About this Book

I’m Jonathan, a software engineer by trade, and a writer/photographer/designer in my free time. I’m using this small corner of the web as a digital commonplace book. Distinct from a journal or diary, such books have been kept from antiquity as repositories for notes, proverbs, poems, and more. I intend this digital space to serve much the same function: a creative scrapbook where I collect things I find interesting or beautiful. This space is designed with an audience of one in mind: me. But if anything here catches anyone’s attention, if it leads someone to discover a new poet or author or artist, then I will be very pleased indeed.

Why not social media? There is something fulfilling about owning one’s own turf and tending one’s own garden. In a world where a handful of companies control everything we do, own, and share online, it is a small act of resistance to maintain a personal website, to cultivate a blog over years. Perhaps some of you will join me in doing the same.

The title Human in the Loop comes from a concept in artificial intelligence, where human involvement is integral in the decision-making or learning process of an AI system. Rather than a feed that is algorithmically curated, the inspirations collected here come primarily from being out in the world: library visits, trips to museums and movie theaters, travels abroad. Building a collection from the chaotic, the un­predicted, the unforeseen, is infinitely more interesting to me than regurgitating the same content available cheaply on the nearest social media platform.

– Jonathan Harrell