Welcome to the δroplets blog a synergy of

ART & IMAGINATION

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

LOVE & LIFE
CLICK DROPLET IMAGE FOR ZOOM Unsplash Linus Mimietz

In offering δroplets, my nascent initiative, I wish to thank:

  • (who has yet to learn of my existence).
  • (who know I exist only too well).
  • .

(Blog structure/functionality being edited 3/22/2026. Most should be functional, but if snips not, please forgive.)

Intro

(δroplets Content & Context: Physics to Faux Pas, Self-Help to Stand-up, Visualizations to Vulnerability.)

GREETINGS

Thank you for coming to visit — I am honored. The form of content you will find following ranges from the written word to interactive visualizations of psychosocial phenomena. I hope you find elements of value.

A BRIEF BIT OF BACKGROUND

In the late 1980s, when I first formed my little science-art-education design workshop TechnoFrolics, I was operating from a relatively aerial perch, considering broad issues at the intersection of technology, art, psychology, and culture. This suited me well. Over the decades however, daily realities dragged me more and more into the technical and business "weeds". δroplets is, in significant part, a way to periodically "return to the tree tops" — a place I find calming and engaging, and where I believe I .

CONTENT

From Physics to Faux Pas, Self-Help to Stand-up, Visualizations to Vulnerability, δroplets will attempt to weave connections between diverse threads of thought, feeling, relationship, and experience. Posts will be as likely to address relationships, self-talk, and mindfulness, as science & math, AI, STEAM education, exhibit design, and entrepreneurship. Also included will be select, often funny (sometimes in a painful sort of way...) personal anecdotes — such as a so embarrassingly botched as to make anything you may have done likely pale in comparison.

One certain-to-appear thread will be that of treating ideas and feelings with equal respect, considering both first-class citizens — and worthy of deep integration.  In that general spirit, I plan to to offer of psychological, cognitive, and relationship issues. Wherever practical, I plan to make these visualizations interactive — if not initially, then eventually.

Extending this general theme: There are many that, for apparently cultural reasons, remain "trapped" within the walls of their and closely-related fields. Since I think these ideas have great utility and application to many non-techie areas, I intend to free them.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Please be sure to check out the δroplets Sign-up section below, which includes a (true) interchange, one that continues to make me smile many years after the event.

PS: Who am I anyway?

For those of you who don't know me, particularly given the "Wild West" nature of the Internet, and the fact that some of the ideas I present will likely be perceived as "unusual", it may be helpful to provide some bona fides. In that regard may I offer the following:

  • A client list that spans 35+ years and 5 continents, and includes scores of major science museums, MIT and Tufts University, the Olympics, and several Fortune 500 companies.
  • A bio that includes being a on an grant, the recipient of several patents, being honored as one of the "50 Top Creatives and Technologists" by StudioDaily at the National Conference, and 34+ year math tutor at the Harvard University Extension School.
  • :
    • Rosalind Picard, MIT Media Lab, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences.
    • Sharon Rupe (Handy), Hands On! Inc., Science and Children's Museum Master Planning Group, Senior Project Manager.
    • Ted Tsomides Co Harvard Extension School Math Teacher, MD Harvard PhD MIT.

(N.B. The above in no way confirms I am not a lunatic, but hopefully suggests that at least I am not simply a lunatic.)

(Tables of contents, guide to filtering and searching, optimal screen size, etc.)

Popups — Hover and Click

(δroplets is liberally filled with popups, often containing substantial key info.)

When I first started writing in my long-ago youth, I had so many ancillary thoughts/caveats that my writing was an aggregation of nested parentheses; it was quite unreadable. I have now "matured" and replaced nested parentheses with Popups (nested even). Content contained in such popups is not infrequently as important as the core content, may contain links of interest, etc.

Popup content availability is indicated in several ways:

  • HOVER content is indicated by a (⇐ check it out — fun "easter egg" in 2nd level popup).
  • CLICK content is indicated by either a or a . The blog Search and Filter area below, in particular, has much explanatory info contained in click popups.

Screen Size

(While δroplets is generally mobile-friendly, there are a number of places where a full-size screen is required.)

While in my view all contents is most enjoyably viewed on a large screen, there are certain posts — particularly and specifically, most interactive simulations — where a large screen is essentially a requirement. (While these pages will technically run on small screen mobile devices, the experience is so sub-optimal that I discourage even bothering. If nevertheless you do choose to peruse on your phone, at a minimum orienting your phone in landscape mode is recommended.)

Pages/posts where a large screen is indicated are identified by the icon Large Screen Recommended

Interactive Layering of Content

(Will do my best to help the reader avoid overwhelm — and guilt.)

I think layering of information is incredible important. Yet so few contexts do it well. When the medium was paper and the printed word, there was an excuse. With interactive websites, there really is .

I am not yet certain how frequently I am going to implement interactive layering, but am defintely going to make an effort. My first live example may be found here (and this homepage also evidences layering).

Personal note: I often feel "guilty" when I fail to completely read a newsletter, article, book, etc. It is just too much work to extract the few salient ideas from a lengthy tome. And even when there is a nice bullet-point summary, it is too often at the rather than at the beginning, ... I am going to try and avoid dragging you through a similar experience.

Icons and Their Meaning

(What the Lake, Stream, and Droplet Clock thumbnails signify.)

Each post will be tagged by one or more of the three icons here. Their associated check-boxes in Post area below are one way of filtering content.

Lake
of
Reflections

small lake video icon

Indicates long(ish)-form posts.

Stream
of
Conciousness

small stream video icon

Indicates shorter musings, humorous cartoons, brief reminiscences, quotes, content updates, and the like.

Droplets
in
Time

small stream video icon

Indicates items with time-sensitivity — opportunities, events, etc.

Blue Post Titles

(Means item is a blog "administrative meta post".)

A post's title being blue means its focus is the blog itself, offering navigation tools, discussing why the blog is structured the way it is, etc.

Tables of Contents

(Links to navigation page(s), on which are selected, annotated links to key items absent from the dated Post list/search/filter section below, and .)

Key Links: Background and Highlights

(Links to "Affectionate Technology" Paper, TechnoFrolics Dancing Artworks, and more.)

Search and Filter

(Searching and filtering functionality and usage guide.)

δroplets offers sophisticated search and filter capabilities. Each post is given a rating 0-10 for the attributes having associated range sliders in the sidebar below. More explanation is provided in that sidebar, including informative popups whose appearance is triggered by hovering over any item with a dotted underline beneath it.

For example, to see highly recommended, visually rich, self-help oriented posts: Set "|RECOMMENDED|” to span 8-10, "Self-Help / Psychology / Philosophy" to also span 8-10, and check off "Significant Visuals".
(Click to automatically clear any previous customizations and then set the two sliders and checkbox to their above-described values.)

To go to actual post, simply click on its title or the "read more" link. (On mobile devices, because of how popups work in liew of hover, you may have to click title twice.)

To remove all filtering and specialized sorting, simply click "Reset All" button.

Note that the number of posts with a given Catgegory or Tag, as shown via the suffix "(n)", is context dependent. In other words, if (say) you check off the "Admin:" Category, then the "Significant Visuals (n)" entry will have "n" go to 0.

Misc

(Includes discussion of Comments, Social Media, etc.)

COMMENTS

I have disabled comments for several reasons. Please see my Comments page for more detail (and a structure you too may wish to adopt).

SOCIAL MEDIA

I do not in general engage with social media platforms — they have 1000X more information than I could possibly absorb, as well as too much unwanted clutter to filter out. (More detail may be found here.)

Sign-up

(Why the Fate of the Universe Depends on Adding Your Name to My Once-Per-Millennium Mailing List.)

My long-time once entreated me (lovingly, but quite seriously) "Please, please behave in a way that I can continue to pretend you're normal."

Please see detailing a similar ask of you.

NOW++

Dec 19, 2024

This is my “Now” page, .

It has been enhanced to include:

  • Past and Future as well as Now.
  • A Recent Updates section, relevant because of this blog encapsulating certain categories of posts within periodically updated ever-present single page ““.
  • And last, but not least, a quick “Me” overview, including birth-to-present timeline.

Breaking News 2026

Now Title Image

Lake of Reflections Large Screen Recommended

Droplets in Time

AI “Walk and Talk”

Sep 23, 2025

Chat about AI, by phone from the comfort of your own home (or potentially in person if in Cambridge MA area):

  • What is AI, really? And where is it all headed?
  • Amazing facts, experiments, experiences.
  • Specific AI recommendations.
  • How to use. (Hint — Treat as collaborator, not tool — and certainly not just as “fancy search engine”.)
  • Education, Art, Writing, Healthcare, Therapy, Coding, Research, Law, Philosophy, …

Most Sci-Fi experience I have ever had in my lifetime, and increasing capabilities at exponential pace. “The Aliens Have Landed.”

read more

A Collection

AI Diaries

AI Diaries

Sep 30, 2025

Lots about AI including my:

  • Interactions with.
  • Predictions around.
  • Recommendations for.

(Current content modest — much more coming 2026.)

read more

Lake of ReflectionsVideo

Context and Clutter.

Context and Clutter.

Mar 25, 2024

Two little videos (just 6 secs and 8 secs long) highlighting the importance of context and clutter.

read more

Lake of ReflectionsIllustration

Lake of Reflections Large Screen Recommended Interactive

Fracturing

Fracturing

Jan 12, 2026

Interactive visualization showing fracturing of the “Self” — over time and triggered by outside events. Also addresses reintegration strategies. (The 2nd in a series of interactive simulations of psychosocial phenomena.)

read more

Lake of Reflections Large Screen Recommended Interactive

Intimacy — The dance of distance.

Intimacy — The dance of distance.

Apr 27, 2024

Interactive visualization highlighting the dramatic impact of even small differences in desired level of closeness. (The 1st in a series of interactive simulations of psychosocial phenomena.)

read more

Lake of Reflections Large Screen Recommended Video

What do you notice in the world?

What do you notice in the world?

Mar 24, 2024

A little video highlighting that attention matters. (Not great — intend to create better — but just 14 seconds long, so not a lot of your time.)

read more

A Collection

A Collection

Communications and Comments, Collected.

Dec 10, 2024

This page includes both:

  • An of the type typically seen in connection with web posts/publications.
  • “Personal Communications” as one might otherwise typically expect in a 1-to-1 email — or Open Letter.

(PS: Should I eventually enable other’s comments on this site, it will likely have a similar aggregated structure.

read more

A Collection

Proposals, Pitches, Applications, Etc.

Mar 5, 2025

Why does this page exist? Because such items typically have content of value to others beyond the initial intended reader(s), and are examples of how I approach opportunities/challenges generally, should such be of interest/relevance.

read more

Lake of Reflections

Lake of Reflections

δroplets Homepage.

Apr 21, 2024

Welcome! (Included here, even though you are on this very page, in order to include homepage contents in search and filter results.)

  • δroplets Search

  • |SORT RESULTS BY|

  • |RECOMMENDED|

    -

  • Science / Math / Education / AI

    -

  • Self-Help / Psychology / Philosophy

    -

  • Art & Visualizations

    -

  • Humor+

    -

  • Personal / Family

    -

  • Individuals: Communications & Mentions

    -

  • Categories: Admin, Collections, Icons

  • Keyword Tags

My long-time significant other, lovingly but quite seriously, at one point entreated me: Please, please behave in a way that I can continue to pretend you're normal.

My long-time significant other, lovingly but quite seriously, at one point entreated me:

Please, please behave in a way that I can continue to pretend you're normal.

Mirroring her delightful directness:

Please, please sign up for my once-per-millennium email list, so that I can pretend I have a real audience 👀.

(Whether you actually read, or instead create an email filter to auto-delete, is substantially immaterial — I just need to be able to fantasize you are reading it in order to motivate me to actually write and otherwise create. In this regard, check out Derek Siver's very useful new book "Useful, not True".

* Your information will not be shared with 3rd parties.
** Mailings will neither be lengthy nor overly frequent, and you can of course unsubscribe at any time.)

(Signup automation script is currently in beta testing. If any part of the process fails, please simply email "Subscribe" to subscriptions2026@daviddurlach.com.  Note: If you do not get a confirming email, it means I did not receive yours; please try again.)

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