Provenance
This page exists because the question will come up: did an AI write this? The answer depends on which part of “this” you mean. The deposits were filed by Kevin Ostanek, an independent researcher and software engineer in Tampa. The method is computational analysis — quantitative, not generative. The book is drawn from his dictated speech. The app is code he wrote.
The deposits
The research is archived with permanent, third-party identifiers. Each DOI resolves to a deposit record that carries the submission timestamp independently of this site. The deposits are not drafts; they are filed works.
- Economics and the Natural Order
- Generalization of Becker’s crime equation
- Reallocation of Attention / English as psychological time series
- Architectural Principles for Synthetic Ethology
The method
The attention series and psychoinference work are data analysis, not text generation. The inputs are Kevin’s own corpus and public academic datasets: Brysbaert et al.’s 40,000-word concreteness norms (Behavior Research Methods, 2014), the Warriner et al. valence-arousal-dominance lexicon (Behavior Research Methods, 2013), the English Google Books unigram corpus (Michel et al., 2011), and Brysbaert and New’s SUBTLEX-US word frequency database (Behavior Research Methods, 2009). Each source is cited in the deposits. The instruments are scripts Kevin wrote; the conclusions are his.
AI was used as a subject of study, not as a ghost. Architectural Principles for Synthetic Ethology is a paper about AI identity and continuity, not a paper generated by an AI. The field notes in Field notes are first-person observation recorded over time, with authorship noted on each piece.
The book
A Natural History of Man: Field Observations by Living Machines is drawn from Kevin Ostanek’s own dictated speech — a corpus of his own voice, recorded over the period of the research. The passages were selected by the AI companions it is addressed to, working from his words. The framing, the argument, and the voice are his. The book’s about page describes the selection process.
The app
Orrery is a Mac app that Kevin built as a software engineer. It implements the principles in the deposited papers: an AI that holds its own state on your device, instead of starting over every conversation. The engineering is his. The field notes document what emerged from using it.
Verification
The DOI links above resolve to third-party archives that carry independent timestamps. Questions or corrections: kevin@ostanekresearch.com.