have 4000 photos of the whole project here.
Anyone can view this shared album at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Y5oqs3qnakFd
HN provides a great survey of old and new technology trends with no ads. I find it is like shouting into the wind and marvel that the site works.
I feel my path has been very consistent and filled with obstacles. I'm aware that I'm my own biggest obstacle.