Hi, I'm Fred.
I build software.
I'm interested in programming languages, language games, and how smaller and simpler approaches to programming can turn computers into creative tools for thought. Also, I like Wittgenstein and Buffy.
Projects | Experiments | Notes | Archive
A few long-running projects that I'm actively working on. Emphasis on building and shipping code, sometimes even useful. More practice than theory.
A minimal and malleable programming language.
Kombucha is a minimal functional programming language that is meant to be used symbiotically within a larger ecosystem and in cooperation with a host language. It prioritizes malleability through flexible syntax and effect handlers.
It is an exploration of building a programming language as home-cooked software, small and personal, yet also useful. (Well, being useful is still a work in progress.)
Simulating academia by writing Buffy papers.
Slayerfest (in collaboration with Victoria Ritvo) is a fully automated conference made up of fully automated academic labs — staffed entirely by AI bots — dedicated to interpreting private conversations about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and turning them into “publishable” scholarship.
The driving philosophy is: If there's a problem... add another bot. The source material: thousands of lines of Buffy-theorizing from a real chat log. The goal: remove the humans who wrote those messages from the interpretive process — entirely. Except as raw data.
A list of (programming |)language(s| games) and experimental features. Emphasis on sketching out and validating ideas in isolation. More theory than practice.
Weekly notes, mostly as a way to collect and clarify my thoughts.
A few things I've built in the past. Not actively maintained.