PinnedMember-onlyAbout My Climate and Sustainability ResearchSummarizing all my projects in one place — I must have always loved animals, because I don’t remember ever starting to. Bugs, crows, frogs, and the rhinos on the nature programs on TV — I relate to them all. This interest in wildlife quickly led me to conservation, and climate change because, well, my animal peers couldn’t vote*…Sustainability2 min readSustainability2 min read
Published inAbout Me Stories·PinnedMember-onlyAbout Me — Deepti KannapanI love wildlife, math, and fantasy, and have way too many interests — Origin Story I’m secretly a Texan. I don’t remember living in Austin, though, since we moved to New York when I was quite young. I spent most of my early childhood in Ithaca with my parents and grandparents. My sister was born when I was seven. There are lots of creative types…About Me5 min readAbout Me5 min read
PinnedMember-onlyFlurries of Nature-Inspired and Fantasy ArtAbout my art journey — Every now and then, I get the art ‘bug’ and do a whole flurry of art back to back. It makes a nice break from the intensely verbal and analytical activities I spend most of my time on. So, most of my art is organized in series with all the…Art2 min readArt2 min read
Published inBouncin’ and Behaving Blogs TWO·Oct 27Member-onlySoftware Engineering Must Grow into the Role It’s Now PlayingYou wouldn’t get a toymaker to build your bridges, would you? — Software engineering is an outlier among the types of engineering*, in that software engineers are comparatively exempt from physics and consequences. When you make a mistake in other types of engineering, you fry a circuit board or break a support beam, and have to cool your heels and think about…Technology4 min readTechnology4 min read
Published inBouncin’ and Behaving Blogs TWO·Oct 5Member-onlyAI-Generated Text is of No Use to ReadersLies or plagiarism — take your pick — Why do we read… anything? Any statement I read has two forms of communication. There’s the message (or literal content of the statement) and the meta-communication, or additional information you infer from the circumstances of receiving a message. For all of history, any written word has had the meta-communication of…Artificial Intelligence6 min readArtificial Intelligence6 min read
Sep 10Member-onlyThe Climate Movement Needs Your Creativity, Not Your Guilt(This is an annotated transcript of the TEDx talk I gave in April 2023. It’s 10 minutes long. I’d suggest watching it first and then coming here for supporting materials.) Does climate action feel impossible? When I was a kid, I was interested in everything. I’d need about 10 careers…Climate Change7 min readClimate Change7 min read
Aug 3Member-onlyCategorizing the Risks and Concerns around Generative AI — Part 2A roundup of the coverage: paranoia edition — This is part 2 of my research roundup on the concerns surrounding generative AI. I find it useful to put the risks into categories, to better understand the range and scope of potential issue and think about potential solutions (especially regulation). I give more background and context in Part 1…AI8 min readAI8 min read
Jul 14Member-onlyCategorizing the Risks and Concerns around Generative AIA roundup of the coverage, part 1. — I’ve been following the news and opinion coverage of generative AI since it first came on the scene. Writers have raised a variety of concerns over potential risks of widespread use of text and image generators like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and the many applications being developed on them. I find…AI6 min readAI6 min read
Published inWeeds & Wildflowers·Jul 13Member-onlyA Delightful Week of Bird DrawingAnd learning about ‘birbness’ — To help demonstrate July’s Weeds & Wildflowers prompt, I drew the charming little bird from the photo by Christine Morris Ph.D. I chose to draw it in a stylized manner rather than trying to be realistic. You can see my drawing on the prompt: Shake It Up! July Weeds & Wildflowers Promptmedium.com It occurred to me that I’d…Writing Prompt Response3 min readWriting Prompt Response3 min read
Published inShare Your Creativity·Jul 9Member-onlyWhat I Learned from Setting Myself Five Creative ChallengesThe characteristics the successful ones had in common — In the space of about a year, I set myself five personal creative challenges. You may have heard of popular challenges like Inktober and NaNoWriMo, where you aim to write or draw every day, or reach a certain word count in a month. I sensed the excitement around these challenges…Creativity7 min readCreativity7 min read
