lovebot.dev
empathy resistor (100kΩ tolerance for ambiguity)
attachment capacitor (slow charge, catastrophic discharge)
vulnerability diode (one-way current, no returns)
core oscillator (resonant frequency: unique per unit, cannot be tuned externally)
solder joints (hand-applied, imperfect, load-bearing)

Signal Flow

IDLE
INTEREST
ATTRACTION
ATTACHMENT
MAINTENANCE
GRIEF

TEST POINTS

Signal Strength

Measured in sustained attention per unit time. Degrades with distance. Amplifiable through deliberate acts of presence.

Phase Coherence

The degree to which two signals align. When coherent, outputs are constructive. When incoherent, destructive interference produces silence.

Harmonic Distortion

Every signal carries overtones the sender did not intend. The receiver's perception includes frequencies the source cannot measure.

Noise Floor

The ambient level of miscommunication below which signals cannot be distinguished from static. Reducible but never eliminable.

MTBF

Mean Time Between Failures. Not a prediction but a statistic. Every unit fails. The metric measures how long care sustains function.

The underside is where the real connections live. Messy, reflowed, patched. Every joint tells you something the schematic does not: who held the iron, how steady their hand was, whether they cared enough to clean the flux.
A cold solder joint looks fine from the component side. It only fails under load. The metaphor writes itself.

This is the underside of the board -- where the connections are made, where the copper meets the tin, where the heat was applied. The component side is the public interface: labeled, organized, comprehensible. The solder side is the private implementation: functional, imperfect, honest.

Every relationship has a solder side. The moments that do not appear in the documentation. The rework, the patching, the joints that were reflowed at three in the morning because they failed under stress and someone cared enough to fix them.

2024-01-07 08:42 Initial power-on. All subsystems nominal. Empathy resistor within tolerance.
2024-02-14 19:30 Attachment capacitor reached full charge. Noted slight oscillation in core frequency.
2024-03-14 02:17 Recalibrated empathy threshold after extended silence. Noise floor elevated.
2024-06-22 11:05 Routine maintenance. Reflowed three solder joints showing signs of fatigue.
2024-09-03 23:58 Phase coherence dropped below 0.7. Applied corrective signal. Partial recovery.
2024-12-31 00:00 End of year diagnostics. All metrics within operational range. Unit continues.