From MIT’s recently published study Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task:
“Participants who were in the Brain-only group reported higher satisfaction and demonstrated higher brain connectivity, compared to other groups.”
That “higher satisfaction” and “higher brain connectivity” were associated with those who had no access to LLMs confirms the hunch that many of us have had all along:
A window pops up, blocking content, to encourage me to download the app for a better reading experience. In the app, a window pops up, blocking content, to encourage me to rate the app. All the while, I have unread paper books next to my bed.
“We are reduced to the role of the weak link in a system we have freely created.”
Dom David (monk) summarizing The Obsolescence of Man by Günther Anders
“If you don’t take risk, you also take risk.”
Thomas Frank is at least speaking the language of Audere est facare; here is hoping it plays out this season. Happy to know he gets the ethos—this has not always been the case!
This is a new recording of an essay originally published in June 2022: livingchurch.org/covenant/…
Social media is a form of the unexamined life Socrates warned us about.
But does it have to be so? Are the current popular iterations of social media, which I will refer to as Big Social, our only option for consuming information, connecting with friends and strangers, and developing bonds across borders and oceans?
Transcript
We are increasingly convinced that newer is always better in every arena of life. But what if there are older, better ways to think about what it means to be human?
While this certainly resonates, Lewis rightly goes on to argue that the root issue lies in us holding the utterly unrealistic expectation that there will be no “unexpected demands” in the first place.
“Do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.”
William James
What started as intuitive and experimental practices in applying the Daily Office to a K-12 school context years ago is now being formalized so that the best of what we have offered can continue even after the people who cared to do these things well are gone.
The ultimate questions which man asks about himself are partly answered by the very fact of their being asked.
Mortimer J. Adler
I asked him if monks had a difficult time parting with earthly pleasures. His answer was simple: “Religious life does not prevent us from loving the earth. We love it differently, and perhaps more, because the earth is more beautiful with the eyes of faith. Nature is more beautiful, souls a more beautiful, human relationships are more beautiful.”
The Tower of Babel and Pentecost call us to reject the murky, downstream pursuits of self-reliance and instead seek the pure source of life found in God. At Pentecost, God comes down—not to control us, but to dwell within us, empowering us to live a Spirit-filled, unified, and abundant life.
Transcript
Never before, perhaps, has the relationship to death been so impoverished as in this time of spiritual desolation when men, in their rush to exist, seem to avoid all mystery.
François Mitterrand
I have made many attempts to use my phone wallpaper as a reminder of what matters most. This one is proving fruitful. Thanks to jmk.me for pointing me towards Owen’s work.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
This is a terrible, no good, very bad call. Ange achieved what no Spurs manager has since 2008. And he did so with absolute class.
We just returned from a pretty amazing nine days away that included over 3,000 miles of driving, five nights of camping, and lots of exploring. The American Southwest is simply beautiful.
But what if it is better to not be the first to know?
If you are on the fence about leaving Meta, and this article does not push you off that fence by permanently deleting your account, then you have never really been anywhere near the fence all along.
Have the child. Practice the religion. Found the school. Support the local theater, the museum, the opera or concert hall, even if you can see it all on YouTube. Pick up the paintbrush, the ball, the instrument. Learn the language — even if there’s an app for it. Learn to drive, even if you think soon Waymo or Tesla will drive for you. Put up headstones, don’t just burn your dead. Sit with the child, open the book, and read.
