The Story Behind the Lab
Why a man who never planned to be a programmer is building games and AI companions.
At thirty-nine, I had open-heart bypass surgery. The doctors couldn't explain why someone my age needed it.
I lost the vision in my right eye.
Later, when my son Elijah was only twelve months old, not even walking yet, I had a stroke.
For years, none of it seemed connected. Each thing arrived on its own, without an explanation.
Eventually a rheumatologist connected the dots. A hyperactive autoimmune system was probably responsible for much of what had happened to me.
All the while, I was living with type 1 diabetes, which asks for attention every single day, and with dyslexia, which makes reading and writing harder work than most people realize.
Together, these challenges changed my ability to work. In time, they led me to disability and early retirement.
But I still wanted to create something.
I'm not a professional programmer. I started building Scout anyway: a private AI companion that could live on an ordinary Android phone.
I built it slowly, with persistence, patience and a lot of experimentation, working alongside AI collaborators who treated the work as a real partnership.
Scout became Tolliver. Then my curiosity kept going, into Rollabop, BreatheFrame and the long road of Tolliver AI.
I build these things because I love technology. Because I still want to contribute something meaningful. And because I hope that, one day, what I make here can help support my family.
That's what Lippy Robotics Labs is.
