My kid is participating in MIT splash which means I'm in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the weekend.

This morning we waited in the longest, most efficient line I have ever seen or heard of. Then I got the hell out of her hair. The undergraduates who run splash make it very clear you should exit helicopter mode when dropping off your young person, who can competently manage her own schedule of Arduino whispering, Estonian street slang and whatever else the MIT students feel like teaching. There is a Parent's Island where you can be entertained to make you feel relevant but I already feel relevant.

So I went to the MIT museum. I admit I was expecting something, well, triumphantly techie. What I got instead was a poignant exhibit of nineteenth century daguerreotype photography. France gave Daguerre a pension instead of a patent, and the daguerreotype became essentially open source, especially in America where everybody had their own variation. I am surprised that the exhibit didn't draw this comparison.

The museum also features many kinesthetic sculptures, all of which are notable for their emotional impact as much as anything. And the collection of Polaroid cameras feel just as much a piece of the past as the daguerreotypes.

Of course there is some straight up geekery. Ah, the LISP machine! From a time when LISP programming was going to give us artificial intelligence and a purpose built computer just for LISP made sense. Currently the closest analogue is a custom bitcoin mining rig. Except that has no admirable air of mad science.

This gadget flunked my Turing test.

Afterwards I rented a bike- cheaper these days, with the city bike system in competition- and pushed off down Massachusetts Avenue. I pressed on past Harvard to the edge of the next town before returning for a late lunch / early dinner.

Tonight the cold I thought I had defeated came back. So I thought about taking a nap. But somehow I wound up pedaling down Broadway, across the Longfellow bridge and up Beacon Hill. Because I am crazypants.

I rolled down the other side and into Boston Common and looked at the skaters with longing, but with Eleanor's laptop on my back that wouldn't be cool. So I continued down beacon street and discovered a park on the Charles River.

Finally I returned to Cambridge via the Boston college bridge and went for Loop around the MIT campus. Where I discovered a building that clearly indicates lysergic acid is still a research tool.

Of course the building is full of robots.

Now it's time to meet up with my kid. The aquarium for me tomorrow I think.