Daniel Isaac Silbaugh
Seattle · builds things · writes things
Hey there, I’m Dan. I do manual labor, default to systems-level thinking, always have a few entrepreneurial projects going, and write science fiction. I am passionately disappointed by modern built environments. Much like a Vulcan, I think the only rational, logical way to live one’s life is to try your best to be a good person. As a curious generalist, I’m always going down Wikipedia rabbit holes. I enjoy vacationing in Hawaii, tête-à-têtes, literary realism, and reality baking competitions.
NOTE 1 I build things that take dense or messy input and give back something clearer. The Book Modernizer is the clearest case of it: difficult old books go in, and editions people can actually read come out. Write to me at dan@danielsilbaugh.com.
The Book ModernizerA-01Projects
- 01A-01ScripterA television comedy, read line-by-line into a database — then run in reverse to write new episodes.
- 02A-01Delivery Route CalculatorA python/LLM/google pipeline for turning months of handwritten delivery logs into accurate, auditable mileage totals — saving roughly te…
- 03A-01Obsidian AI Chat NotesAn automated pipeline that turns years of raw LLM chat exports into searchable, indexed notes (this website is built on this tool).
- 04A-01Real Estate & HousingAn ongoing interest I keep approaching from different angles — hands-on construction, civic data analysis, zoning policy, and housing tec…
- 05A-01Kant for KidsAn end-to-end AI pipeline for transforming dense philosophical texts into illustrated, child-friendly books — with custom tooling at ever…
- 06A-01The Anti-PrinceA book-length, tactic-by-tactic counter to Machiavelli's The Prince — every manipulation answered with a psychologically-grounded defense.
- 07A-011906 DiaryA literary project that turns real travel and work experiences into a semi-fictional diary set in early 1900s San Francisco.
- 08A-01The Book ModernizerAn automated publishing pipeline - from raw files to retail-ready ebooks, audiobooks, and marketing assets.
A-02Fiction
- 09A-02Dr. GronkA caveman physician navigates Victorian London — consulting patients, inscribing records on stone tablets, and hunting his lunch in the p…
- 10A-02Dr. Gronk Goes to the BeachDr. Gronk and Miss Lucas journey to the seaside village of Quardnay for a medical conference.
- 11A-02AbelA solitary man scratches out a living on the headlands above a distant city, keeping watch for the mysterious blue orb that visits him.
- 12A-02The Model MakersAt a corporation that conjures scale models of the real world, a jaded craftswoman is pulled aside by her boss for an unusual assignment.
- 13A-02Time Travel Tourist TrapThe weary proprietor of a gas station that sits alongside an ancient, derilect highway tries to revive his fortunes with a time turret.
- 14A-02Multiverse Consultants, Inc.A sharp-elbowed consultant who advises clients across parallel realities takes a dreaded call from a washed-up former customer.
- 15A-02The Dream MachineA noir heist plays out inside an Ace Products dream machine, where the line between the dream and the dreamer begins to blur.
- 16A-02Pops! — The SnowmanA boy, his father, and a negotiation over beer, carrots, and the proper way to build a New York snowman.
- 17A-02The Zoo — Part 1Frank the chimpanzee has strong opinions about bats, disease, and the aerodynamic potential of primates.
- 18A-02The Zoo — Part 2Frank spends a pandemic year in strict self-improvement, then learns that chimps have already been to space.
- 19A-02Mornings, with Jesus and the ApostlesMatthew sees a commercial opportunity in the Sermon on the Mount. The crowd wants the lamps.
A-03Essays
- 20A-03The Robinson Crusoe StandardA test for civilizational validity: society must offer everyone at least the life they could have built for themselves alone in the woods.
- 21A-03Class FearsReading our collective fantasies — Player Piano, Brave New World, Wall-E, Dune — for clues about where technology and class are heading.
- 22A-03Car-PeopleOn dehumanization as a dial we turn all day — the car-person, the uniform-person, the screen-name — and how a book turns it the other way.
- 23A-03We Already KnowIf AI makes goods nearly free, what will life mean? We already know — a few people have lived in post-scarcity for centuries: the upper c…
- 24A-03The Going RatePrices aren’t set by the market so much as by talk — the phone calls, forum threads, and hushed confessions behind every going rate.
- 25A-03Goskomtsen and Star Trek CommunesWhat if the computer the 1960s communes needed had arrived on time? A counterfactual running from Soviet central planning to the hippie f…
- 26A-03A Chessboard of Feedback LoopsOn why knowledge work turned out to be real work after all — and what happens as AI absorbs the office’s endless loops of documents and d…
- 27A-03Intellectual LineagesA series of documentary-style essays tracing how ideas about nonviolence and civil disobedience traveled between Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi…
- 28A-03The Most Expensive Apartment in America Is a Hospital BedWe have already decided, as a country, that we owe the desperate a hospital bed and a jail cell. The one door we have never bothered to t…
A-04Work Diary
- 29A-04August 12, 2026Simplified the whole system · Skipped the meetup, no regrets · Domain transfer started
- 30A-04August 8, 2026Debriefing Thursday's meetup · Running out of steam
- 31A-04August 6, 2026Sorted out where the domain really lives, chose a clean transfer path, picked a form service, and built the one-file landing page.
- 32A-04August 5, 2026Where online communities actually help, ranking my contact methods around arriving with a role or an artifact, and fixing a promise the l…
- 33A-04August 4, 2026A lost event, the gating problem with a structural fix, and publishing the screenplay analyzer to GitHub without the copyrighted corpus.
- 34A-04August 2, 2026An import pipeline for essays, four essays published, and the work diary itself goes public.
- 35A-04August 1, 2026Building in public: founding-post results, a pivot to paid ads for Dum Phones, offer math, and a rebuilt job search.
- 36A-04July 30, 2026Researching one-person AI-leveraged businesses, posting the founding phone photo despite the nerves, and a long push on the Book Moderniz…
- 37A-04July 29, 2026Wired the small-business research project into the plan, drafted the Dum Phones pitch and founding post, and standardized the 78-book Boo…
- 38A-04July 27, 2026Built a master to-do list across every project, cut the first two weeks down to size, and corrected the record on what Dum Phones actuall…
ProjectPersonal Works
Sheet TitleIndex of Work
Drawn ByD.I.S.
Scale1:1
Date2026-09-15
RevA
SheetA-01
Of04