The Simple Change Tech Bros Refuse to Make
For humans, “I” is a letter of relationship, dignity, and responsibility. Why hand it over to inanimate language models?
Dispatches
Artificial Intimacy
“He trusts a bot with no experience of emotions because it doesn’t care,” she notes. “It’s a redefinition of truth, in which it can only come from a lack of human experience."
James Merrill: The Poetics of Place
A lesser poet would never have won a National Book Award with poetry that claimed to be a transcription from the spirit world.
Different Styles in Business Management
Nobody should want to run a business like the lighter factory, with its puny, per-unit profit scheme. No American company would even try to do what the Chinese do, by hyper-control of their people.
Even Our Corn Is Sweating
I had never even heard of corn sweat. But God do I feel it.
Why We Need the Loch Ness Monster
“It turns out that the one who destroys—at least in this case—doesn’t believe in anything but himself."
Why Friction Will Always Find You
Risk in romance is friction with the potential of reward. Being alone is the friction of no prospect of reward whatsoever.
Sensory Gratification Is Free (and Freeing)
Ian Bogost reminds us that we are not yet disembodied—and can fight the trend.
The Class System Needs Redefined
What could class mean now in America, where populists decry education as brainwashing, influencers look rich in things and lifestyles, and oligarchs spend their time pasting fool’s-gold to everything instead of governing for the benefit of the people?
Something I Learned from You: Poise is Too Often Like Pose
I laughed and told my son that the singer reminded me of myself in high school—gawky, skinny, comic not handsome, watching everyone else but doing your own thing a little too enthusiastically.