This month's update: Avatars, Fractals, & Signal Boosts

(⏱️ 4 min read)

(posting a day late, plz ignore)

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Quick time-sensitive announcement: If you know a high schooler who's into programming, skip to the end of this post to learn about a free(!) hackathon, set on a train going through the Canadian boreal forest. 🌲🌲🌲 Applications close June 10th!

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Hi y'all!

The response to AI Safety for Fleshy Humans: Part One was small, but good! I mean, a 20,000 word article? In this attention economy? So yeah, it didn't "do numbers", but a small niche of folks found it valuable anyway. Thank you all!

I'll be back on writing AI Safety: Part Two in June -- I took May off to recover from that looooong project.

So last month, here's what I made:

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😸 WebTuber [working title]

"VTuber" is a trend where livestreamers use software to put a 3D-ish cartoon avatar of themselves in their videos. "PNGTuber" is a subset of that, with flatter 2D avatars.

However, most tools for those require you to download something, or only work on Windows. Also there's some misc features I want, that other tools don't have.

So, I'm making my own free, open-source, no-download, in-the-web PNGTuber tool!

But wait, why do I want a PNGTuber-like tool in the first place?

As mentioned earlier, 20,000 word articles ain't exactly viral. It's a tough trade-off between "reach people where they are" and "cave in to the trends"... but I think I should at least explore making more educational videos. A PNGTuber-like tool would make making videos fun & easy for me.

Also, for making educational videos: A faceless voiceover seems too impersonal to me, but putting my actual face on it makes me uncomfortable. A cartoon avatar, à la 3Blue1Brown or CGP Grey, seemed like the happiest medium.

Plus, isn't it more fun to learn math from a cartoon catgirl?

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More generally, I want to "diversify my portfolio". For example, here's one possible "pipeline" to help me cheaply make lots of things in different mediums, to reach many different audiences:

1. 🕹️ Make a polished interactive simulation, publish as standalone website

→ 🎁 Convert to: small share-able GIFs

2. Write a script explaining the sim in more detail

→ 📺 Use WebTuber to have my avatar play the sim & explain it, upload video on YouTube

→ 🎞️ Cut video up into YouTube Shorts

→ 📜 Post script & sim on blog, as an Explorable Explanation

→ 🥜 Blog sections re-used as Nutshells

→ 🃏 Core takeaways re-used as Anki/Orbit spaced repetition flashcards

→ 📖 (Maybe one day the visuals + writing can be repackaged in a book?)

(Specifically, I'm thinking of doing this to my upcoming Artificial Neural Network sim. Which, to remind you, looks like this so far:)

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🏃‍♀️ Messing with GPU Stuff

Also last month, I started learning shaders/GPU stuff. This is so I can better do machine learning, physics simulations, math-art, etc.

For a first project, I made the Mandelbrot set, shaded with Bisexual Lighting:

No solid promises yet, but this may become another collab with a teenage programmer at Hack Club! We're thinking of making 1) an educational game for learning shaders, à la Flexbox Froggy, and 2) a tool/gallery like "ShaderToy, but with player interactivity".

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P.S: Here's a video (unlisted on YouTube) of me showing off Mandelbrot + WebTuber. Screencap below:

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🚨 This month's Signal Boosts

I reallllly oughta blog more often. So, at minimum, I'll try to do a monthly "Signal Boosts" posts, where I give mini-reviews of stuff I saw & loved the previous month.

Here's the first Signal Boosts posts!  AI papers, slapstick comedy, and more. (8 min)

Oh, but there is one time-sensitive thing I'd like to tell y'all about:

If you're a parent or teacher, and know a teenager who's into programming, consider telling them about...

A free(!!!) weeklong hackathon, to make new friends & make projects to save the environment, all on a cross-country Canadian train going from Vancouver to Montréal, passing through beautiful boreal forest.

Did I mention it's free, with travel grants? The only catch is applicants need to be in high school or earlier, and there's very limited seats.

Deadline to apply is June 10th. Tell the teenage hacker in your life about it asap! ⤵

🌲 THE BOREAL EXPRESS 🌲

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Anyway, that's all for this month! Next month [June], I'll continue the above projects, and work begins on AI Safety Part Two.

🤖,
~ Nicky Case