Some years ago I came across Geoff Manaugh’s work, was impressed by it, and promptly forgot about it. Checking in at Gwern’s site again today I came across his OPML file of RSS feeds and lo and behold, winking out at me out of the plaintext, in block capitals, was BLDGBLOG, Geoff Manaugh’s home on the web.

So I dove back in… and Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis promptly blew my socks off. Briefly something something… generative image models for unparalleled world building… or at least speed. Until you gradually realise the pre-gen-ai work from the original project (2011-2014) is so much more considered, balanced, and meaningful. With that the visual wow of the new images fades, becoming as hollow as the caves it depicts.