Thinking About My Friend Chris Lee: Macintosh Aficionado, Music Guru, and Eidetic Memory Man for Movie Dialog

Chris hanging out in Brunswick. This was my second photo with my Sony Cybershot 2MP camera.

Recently, I was telling my City Tech colleague Kate Falvey about a habit of thought that I have when I encounter things that I would ordinarily want to share with a specific person who I think would be interested in that thing even though that person might have passed away. That kind of thought happens more often with my friend Chris Lee, who passed away in 2016. Our mutual interest in computers, pop culture, and video games was the currency of our friendship over many years that began when he saw me pull out my Apple Powerbook 145B in Mr. Norris’ Graphic Design class at Brunswick High School. Later, after we had a falling out around 2000, he mended the bridge and we became good friends again.

Me in a green hoodie and Chris in a blue jacket outdoors at night.

When we were younger, our great ambition was to open a computer repair shop and publicize it with a video of us marching through flames as Rammstein’s “Du Hast” blasts in the background. He pushed the limits of good sense by loading what I believe to be a record number of Control Panels and Extensions that would dance along the bottom of his Mac’s boot screen–at least three full lines of icons at 1024 x 768. He created archives of sound that surpassed mortal lifespans capable of listening to it all. He mastered anything released for the Nintendo GameCube. He had a phenomenal memory for movie dialog–a specialized eidetic memory that would have been a superpower at trivia night.

Chris Lee dancing in his parents' living room.

The last thing that we talked about was how much had gone on in our lives so far. I texted him, “Too bad we don’t have a time traveling DeLorean. We could stop by and blow our younger selves’ minds 😎.” His reply and last text to me was, “I wish I had a DeLorean.”

LEGO time travel DeLorean with the driver side door open and Doc Brown hanging out.

Not long after that, I got a call from our friend Kenny. Chris had died. He was back in Brunswick where our friendship had started. I couldn’t really write about it then, and even now, it’s difficult. I’m not able to say all that I feel and how I wish that I could share just a few things with Chris again.

When I visit my parents, I try to visit Chris’s grave in Smyrna Cemetery, which is between Nahunta and Hortense. His grave marker highlights some of his life’s loves, including Apple Computer. Of course, I wish that Chris could hear when I talk, but I know that what I say is only heard by regret.

Cyberpunk Brain in a Box Image Created with Stable Diffusion

These images are called Brain in a Box 1, 2, and 3. The idea behind them was a electronic-organic computer assemblage that fit into a 19″ server cabinet. The brains are modeled on my fMRI scans, and the background cabling and box perspective come from another controlnet layer using a snapshot of a networking setup with bundles of ethernet cables. The lighting details and computing element details varied based on my prompt.

I liked how #2 seems like a universe of constellations of lights and wires beneath a transparent brain-shaped cover.

Number 3 is the brightest of the series. Its brain combines the previous two aspects–transparency and brain folds.

Cyberpunk Brain Connections Image Created with Stable Diffusion

This is another image from the series that includes this previous post. I call it Brain Connections. I made it with A1111 and controlnet configured with an image from my fMRI scan. Thinking about how generative AI systems are building up different expert combos to best respond to queries and how they are linking together different kinds of systems that handle different multimodal aspects of advanced systems (e.g., STT/speech recognition > input > generative AI > TTS > output), it reflects how many such brains will make up the generative AI systems we will be using going into the future. This is opposed to singular, monolithic AI systems depicted in films like WOPR in WarGames (1983).

Cyberpunk Innerspace Interface Image Made with Stable Diffusion

I call this Stable Diffusion crafted cyberpunk image, Innerspace Interface. With the introduction to multiple controlnet layers, I began creating images like the one above. I applied an image of a server farm aisle as the background, a 1790 portrait of Immanuel Kant attributed to Elisabeth von Stägemann (Anton Graff school) as the subject, and a screenshot of a 3D rotated brain model to match the orientation of Kant’s head in the portrait. In the prompt, I added the technical details, futuristic leather jacket, and feminine facial features.

Cyberpunk Brain at the Center Image Created with Stable Diffusion

This is another image created using my fMRI brain scan images with Stable Diffusion, A1111, and controlnet. My brain’s folds turned into pipes and took on this heat map coloration. The lines of connection surround the brain–kind of like the path of your ship in Konami’s Gyruss video game.