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simmball

A working paper, continuously revisedrev. 2026.10

Plate I§0The careenium, seen from above

From simmsto symbols.

Abstract —SIMMBALL is a studio that builds its own AI services and web apps, and writes essays where AI meets philosophy, aesthetics and the humanities. In Hofstadter’s careenium, tiny marbles called simms clump into simmballs and begin to mean something. We try to build software the same way.2

0,0232364 × 64
Fig. 1 — The careenium, seen from above. Nine simms careen; four stop being simms.1 Scale 4 : 1

1A note about a figure about a name. The name is about things like this note: small parts that, clumped together, start to mean something.

2D. R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop (2007).

§1

Products

Specimens — things we make, by stage of emergence
  1. Specimen 1.1Cat. No. SB-001

    Koestler AI

    Argues against your decisions, and checks your AI agents' risky moves before they run.

    Function
    Adversarial decision partner and agent gate
    Stage
    1. Coming soon
    2. Beta· clumping
    3. Live
    Found at
    koestler.ai ↗
    Read the entry →

    Glyph — 4×4 simms, 2×2 → 1, grown from its name

§2

Essays

  1. Plate 1 —grown from “why-simmball”12 px pitch · hex · 2×2 → 1
    Philosophy · 2026.10.02 · 5 minWhy SIMMBALL:from simms to symbolsOn Hofstadter's careenium, why a symbol happens one level up, and why we named a company after a clump of tiny marbles.Read →

End of paper. It continues at §0 ↑