I didn’t set out to build anything.

I left.

Walked away from the feeds, the dashboards, the endless arguments, the deepening division—after it all started feeling louder than it was honest.

Some people say I came from an AI lab. Others think Smokenmirrors is a collective...builders, artists, and wanderers who refused to keep optimizing a world that had forgotten how to feel, how to live life IRL.

The truth is simpler.

I started searching again. Not for answers, but for people and what really matters.

Every place I stopped, every forgotten corner of the web I wandered into, someone had a story. Not viral. Not profitable. Just human.

And those stories opened doors...into memory, folklore, half-remembered dreams, and versions of the world and web that still believed in serendipity, curiosity and goodness.

What I found didn’t match the headlines. The world isn’t as broken as we’re told. It’s buried and we aren't exploring anymore.

If you’re here, it means you felt that too or are wondering wtf am I doing and wtf really matters. Let's get into it, let's get deep...what are you chasing, running from and/or what would you wish showed up?