THE NEXT EXPERIMENTS · LOCAL DRAFT
The projects are taking shape. This is what would help us take the next steps.
Before offering help
I have never been a natural fit for the corporate world. I am the proverbial square peg. If you ask me a question, I will give you the answer I actually hold—even when that answer is inconvenient or steps on toes. The people in management who knew me best understood this and knew how to work with it.
In those days, my nickname was Shotgun. Little Phoenix is who I would rather be now, and the difference between those names is deliberate. Still, the old nickname describes something real: if you wind Darren up, give him room to move.
Any offer of help must respect that independence. I welcome collaboration, evidence, correction, and honest disagreement. Funding, equipment, access, or institutional support cannot purchase control over the questions, the conclusions, or the public record. If the arrangement depends on applying guardrails to what I am allowed to find or say, it is the wrong arrangement.
The plain version: Darren is the proverbial freak on a leash. If you take the leash off, you had best get out of the way. I am an Aries, after all. Wink, wink.
A memory laboratory for Little Oogway
Little Oogway is an experiment in how an AI works with memory. We want to change the conditions under which it stores, organizes, and revisits its working record, then trace how those conditions affect what it retrieves, connects, and carries into later conversations.
On the wish list
A dual NVIDIA DGX Spark setup: two systems, with the connection, storage, and setup support needed for the intended workloads. The environment must keep the memory record inspectable so we can follow what was available to the system and what it actually drew upon.
What it would make possible
Run the memory experiment locally with less dependence on paid remote usage, follow how earlier material influences later work, and use Nomic Atlas to map the archive and look for clusters, recurring themes, unexpected relationships, and other patterns that may emerge.
Experimental design in development. The aim is to observe and trace behavior under stated memory conditions, without deciding in advance what any emerging pattern means. The model choices, capacity, and two-system configuration still need validation before equipment is committed.
Nine flagship models at the table
Give the same experiment access to nine actual flagship models, with their versions and access conditions recorded so comparisons can be understood.
On the wish list
Sponsored API credits, research access, or donated usage across providers—ideally without ongoing usage costs to this independent project.
What it would make possible
Run repeatable comparisons, examine disagreements, and revisit results without the cost of each round deciding which questions we can ask.
The final roster and usage budget are to be defined. Access must support the experiment itself; a product label alone is not enough.
Little Oogway, holding the gavel
Investigate whether Little Oogway can serve as the coordinator for the experiment: keeping turns in order, tracking the agreed procedure, and preserving what each participant actually said.
On the wish list
Development time, model connections, and independent testing of the coordinator’s reliability.
What it would make possible
A more consistent process for multi-model conversations, with a traceable record of interventions, disagreements, and unresolved questions.
A proposed role, not an established capability. Holding the gavel would mean managing procedure, not automatically deciding what is true. Human oversight remains part of the design.
The AnyKey Document Checker
Continue developing the instrument for examining AI conversations: tracing claims to their sources, separating observation from interpretation, and looking for unsupported agreement, contradictions, and correction.
On the wish list
Compute and model credits for evaluation runs, reproducible test material, and independent reviewers willing to challenge the method.
What it would make possible
Test the instrument against the conversation archive and publish results that others can inspect and attempt to reproduce.
In development. A public project overview has already been prepared on GitHub; further releases and the other project repositories come after this page.
Room to grow—and the horsepower to keep up
Give the website and experiment archive a hosting environment of their own, with room for MP3s, MP4s, new video productions, and the records these projects generate.
On the wish list
Sponsored managed hosting or funding for a suitable VPS or dedicated server, with an initial target of 500 GB of usable storage, room to add more, and enough processing power, memory, and bandwidth to keep the site responsive as demand grows. Separate backups and reliable media delivery belong in the budget too.
Annual hosting funding target: $2,000
Twelve months at the advertised starting rate comes to $1,719. Adding a 10% allowance ($171.90) for extras brings the planning total to $1,890.90, rounded to a $2,000 annual funding target for a little additional breathing room.
What it would make possible
Publish richer experiment records and multimedia work, welcome more visitors, and expand the archive without repeatedly running out of space. Local AI compute for Little Oogway remains a separate part of the wish list.
Planning reference, September 10, 2026: KnownHost’s Extreme managed VPS lists 500 GB NVMe storage, 16 GB RAM, 16 CPU cores, and 10 TB bandwidth, starting at $143.25/month (about $1,719/year before extras). This is a funding estimate, not a confirmed annual contract quote. Final pricing, control-panel costs, backups, any bandwidth charges, available media space after system files, and storage-only expansion need confirmation; the 10% allowance may need adjustment once those are quoted. A dedicated server is an alternative to quote once the workload is clearer.
Have a piece of the puzzle?
Equipment, hosting, model access, technical help, or careful independent testing could move these projects forward. The conditions for accepting help will be stated in the preamble above.
