Fridays at the market are slow, great for taking things methodically, and really soaking it all in. The configuration today was slightly different than last Sunday. I repeated the front table for greeting ease, repeated the interior table, this time with conceptual text pieces that I am annotating throughout the day. I also reintroduced the briefcase cluster computer along the back, and this time included a library of curious influences for casual perusing. One very happy pair of visitors found my library worth rummaging through, so I was thrilled! One of them expressed an interest in international relations, so I shared my cool peace system and conflict studies textbooks that I keep handy for engineering inspiration.

Sales today were up 100% from last weekend. Fantastic. I sold three small tier world piece support tokens, and gave away two sets of 1-bit rick computers, receiving substantial donations to the project (and rock computer) R&D fund!

I also had time to produce a new conceptual piece (pictured). It outlines how The Universal Peace Computer is structured in loose topological/graph terms. The piece was well received, and should serve well as a prototype communication program for the time being.

To keep track of significant conversations, last weekend I installed a digital (base-color) non-electronic paperclip time-memory chain in my booth-world piece computer (today’s chain pictured). For every significant interaction I have, I have the interlocutor(s) pick a colored paperclip for the conversation chain. They then get to keep another clip of the same color to serve as a memory token for the interaction.

Today wasn’t as busy as Sunday, but I did accumulate a healthy chain of 7 great interactions with people. My favorite by far was with R. and R. R chose the black paperclip because black makes all the colors pop. Word. He also left me with the juiciest Kobe quote to rearticulate my peace process thesis, something along the lines of ‘It only matters that you are better tomorrow than you are today.’ I couldn’t find the quote he was referring to online, but damn..I highly recommend reading through Kobe quotes if you need a little (large) dose of inspiration. R taught me that I need to focus more on relating my product to the lives of the people I am trying to ‘sell’. I can handle that. Thanks!

My rock computer prototype (pictured) is running out of memory. As you can see, I had two interactions today that I would have done differently if I had a present-past time machine. Interaction tracking is binary, and the dating system is monary. Every time I have a good interaction, my booth-world rock computer flips white, and writes to persistent memory. For interactions I would change, the computer flips black and again writes to memory. The program I installed makes a system call for me to review the rock state prior to each new interaction, that way I can try to avoid doing the same not-so-great thing twice in a row.

Otherwise, I installed a more professional looking set of printed display signage up. Feels a little better than wet-erase on plexi+printer paper.

So far the most popular angle is ‘systematically recontextualizing global economy in terms of peace’ to incentivize peace. The Alaska angle is likewise well received.

Had a lightbulb moment today for a potential kickstarter to solve the money problem come winter. ..potential ’time machine for peace, choose your own adventure timespace explorer’s travel guide’ coming..soonish? Idea promising, high synergy. Time to go brainstorm and rest up for tomorrow. ..yet another great day as the time machine peace nut at the Saturday Market.

-Blair