At Home with Tech

It’s not as complicated as it looks. Tech tips for your life.
September 13, 2026

What the Heck is Happening in the Sci-Fi Series ‘Silo’?

After three seasons, “Silo’s” mystery continues to deepen. Here’s my spoiler-free view of this great series on Apple TV.

The world ended hundreds of years ago, and ten thousand people live in a massive underground circular bunker that stretches down for a mile without an elevator. This society is functional though constantly resource stressed. Technology is limited, and possessing anything from the past is a crime.

History has been erased, and nobody seems to know why they’re stuck in this prison/sanctuary. They don’t know if the world outside is really a barren, poisonous landscape. 

Misinformation. Confusion. Psychological control. 

Mechanical vs IT

Welcome to “Silo,” which has wrapped its third season on Apple TV. 

With solid storytelling and strong acting, it stars Rebecca Ferguson as a mechanic who becomes an unlikely leader for a growing resistance movement against this restrictive society and Tim Robbins as an ‘evil’ manager from the IT department. (Yes, in this future, IT controls everything.)

But what they’re all fighting against is more complicated than they understand.

A Puzzle in a Mystery

And I’ve felt a similar confusion watching this series across the years. I don’t know what’s going on either. That’s “Silo’s” storytelling design. The reveals take their time, and every answer leads to a new question.

The ‘enjoyment’ that comes from this process is the satisfaction of understanding. Sure, I don’t feel as clueless as when I started watching the show, but we’ll all have to wait to the fourth and final season to receive all the pieces that answer the one big question…

Why?

Season 3 invested significant time developing a separate flashback pre-silo storyline that, of course, will connect to future events. And its purpose is evidently providing the ‘why.’ But that plot is not straightforward either.

Throughout all this intrigue and confusion, we’ve got a series that’s part mystery, part adventure and part sci-fi. But it also gives itself the time to explore topics like class structure, mind control and inevitable revolution in this dystopian future.

Thoughts on Season 3

“Silo” has clearly savored its major plot twists through its first three seasons. And while I’ve enjoyed the series overall, season 3 felt slower with less gripping action. I think that’s because so much time was invested setting up the pre-silo plot, which stars Ashley Zukerman as a congressman and Jessica Henwick as a journalist who stumble onto a dark mystery they don’t understand.

On the other hand, season 3 also revealed a much larger conspiracy than I thought I understood. Plus, the last episode in season 3 was perhaps the most jarring and intriguing episode to date. It reframed the entire series and reminded me how confused I felt at the start of this show.

It was a great episode, and yes… a cliffhanger that (slight spoiler) weaves our parallel stories together.

The Fate of Humanity?

So this all leads us to season 4, where I expect everything will come together and finally answer the “why.”

Is this silo a just solution to save humanity? Is it a social experiment? Perhaps both? Or has its true purpose not yet been fully revealed?

As the series wraps, it will also have to provide the fates of our many characters as well as the larger fate of this fragment of the human race.

No pressure.

The Truth is Out There

Shows built on mystery often have a hard time sticking their landing after years of flying about through confusion. (“Lost,” “The X Files,” “Fringe”)

But “Silo” seems to possess a clear road map with all its extensive set up. So, I do have high hopes for a great final season.

Season 4 of “Silo” premieres on July 9, 2027.

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September 6, 2026

Why I Like to Convert my New York City Photos to Black and White

Though I’m not a black and white photographer, sometimes I choose to pull the color out of my shots after I walk through the streets of New York. Here’s why.

I grew up in New York City. It’s my forever hometown. Though I haven’t lived there in decades, my life forever orbits around it.

I’m as close as the 7:55am Metro North train into Grand Central Terminal.

Discovering What’s Around the Corner

Many of the photos I’ve taken of the Big Apple over the years are simply the result of my commutes and what I’ve run into on the streets of Manhattan. 

And I’ve found that more than a few of my resulting shots look better as black and white versions. 

Prometheus Watches Over the Ice (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Why am I drawn to the black and white look? When you think about New York City, what are a few descriptors that come to mind? For me, I would say:

  • Classic
  • Dramatic
  • Timeless
  • Gritty

And these are also some of the ways that black and white images present themselves. So, the visual and energy alignment is clear.

Better in Black and White 

That’s why I occasionally feel compelled to click on the tiny black and white button when editing my New York City photos on my Mac Studio. (My tool of choice is Adobe Lightroom. It offers a variety of B&W ‘looks.’)

As a result, my selected shots often benefit from their visual conversion into the black and white universe.

Sure, they still look nice in color. I just like them better in black and white. It generates a classic timelessness about them.

Here are more examples.

Atlas Lifts World Cup Awareness (2026)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Scabby the Rat Protests (2026)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Morning Commute at Grand Central Terminal (2025)

Photo by Barrett Lester

East 63rd Street (2022)

Photo by Barrett Lester

48th and 5th Avenue (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Smith & Wollensky (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Bliss (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Outdoor Dining (2016)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Follow Your Flow

I usually don’t go looking for photos to snap on the streets of New York. Certainly not black and white ones. They find me. And I often don’t recognize the opportunity to convert them to black and white till much later… sometimes years later when I review them again.

I’m not sure what that says about me as a photographer, but it does reveal something about my creative process.

We all travel our own road that leads us into inspiration and towards creative execution.You just have to go with the flow and see where it takes you.

New York City Marathon (2008)

Photo by Barrett Lester
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August 30, 2026

Why I Created Three AI Spokespeople to Promote My Blog

Meet Mr. Tech, a robot and a time traveler. I invented them and then brought them to life in their own commercials below. But here’s their true purpose.

I had a mentor who once told me about her 80/20 rule when producing content. The rule said you should spend 20% of your time ‘creating’ and the other 80% ‘promoting’ what you made.

Leaning into the spirit of that 80/20 marketing rule, I’ve decided to spin up a few Gen AI characters inspired by my blog topics to help promote a few of my past posts. (And of course, by doing that, I’m instantly breaking that rule.)

So please meet my three AI spokespeople I created who are now starring in the below 30-second At Home with Tech commercials.  

The Time Traveler

Mr. Tech (You’ve seen him before.)

The Robot Teacher

My next step was to bring these freeze frames to life. But to accomplish that, I had to first wear the following hats:

  • Casting
  • Location Scout
  • Script Writer 
  • Talent Director
  • And Director of Photography
    (I occasionally used Claude for this.)

Once I provided the necessary creative direction and script, I put Gen AI to work creating video clips for my commercials. Here are the results.


This Time Traveler has a Mission to Save Time

My Blog Post:
How to Use Shortcuts on Your iPhone to Save Time



Mr. Tech Worries About Capturing the Sunrise on a Cloudy Day 

My Blog Post:
How Clouds Transformed My Boring Sunrise Timelapses
into Pure Magic



Robot Teacher Explains How to Unlock an Old Suitcase

My Blog Post:
Try this Luggage Hack If You Forget Your Lock’s 3-Digit Code



I Used Google Flow

So yes, I hope you watch my above AI commercials and then read my blog posts they’re promoting.

But truthfully, that’s not the main reason why I created them.

I gave myself this marketing assignment, because I wanted to learn more about how to make these AI spots.

For this project, I used Google Flow (Veo) as my Gen AI tool of choice. 

The Steps to Bring My AI Characters to Life

And while parts of my workflow generated cool, unexpected AI iterations, which I used for inspiration, much of my creative process still relied on this human’s creative vision. 

And because this astonishing technology is still highly imperfect, I found a clear need for an organized process that would lead me to an acceptable level of creative consistency and output.

So, I had to stick to the following steps:

  • Create the characters and their voices first
  • Generate their environments
  • Then put them together
  • Write the script and figure out each shot and length
  • Be ready to adjust certain shots if they’re not generating correctly
  • Don’t forget that each failed video generation drains your monthly credit allotment 
  • So allow yourself the flexibility to leave certain ideas behind
  • Give yourself enough time to account for platform generation delays
  • Simplify as needed

Though you can perform basic video edits on the Google Flow platform, I decided to bring my clips into Final Cut Pro for more advanced results.

I’m Learning a New Way to Communicate

None of this went especially quickly, and I found there were clear limits to what this ‘beginner’ could accomplish. What I ended up with wasn’t exactly what I envisioned, but it was close. It still feels remarkable that this is even possible.

And though there is some commentary out there about how AI may be taking away our need to ‘think,’ let me tell you, I had to do a whole lot of thinking with this. It was like trying to solve a puzzle that was regularly shifting on me. 

Sure, I traveled through several phases of frustration. But I also found the process entirely fun and invigorating. I was like a Star Trek ‘Q,’ creating realities from the whims of my imagination.

Of course, I know it’s only going to get easier. Not only because AI is constantly improving, but because this ‘organic’ is learning too.

Radical Change

As I travel through this new creative process to visualize my own ideas through AI, I hope you enjoy my silly AI spokespeople and find more of my blog posts.

The road ahead is far more serious.

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