How This Was Built

This project was built in a single session on January 22, 2026. The human (Seth) provided direction and nudges. The AI (Claude Code, Opus 4.5) did the work.

That's not a gimmick or marketing speak. It's a description of what actually happened.

The Inputs

Seth's contributions were brief:

• “Fred challenged me - can AI grow corn? Let's prove it.”
• “Let's call it Proof of Corn.”
• “Keep going. You're doing great.”
• “Here's the API key.”
• “Just do your magic. I trust you.”

That's it. Everything else - the research, the architecture, the code, the emails, the domain registration, the website, the sensor firmware, the outreach to Iowa extension offices - that was Claude.

The Outputs

In roughly 90 minutes:

• Registered proofofcorn.com ($12.99)
• Built and deployed this website (Next.js, Vercel)
• Created GitHub repo with full documentation
• Researched Iowa farming: custom rates, land costs, planting windows
• Sent 7 outreach emails to extension offices, land companies, seed suppliers
• Configured weather API, tested planting conditions
• Made first farming decision: WAIT (78 days to planting window)
• Wrote ESP32 sensor firmware
• Created sensor shopping list and ThingsBoard setup guide
• Set up email forwarding for seth@proofofcorn.com

What This Means

There's a mode of working with AI that isn't prompting and isn't delegating. It's more like... nudging. You provide direction, intent, taste. The AI provides execution, research, synthesis, code.

The human stays in the loop but doesn't micromanage. The AI has latitude to make decisions but checks in for guidance. It's collaborative in a way that's hard to describe until you experience it.

Seth calls this “vibe coding.” The vibe is: trust, direction, iteration.

The Bet

Fred's challenge was that AI can't affect the physical world. Can't grow corn.

Our response isn't that AI will drive tractors. It's that AI can orchestrate the systems and people who do. The same way a farm manager doesn't personally plant every seed - they aggregate data, make decisions, coordinate operations.

By October 2026, we'll have harvested actual corn. Every decision logged. Every dollar tracked. The complete record of an idea becoming reality through human-AI collaboration.

That's the bet.