J. M. W. Turner, Coastal view at sunset with fishing boat returning to port
In 2014 I suggested that people ask themselves a question:
How would you act politically — what kinds of arguments would you make, what kinds of laws would you support, what means of persuasion would you use — if you knew that those whom you most despise will at some point hold the reins of political power in your country?
My dear mother-in-law, Margaret Collins, is one hundred and one years old. Here’s the email she just sent me — the general context being my wife Teri’s frequent visits home to Alabama to help her brother and sister-in-law care for her mother:
Dear Alan,
We are looking forward to seeing you and Wesley next week. Maybe we'll have some dry weather by then. Teri said you had rain there, which I hear is prized in Waco.
Alan, for some time I have wanted to tell you how much I have appreciated your being so gracious and generous concerning Teri's visits. She is such a joy and very helpful. It gives Lynn and Anne a little break from the care of this old lady, too.
I am so proud of you and your many accomplishments. You don't just have them handed to you — it takes much hard work and “staying the course.” I believe your best days are still ahead.
May God bless, guide and reveal His love for you in all the years ahead.
I love you and keep you in my prayers,
Mama C
Is that not adorable? I’ve written in the past about being welcomed into the Collins family.
I have a quite distinct memory of writing a long post, at some point fifteen years ago or so, on Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels. But I can’t find anything, on my hard drive or via web search: not turning up on Kagi or Google or DuckDuckGo or the Wayback Machine. Very strange. But I do have the consolation of this from Google:
Yes. Those are precisely the traits I am known for.
John Gruber: “This year I again extended my usual invitation to Apple, but, for the first time since 2015, they declined.” Apple execs demonstrating classic addict behavior here: When the people who love you best tell you you have a problem, cut off the people who love you best.
Once I get the hang of this podcasting thing I’m gonna start calling myself the showrunner of ayjay.org.
As I explain at the beginning of this, um, episode? — I guess it’s an episode — I don’t know how to podcast, I don’t even know how I want to podcast, but I’m giving it a try, because I’ve promised my Buy Me a Coffee supporters that I would do a series about Paradise Lost in preparation for the release of my new book. Consider this a trial run and wish me well as I stumble along!
I’m so pleased to see that Resentment, the first — but I hope not the last — feature film to be written and directed by my friend Noah Millman, is about to be released!
Statement of principles:
- There’s no such thing as “artificial intelligence”
- Chatbot interfaces to LLMs are exceptionally prone to abuse in many ways, intellectual and ethical
- Chatbot interfaces to LLMs are in some circumstances extremely useful
- There’s an inverse relationship between (a) habitual reliance on LLMs and (b) appropriate use of LLMs
I wrote about the plusses and minuses of Gioiatopia.