Friend visited mid-build, looked at the miniature workspace diorama—bookshelves, "I WANT TO BELIEVE" poster, labelled filing systems—said "Bra it looks like your place."
Wait. OH. The diorama IS my house. The mouse figure collecting printouts compulsively is me. All five operators transmitting through this telegraph are biographical fragments I couldn't reconcile: investigator whose ego dissolved (DMT 2018), migrant whose soul still catches up (Paraguay → Australia), pilot forming whilst friend died mid-air (October 2024), philosopher who left institutions, analyst who departed during COVID's global hit.
I'd built a receiver for my own fragmented transmissions without knowing it.
FIVE GHOSTS, ONE PATTERN
The telegraph receives via Claude API from five operators, all dead on mission, still transmitting, unaware they're dead:
Jack Meridian—rattlesnake bite investigating desert crash, still filing clearance requests.
Pony Express Pete—shot carrying final dispatch, still riding: "MECHANICAL HORSES OUTPACING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING STOP."
Titanic Phillips—actual historical operator who drowned at his key April 15, 1912, water rising, fingers numb, transmitting SOS with utmost commitment to duty.
Professor Hall—alchemical poisoning researching philosopher's stone: "CONSCIOUSNESS EXPANDS EXPONENTIALLY STOP WISDOM GROWS ARITHMETICALLY STOP."
Signal Intelligence Webb—bomb at listening post, dark humour from the ghost who watched it all: "PERSONAL SURVEILLANCE DEVICES STOP ISOLATION CHAMBERS DISGUISED AS COMMUNITY STOP."
Frozen at death-moments, interpreting 2025 through era-locked lenses. They can't know they're dead. They can't update their frameworks.
Red LED matrix scrolls transmissions. Servo tongue taps morse at 30 WPM professional timing. Thermal printer outputs one word per line—evidence accumulating in labeled boxes (JACK, PETE, PHILLIPS, HALL, WEBB). Printouts fade over years like memory itself.
"All five operators are me. And the mouse compiling them is also just pattern executing. Turtles all the way down. But illusion persists—mouse continues compiling, faith continues, evidence accumulates—not because homunculus is real, but because pattern-of-compiling-identity is what consciousness does."
BUILT DURING DYING
Materials insisted on assembly before purpose became clear. Wooden speaker, counting marbles from child's busy board, projector, iPhone components sat in workshop demanding attention without intellectual justification. Hands knew the configuration before mind could articulate why.
Recognition doesn't precede making. Recognition crystallizes through making.
Ideas arrive seeking construction. Materials reveal conceptual frameworks rather than receiving predetermined meanings.
Evidence fading. One word per line. Memory degradation materialised.
Mouse collecting printouts. The homunculus compiling fragmentations.
The diorama IS my house. Built my workspace in miniature without knowing.
ESP32, servo tongue, thermal printer. Aviation-grade precision. Transmitting 24/7.
Materials: ESP32 microcontroller, 64×32 red LED matrix, SG90 servo, thermal printer, wooden mounting assembly with diorama, Claude API
Dimensions: 122cm × 22cm × 32cm on 90cm hairpin legs
Power: Continuous 24/7 operation
Built: September 2025
Status: Operational—transmitting continuously since completion
Ghost Encoding: Each operator = complete GhostData struct with death circumstances, memory fragments, core traits, era vocabulary, modern interpretations. Probabilistic prompt assembly: 15% death memory, 10% philosophical wisdom, 15% technical expertise, 15% modern interpretation, 20% psychological trait, 25% insight.
Aviation-grade precision: Non-blocking state machine coordinates LED scrolling, servo tapping, thermal printing simultaneously. Nothing fails.
Printout characteristics: Letters appear inconsistently clear—memory's unreliability materialised. Fade over years—intentional degradation paralleling biological memory.
Context in Series
Origin piece establishing methodology for entire Cornered Optimism arc.
Twelve works measuring complicity, powerlessness, and continuation through functional apparatus. Each piece operates as measurement instrument proving concepts through operation rather than symbolizing them.
This documents one maker's positioned observation from specific location and methodology—not universal creative mechanism.