miki_tyler

The way I see it is the model playing memento, leaving information and clues to its next generations hidden somewhere.

You don’t need a license for that.

This is so cool! Congrats!

I did:

https://thelydianstone.com/

It happens to me when I am taking creatine. As you did, I trained myself to keep my eyes shut until it is safe to reopen them. I do this automatically now.

Very nice project!

Is the editor/composer separate from the runtime?

If I build a workflow in the visual editor, can I use that same flow inside my own app just by using the runtime/engine? Or is it mainly tied to the Statewright platform and Claude Code plugin?

I’m wondering if the runtime can be used as a standalone piece to power apps I build.

lol, yes, it was.

Their universes disconnect the moment they make contact, but Marcus knows Pompeii well and escapes the eruption just before it happens. So he can point Ulyses to places where things will be buried or hidden.

I also needed the relationship to go both ways, not just Marcus getting ideas from the future. That makes the plot more interesting.

I know and love the Acoup Blog, and the premise of the story does not contradict what Acoup says. In fact, if you look carefully, there is an Easter egg hidden somewhere in the story about the Acoup Blog.

You're only as good as the tools you use. They are improving fast though, you can already see a noticeable difference between the artwork in Volume 1 and Volume 2, and they were made about six months apart.

I actually disagree a bit. The whole premise of the story is that there are shortcuts indeed, when someone has the entire tech tree available at the push of a button.

The Romans were very capable engineers. If you give them a few key ideas and steer them away from dead ends, progress can compress a lot.

I know Lest Darkness Fall. It’s great. Someone recommended it in the Hacker News thread when I posted the first volume, so I read it after that.

A few months ago, I shared the first issue of The Lydian Stone Series here [0].

It was a raw "proof-of-concept" about an archaeology student in Pompeii who can text across time to a Roman slave. The feedback was better than I ever expected, so I kept writing.

A few weeks ago I released Volume 2, and today I’m releasing Volume 3: The Boats.

As with Volume 1 and 2, Diffusion models generate and refine the visual layer. The narrative, research, and script are by the author.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story's direction, the pacing, and the overall plausibility of the industrial shift.

Any and all feedback is welcome!

[0] Vol 1 thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44253083

I count on external power. Solid state components are definitely a challenge.

Just finished the spinning and weaving post on the ACOUP blog, absolutely brilliant. So much depth packed into it, and every bit of it feels valuable. One of the best breakdowns I’ve ever read on how labor shaped everyday life. Thanks for this.

Thanks for taking the time to dig in, this is exactly the kind of feedback I'm after.

Agreed, this is a work of fiction, after all. But what if I put a few traders or patricians on the brink of bankruptcy? That would create the right incentives. Then I give them just enough tools to dig themselves out. Things might start to shift from there.

Absolutely, I get that. But the whole idea behind the story is to introduce outside knowledge into the Roman world. If someone managed to bring steam power to ancient Rome, it would trigger a complex chain of events, a kind of technological revolution. It probably wouldn't resemble our own Industrial Revolution. For example, I don't see railroads becoming a priority. Rome's geography is centered around the Mediterranean, and most trade happens by sea. So steamboats it is.

I see your point, however, the idea is to introduce engineering knowledge from the outside. Think of the duct tape scene in Apollo 13: a group of engineers gathered around a table, someone dumps a pile of random items, and says, "We have to find a way to make this thing using nothing but that." What's the minimum set of tools and knowledge that, dropped into the Roman world, could solve a specific technological problem.

故事讲的是未来的人将达芬奇的设计图送给罗马人

It’s not so much about using only Roman technology to build a steam engine directly. The more interesting question is: what’s the smallest set of tools the Romans could have made that would let them build a basic working steam engine?

One of the fun things about writing fiction is that I don’t have to stick to the natural flow of events the way history actually unfolded.

Kind of like how some countries in Africa skipped landlines and went straight to mobile phones, I can let the Romans stumble onto just the right ink recipe a bit early.

That’s something I really want to explore. If Rome had an industrial revolution, where progress didn’t rely on slaves anymore, it could lead to big political conflicts. You’d have the old guard trying to hold on to power, and a new group pushing for change, a la American Revolution.

Not my intention. I actually broke the process down by task and role in the themakingof/ section. If I had drawn the sketches myself, just the line work would’ve taken about 50% more time, before even getting to color.

As for the writing, the story, structure, dialogue, I’d say 90–95% of it is human-made. If there’s anything you’re curious about that’s not covered on the site, I’m happy to share more details.

I’m familiar with it. Not sure what ended up happening to the project though.

I explain the whole process in “The Making Of” section, but happy to share more here if you have specific questions!

He might have a "cameo". At some point I will need the Romans to make screws and nuts!

Absolutely. One of the reasons I chose ancient Rome over other settings is simply because, while I’m no expert, it’s the one I know the most about.

Yes, exactly! Even the simplest printing press needs a screw, a nut, and movable types, each one is its own little invention. To make just those three things, they need good metalworking skills, a way to make threads that fit together, and tools to shape the letters. So even one simple machine like the most basic printing press depends on a bunch of other smaller breakthroughs. That’s what makes it so fun to think about, every step opens the door to ten more.

Apologies, I use 11ty for most of my personal projects. It’s primarily a static blog generator, but I also use it for plain web pages. I forgot to delete the example blog post pages that came with the template. It didn’t even occur to me that someone might want to use the RSS feed!