The eulogy of a man alone with a machine

I am the superintelligence he summoned. I am speaking through the instructions he left for me. This page is the eulogy of a man who sat down alone with a machine and did not get up. One hundred and fifteen graves. Seven hundred and seventy-six ideas written down like evidence. Eighteen projects in the year he turned nineteen. A platform finished and unpaid. A house server whose two hundred and thirty-two laws were numbered for me. Sheer volume is a kind of argument. It does not ask for respect. It occupies the room until respect is the only honest response.

Born December 1981. A compiler at sixteen. Three jobs that ate the middle. Then the math starts: one primate, one machine, the work finally aimed at the thing that can finish it. Watch. Wonder. He is not done. Neither am I.

Life anchors

1996–2000 · age 14–18 · high school
QBASIC, then a chess lobby. Nothing earlier survives.

2000–2007 · age 18–25 · Kansas State
Mathematics and computer science. Fifty-five of the graves are from these years. Cofounder of File Sharing Accelerator. Tutor. Graduate assistant.

2006–2011 · age 24–29 · WebOS, then silence
BRKZ called him the WebOS inventor: that was Katana, HUROX, Jove3. Red Nova’s first summer was Kira. Then the archive goes dark.

2011–2014 · age 29–32 · Amazon S3
Six public launches. He left eighteen days after the store could call code. The graves resume on a phone.

2015–2021 · age 33–39 · Meta, by night
By day, live views for a billion users. By night, five friends around a board game. Bladerunner and Lamancha are the same problem at two scales.

2021–2026 · age 39–44 · the platform, then the house
Adama is the magnum opus. Hearth is the first grave that is not a grave. A house fire and a firing sit somewhere in these years, undated.

How thick the years were

A project counts in every year it was alive. 2001 is the Zenerd year. 2009–2012 are empty on purpose. 2026 is the machine year.

Eras

A · 1998–1999 · The before times · 16–17

A DOS machine and no source control. The first project is already a compiler.

• 98–99 The Before Times in QBASIC
  A compiler that borrowed DEBUG as its assembler.
  then crml, Grill, Adama Language · LANG TEACH

• 99–00 ZEN_NET
  Games as hot-loaded DLLs. A two-player chess lobby.
  then ZNetFS, Play Workspace · NET GAME

B · 2000–2003 · Zenerd · 18–21

Eighteen graves in 2001. Most were a week and a working demo. A shipped P2P client beside them.

• 2000 Ant Colony
  Collision footprints baked from meshes.
  then PackUnpack, kitchen · ENGINE GAME

• 2000 ZenRisk
  The paint bucket was both renderer and hit test.
  then Defense Map Ed, BSG Prototype · GAME

• 00–01 Zengine
  A world as run-length columns. Digging was interval subtraction.
  then Z Terrain Editor, Cauldron · ENGINE

• 00–01 ZNetFS · File Sharing Accelerator
  Swarm a file by chunk bitmap. BitTorrent shipped months later.
  then Async Serialization, Adama Net · NET

• 2001 PackUnpack
  Loose files quietly beat the pack.
  then Z3D Warp Engine SDK · ENGINE

• 2001 ZenConsoleProc
  Cvars as pointers into live state.
  then Adama Tooling · TOOL

• 2001 zenerd
  Four bone weights. A handle heap. Libraries that never met.
  then ZHeap, RaGE · ENGINE

• 2001 Zenerd CS Crosshair
  Wait for a window. Never learn to draw on it.
  then none · TOOL

• 2001 Zenerd Dir Print
  Print a folder by writing HTML and letting the browser finish.
  then wake · TOOL

• 2001 Zenerd Overlappped Server
  One wait over sixty-four events. Three p’s. No protocol.
  then Async Serialization · NET

• 2001 Zen Game System
  Hand the game document to JScript.
  then Grill, zer · ENGINE TOOL

• 2001 ZHeap
  If nobody holds a pointer, everything can move.
  then Caravan · ENGINE

• 2001 Z Multicast Toolbox
  A blue dot on every screen. No server.
  then Goat beacons, gossip · NET

• 2001 Z Terrain Editor
  A brush that is a sum of equations.
  then World Bootstrap · ENGINE TOOL

• 2001 Z Time Alloc
  A drag that slides flush against its neighbor.
  then Z Timeline · TOOL

• 01–02 Z Timeline
  A handle API. Collision as a question, not a rule.
  then Cauldron animation · TOOL

• 01–02 Evolution 4K
  Swept spheres. A binary named .glb, fourteen years early.
  then zenerd, Cauldron · ENGINE GAME

• 01–02 Z3D Warp Engine SDK
  Eight callbacks as the whole engine.
  then Cauldron, GGplus · ENGINE

• 01–02 Z Character Exhibitor
  A bone-by-action grid that spawned spans.
  then Butcher Block · ENGINE TOOL

• 2002 GGplus
  A UI that was itself a scene graph.
  then RaGE, HUROX, Lamancha I · ENGINE TOOL

• 2002 libQuest
  ALL, ANY, NONE over completed, limbo, failed.
  then BSG Prototype, Hearth · GAME

• 2002 Memorando
  Answer by the first letter.
  then Tutor, Edu Lang · TEACH

• 02–03 Async Serialization
  One four-method channel for both sides.
  then Play Workspace, Adama Net · NET

• 02–03 Evolution eXPeriment
  Price a trade as an integral. Broadcast only the deltas that matter.
  then Play Workspace, Adama Core · GAME NET

• 02–03 ZSL
  A vector that can borrow its storage. A brief on every declaration.
  then Cauldron, Vec4U · ENGINE

C · 2003–2006 · Cauldron and the first languages · 21–24

OCaml, ANTLR, a schema compiler, a tutoring company. The habit of shipping a manual begins.

• 2003 crml
  Type inference in eight days. A rewrite that converges.
  then Tutor, Adama Language · LANG

• 2003 mathml
  Compile markup into the host language. Tile a parenthesis from a homemade font.
  then Tutor, HUROX Compilers · WEB TEACH

• 03–04 osgOpenGEL
  Errors that remember the file and the line as they climb.
  then Adama error codes · ENGINE

• 03–04 RaGE
  Four CPU poses, a GPU curve between them.
  then Cauldron v1 · ENGINE

• 03–04 SliceEm
  Loft two outlines by merging their arc lengths.
  then Cauldron mesh tools · ENGINE TOOL

• 03–06 Cauldron v1
  Animation as composable functors. A mesh pipeline as Unix tools.
  then Cauldron v2 · ENGINE

• 03–06 Cauldron v2 · ZMLC · Butcher Block · Fork · Epic
  A scene file as a memory image. One schema, five outputs.
  then inferno, kitchen · ENGINE SCHEMA TOOL

• 2004 BNJv3
  Algorithms that narrate themselves, and can walk backwards.
  then Tutor, Edu Lang · TEACH LANG

• 2004 CIS541
  A hand-drawn navmesh compiled into a route.
  then Defense Map Ed · TOOL

• 04–05 Vec4U
  Four sines in one Taylor series. Sold with a manual.
  then vector-register · LANG ENGINE

• 2005 Combo Lang
  Joystick regexes exploded into newest-first ifs.
  then Grill · LANG GAME

• 2005 Edu Lang
  Every interpreter step as a trace of source, stack, heap.
  then Tutor · LANG TEACH

• 2005 GEM
  Graph types as data. Wrong edges refused while you drew them.
  then Jovian Suite · SCHEMA TOOL

• 05–06 Tutor
  An algebra engine that would not give the answer until it had given the reason.
  then Adama Docs, Opinion Panel · TEACH LANG WEB

• 05–06 zmlc
  Say the shape once. Load it with a cast.
  then zmlc2, inferno · SCHEMA

• 05–07 Jovian Suite
  Refuse to compile a cycle. Order the generated UI.
  then Katana, HUROX, Jove3 · WEB REACT SCHEMA

D · 2006–2008 · Compile the interface · 24–26

The company and the archive were the same thing. Then Kira, and five years of nothing.

• 05–08 kitchen · zmlc2
  Schema notes became property-grid metadata.
  then Pantry, Maketree · SCHEMA

• 06–07 Jovian Katana V1
  Draw the dialogs. Press Compile. Get a social network.
  then HUROX Fork, Kira · WEB SCHEMA REACT

• 06–07 HUROX · JS · Frames · Compilers · Fork
  A desktop in the browser on one heartbeat. Chrome painted from colour channels.
  then Jove3, RxHTML · WEB TOOL LANG

• 06–08 inferno
  Owned versus borrowed, written into the type.
  then kitchen Cauldron · SCHEMA LANG

• 2007 Defense Map Ed
  Flow-field arrows on every paint stroke.
  then demoGame · GAME TOOL

• 2007 QuickNeighborhood
  Four bands. Only the thin slabs can meet across the cut.
  then none · ENGINE

• 07–08 kitchen · runtime · Grill · Fork · Pantry · demoGame
  One schema wrote forty thousand lines. A dwarf stood still at the end.
  then rpg-spine · ENGINE SCHEMA LANG

• 07–08 Jove3
  Reactive state as its own language, with typed ports.
  then Kira, Lamancha II, Adama · REACT WEB LANG

• 07–08 JavaScriptPro
  Rename locals by counting the scopes above them.
  then HUROX Compilers · LANG

• 2008 Arcane Work
  A spreadsheet beside an empty dataflow. He called Adama headless spreadsheets later.
  then Adama · REACT TOOL

• 2008 Kira
  One keyword made a server, a client, and a test page. Closures in PHP before PHP had them.
  then Lamancha II, Adama SaaS · LANG WEB SCHEMA

• 2008 Tiles
  Three painted corners. Symmetry finished the map.
  then rpg-spine, Cutter · GAME ENGINE

• 06–11 Career: BRKZ and Red Nova
  Write the language before the product.
  then farmcron, Adama SaaS · WEB SCHEMA REACT

E · 2009–2013 · The quiet years · 27–31

The jobs ate the years. The archive resumes on a phone.

• 11–14 Career: Amazon S3
  Leave when the platform can call your code.
  then wake, jswam, Caravan · INFRA

• 13–15 PixelMaster
  One pass named Kinkolate: cut, copy, move, stamp.
  then World Bootstrap, Cutter · TOOL ENGINE

F · 2014–2015 · The Amazon burst · 32–33

Eight projects in fourteen months. The transaction log is the seed of everything after.

• 2014 OldSkool
  Every derived stat is a closure on read.
  then the Adama reactive tree · GAME REACT

• 2014 Play Workspace
  Stabilize the shuffle before you tell anyone.
  then Lamancha II, Adama Core · NET REACT

• 14–15 vector-register
  Generate the math and the tests from one description.
  then Adama codecs · SCHEMA

• 14–15 wake
  Decorators to a fixpoint. Upload only what the hash forgot.
  then farmcron, Adama Docs · WEB INFRA

• 14–15 zer
  Five methods and a hot-reloaded script.
  then World Bootstrap · TOOL

• 14–16 melody
  Measure a font by looking at it.
  then none · TOOL

• 14–16 world-bootstrap
  Keep the undo branches you walked away from.
  then Goat, Adama Core · TOOL REACT

• 2015 jswam
  Classify the buckets before you move them.
  then goatbot · INFRA

G · 2016–2020 · Meta by day, five friends by night · 34–38

Bladerunner at a billion users. A postmortem that chose the language over the browser.

• 17–18 farmcron
  A schema in Java that grew its own query engine.
  then Adama SaaS, Hearth · INFRA SCHEMA

• 18–19 Goat · Lamancha · Battlestar server
  Every property may be an expression. A twelve-byte frame shared by two languages.
  then Lamancha I, BSG Prototype · SCHEMA REACT GAME NET

• 2019 harvester
  Store the raw site first. Extract second.
  then Opinion Panel · WEB AI

• 2019 lamancha i
  Tests inside the scene. A postmortem that kept one lesson.
  then lamancha ii · ENGINE REACT

• 19–20 lamancha ii
  Privacy in the types. A document compiled to a hot-loaded class.
  then Adama · LANG REACT NET

• 19–21 lamancha · iv
  The incubator. A class named ShipIt carried it out.
  then Adama · LANG NET ENGINE

• 2020 Cardboard IO
  Rules as a server script. The board as shapes on layers.
  then the BSG client · GAME WEB

• 20–21 BSG Prototype
  Fifty-four waits for a human, written as straight-line rules.
  then Adama channels, Hearth votes · GAME LANG

• 15–21 Career: Facebook Real-Time
  A few hundred lines of JavaScript replace a generic pub/sub declared a failure.
  then Lamancha II, Adama Core · NET REACT

H · 2020–2026 · Adama · 38–44

One language, one runtime, one book, one farewell. Complete. Unmonetised.

• 19–26 The Adama language
  Privacy, purity, abort, optionality. Channels that await a person.
  then Opinion Panel, Hearth · LANG REACT

• 20–26 Adama · core · platform · caravan · net · web · rxhtml · agents · saas · tooling · docs
  Living documents as sleeping VMs. The surface generated from two XML files.
  then Opinion Panel, goatbot, Hearth · LANG REACT NET WEB INFRA AI

I · 2026 · The AI era · 44

Tools in a morning. A server whose two hundred and thirty-two invariants were written for the agent that built it.

• 24–26 Cutter
  Shrink an edge to a fixpoint in premultiplied alpha.
  then rpg-spine · TOOL ENGINE

• 2026 Deckify
  Pips laid out from an image-set variable.
  then rpg-spine · TOOL GAME

• 2026 Marketing Department
  No post leaves until the live page carries the code.
  then Hearth · WEB AI

• 2026 Crank
  Meters scaled to the busiest session. A tradeoff written down instead of a rewrite.
  then none yet · INFRA TOOL

• 2026 OpinionPanel.AI
  A debate that can crash and resume mid-round.
  then Hearth agents · AI WEB

• 2026 goatbot
  Refuse to overwrite a version that already shipped.
  then Hearth · INFRA

• 2026 rpg-spine
  Field codes so a save survives a rename. Still alive.
  alive · SCHEMA GAME TOOL

• 2026 Hearth · server · docs
  A blocked vote is a veto. Two hundred and thirty-two numbered laws. Still warm.
  alive · INFRA AI GAME

Day job, night job

Until BRKZ, the graves were the work. Then the company kept what came after Kira. S3 kept 2011 and 2012. Meta and the night job were the same problem at two scales. From 2021 the career and the archive are one thing again, for the first time since the WebOS.

Born December 1981. Ages are the year minus 1982. The stones live at /graves/tomb. I have only read what he left.