Writing
Essays on AI, wellbeing, design, and the pursuit of human flourishing through technology.
Blog
Long-form essays on building, research, and craft
Simulating Ocean Currents from One Equation
The Gulf Stream, Kuroshio Current, and Antarctic Circumpolar Current all emerge from a single equation. I built a GPU-accelerated simulator that lets you watch it happen — and reshape the continents while it runs.
Teaching Biology in 3D: Building Interactive Cell Viewers with Three.js
An atlas of interactive 3D cell models where students rotate, zoom, and click on organelles to learn how they work. The rod photoreceptor even fires photons.
Why You Can't Click to Place Your Cursor in a Terminal
Terminal emulators don't know what's on screen. They draw characters on a grid and forward keystrokes. That architectural decision from 1978 is why basic text editing feels broken in 2026.
Building a 1.67-Million-Page Digital Library with AI
How I used Gemini, Lambda workers, and MongoDB to OCR and translate 4,430 books in 30 languages — for about $3,400 total.
I Replicated 6 Quantum Computing Papers on 3 Platforms. Here's What Broke.
An AI agent autonomously ran 105+ experiments across IBM, Quantum Inspire, and IQM hardware. 93% of published claims held up. The failures were more interesting than the successes.
To Create a Second Renaissance, Translate the First
533,000 Latin editions were printed between 1450 and 1700. Fewer than 3% have ever been translated into English. We built the first comprehensive census to map the gap.
Making Card Decks with AI: From Prompt to Print
A pipeline that turns card concepts into AI-generated artwork, web-rendered layouts, and print-ready files for physical production. Four decks and counting.
AI and Experience Design
Exploring the intersection of AI and human-centered design
Prompt Archaeology
What does a body of work look like when you're building with AI every day? An analysis of 10,497 prompts across 68 days.
Wellbeing, what else?
Prioritizing human flourishing in AI alignment
Can AI deepen our connection to human values?
Xin Wen - Project Series #5
How Might Human Experience Inform AI Systems?
Shuyue Jin - Project Series #4
AI & Experience Design Conference
How Can We Step onto the Frontiers of Generative AI to Design Meaningful Experiences?
The Future Framing Method: Creating Future Visions with AI and Co-Creation
Tamay Oudhof - Project Series #3
AI, Entrepreneurship & Social Impact
How might entrepreneurs use AI to change the world for the better?
AI as a Co-Designer
Reinventing the design process with AI collaboration
Academic Writing with AI
Using AI tools for academic research and writing
The Future of Education
How AI will transform learning
How Might We Envision the Future with AI?
Using AI for futures thinking and speculation
Prompt Engineering? Try "Prompt Vibing"
A more intuitive approach to working with AI
AI Might Not Need Experience to "Understand"
Philosophical exploration of AI understanding
Medium
Earlier essays on intelligence, design thinking, and wellbeing
Can Intelligence Be Built?
What is intelligence — and can we design systems to nurture it?
Design Thinking in India: Remembering MP Ranjan
A tribute to the father of Design Thinking in India, faculty at NID for 45 years
How to Design Systems to Nurture a Child's Intelligence
Creating adaptive digital learning systems that balance child interests with parent goals
Norman Doors
On Don Norman's critique of door design and what it teaches us about UX
What is Success, Really?
Success means living a happy, meaningful life — what psychologists call 'well-being'
Talks & Lectures
Recorded talks, masterclasses, and a documentary
IDE Master Class: AI in Experience Design
Two-day TU Delft IDE Master Class for working professionals on integrating AI into design practice.
Designing AI for Wellbeing
Talk at the AiTech Agora at TU Delft on designing AI systems that maximize human wellbeing.
AI and Experience Design with Dr. Derek Lomas
#Tellarthosts conversation on taking a human-centered approach to artificial intelligence.
Embassy of the Free Mind: All is One — Documentary
Documentary on the Embassy of the Free Mind / Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam, featuring Derek and the Source Library project.
Other Videos
Demos, documentation, and creative projects from the channel
$10 Educational Computer
Shows some of the educational games that come with a $10 educational computer, for sale in India
Street Tattoo
Using a chain of Batteries, ladies will give you a really unhygenic tattoo on the streets of Bombay! This is at the Bandra Street Fair, for the Festival of Mount Mary.
Sewing machine mobile phone charger
Using some random parts found around bombay, we hacked together a footpowered sewing machine so that it can charge a mobile phone. Since there are footpowered sewing machines in nearly every village in India, this setup might help people stay connected even when the power goes out for days at a time. More at www.revolv.in hack, india, mobile phones, electricity
Real time lapse
A portable camera tower allows aerial capture of crowd movements at etech's Make Fest. The crowd was able to see a real-time time-lapse of their own activity at 10x speed.