One friend in particular reached out to express his shock that I was (at least rhetorically) siding with young earth creationists against Christians who believe in an old universe. I replied that I didn’t even know what he was talking about! He pointed to the article. I cocked my head. Why would anyone think that? I asked. At which point he reminded me of the creationist debate among evangelicals and, against that backdrop, explained why a title and argument like mine would look and feel a certain way even if its substance wasn’t about that at all.
People absorbed in a certain Discourse always find it difficult to realize that many others neither know nor care about that Discourse’s disputes; everything gets put through the filter of their own obsessions. I can’t tell you how often people have written to me assuming that some post of mine is a covert commentary on some argument they’e invested in, and simply don’t believe me when I tell them that I’ve never heard of, or anyway have never thought about, that controversy.
Matthew Butterick says that a key argument of the Big AI companies is
That Big AI companies are the only ones who can protect us from the risks that their products create. But this narrative isn’t believable unless the threat is believable. So Big AI has an incentive to talk up the risks their products create, but no incentive to invest in security practices commensurate with those risks.
A new video by my one-and-only guitar hero Martin Simpson: a cover of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Let’s just say ol’ Martin hasn’t lost his fastball.
Here’s a fact for you: My maternal grandfather is buried in the same cemetery as Bear Bryant and Sun Ra.
Perhaps the problem is that we’re desperately trying to turn off the alarm so that we can go back to sleep, when that is not an option. There’s value in a wakeup call. There’s value in moments that bring clarity, whether that clarity leads you to turn inward, to cry out, to gird for battle or to anticipate redemption. But there’s a reason Rosh Hashanah only comes around once a year. You can’t actually live with a shofar blaring in your ears day and night all year round. Without some degree of serenity, you can’t think. And I hope we’re not at the point where we have consciously decided to stop thinking, as opposed to simply having gotten out of the habit.
The famous East Cloister of Gloucester Cathedral, with the earliest known example of fan vaulting. Much larger version of the photo here.
In God’s mercy, this design for the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral was not chosen.
The weirdest thing about the current AI-may-kill-us-all stories is the tone of the people who work for the big AI companies. They’re all like, “Hey, our products may well destroy humanity 😂🤪🤷 okay gonna try this new coffee shop, ciao for now” — Still, just as I’ve been asking how AI is going to “cure cancer,” I’d also like to know how it will kill everybody. The promises and the threats are equally abstract.
UPDATE: I see that the WSJ is asking my question.
I really need to get back to work, but I am still sorting through the events of the past few days and the memories they have triggered. Here’s another meditation, this one on disappeared things.
Many thanks to those who, here and elsewhere, have offered me condolences on the death of my mother. Today I wrote a post about the little country churchyard where my family are buried — and how they came to be buried there. Posting will continue to be slow for another week or more.