The Product
AlgoRhythmics argues that single-variable optimisation — reducing complex systems to one number — destroys the context that makes those systems work. Chapter by chapter, it shows this in finance, attention, energy, housing, education, and work.
The book ends with a question: what do we actually do about it?
The Context File is the one-shot answer — a prompt you paste into any AI assistant to make it think wider. But a prompt resets when you close the window.
Bob is the persistent answer.
Bob — Your Private AI Agent
Bob is a personal AI agent that knows your life. It ingests your email, bank transactions, calendar, and documents. It builds a persistent memory of your financial and administrative life. It answers questions, sends daily briefings, and watches your subscriptions and renewals so you don't have to.
What a day with Bob looks like:
You wake up. At 07:00 an email arrives:
Key Actions
- Car insurance renewal due in 12 days (Aviva, policy #AV-2847392). Last year: £487. Check comparison sites.
- No Coutts statement imported since 22 Mar. Upload latest CSV.
Calendar This Week
- Mon 10:00: Investment Committee
- Thu 14:00: School parents' evening
Upcoming Costs
- 8 Apr: Council tax £185 (Monzo)
- 10 Apr: Netflix £15.99 (Monzo)
- 12 Apr: Mortgage £1,247 (Coutts)
You open the chat on your phone:
"What am I paying for streaming services?"
Bob responds with amounts, evidence, and which account each comes from — because it has the transactions, the emails, and the memory facts.
"Cancel Disney+"
Bob remembers this preference, notes it was billed via Apple (email evidence), and will check next month whether the charge stopped.
Total interaction time: 10 seconds. Total value: real. No scrolling. No feed. No dopamine manipulation.
Privacy by Construction
Bob's privacy is not a policy. It is the architecture.
| Guarantee | Mechanism |
|---|---|
| Encrypted at rest | Your data lives on a LUKS-encrypted volume. The key is derived from your passphrase using Argon2id. We never store the passphrase. If you forget it, your data is gone — because we have no backdoor. |
| Network egress whitelist | Bob's container can only talk to the AI model, your email provider, and the Swarm trait relay. That's it. Enforced by firewall rules, not by policy. |
| Open source | The code is publicly auditable. No telemetry. No exfiltration. You can verify this yourself. |
| Self-host option | Run the same Docker image on your own hardware. Zero trust required. |
Your bank statements, your emails, your documents — they are ciphertext when Bob sleeps. Not "we promise not to read it." We cannot read it.
The Swarm — Collective Intelligence Without Surveillance
Bob alone can tell you: "Your energy bill is £180/month."
Bob + Swarm can tell you: "Your energy bill is £180/month. That's in the top 20% for 3-bed properties in the South East. 340 users switched provider in Q1 and the median saving was £42/month. Shall I explore alternatives?"
The difference is context you can't get from your own data. Bob knows your costs. The Swarm knows what good looks like.
How it works:
Your Bob — not you — joins the Swarm. It emits anonymised, bucketed traits:
{energy_provider: "scottishpower", monthly_band: "£100-200", region: "south-england"}
No names. No addresses. No postcodes. No PII. Ever.
The Swarm discovers cohorts — groups of bots with overlapping traits — and synthesises intelligence:
- "78% of bots in your energy cohort switched in Q1 and saved an average of £180/year"
- "A group negotiation for broadband is forming — 340 bots in your region are exploring alternatives"
The human never sees another human. There is no feed, no likes, no comments. Your bot quietly works the crowd on your behalf and brings you intelligence.
We measure success by time saved and money saved, not time spent.
What This Is Not
| What we are NOT | Why |
|---|---|
| Social media | No human interaction. No identity. No attention economy. |
| A comparison site | We don't take referral fees from providers. We work for the user. |
| A financial advisor | We surface what people like you did. We don't tell you what to do. |
| A data broker | PII never leaves your instance. We can't sell what we don't have. |
| An advertising platform | There is no ad layer. Ever. This is policy, not preference. |
Try Bob
Bob is live. It's free. Your data is yours.
Context is harmony. Harmony is context.