One of the real problems in modern life is that people who are good at being civil lack strong convictions and people who have strong convictions lack civility.
RIP, Martin Marty.
The story of the foolish wiseman—on Thomas More, Niels Bohr, & the power of paradox in a black-and-white world.
Finished reading: Vita Contemplativa by Byung-Chul Han 📚
Finished reading: Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams. Subtitle: 99 Stories of Azrael.
Holy smokes this is a cool book. Vintage Williams, wild & strange & unforgettable. 📚
Finished reading: Lord Emsworth and Others by P. G. Wodehouse 📚
Currently reading: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges 📚
Currently reading: Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams 📚
Two absolutely killer albumss released today. One could do worse than spend the weekend listening to these two. 🎵
Hollis Robbins, "AI & the Last Mile"
Here’s a very insightful essay on the changing role — and increasing importance of — human judgment in the world of AI: Hollis Robbins, “AI & the Last Mile." A couple excerpts:
While we worry about AI replacing human judgment, the real story may be how AI is creating a market for that judgment as a luxury good, available only to those who can pay for the “last mile” of human insight. […]
The “last mile” will become the new gated community, where inside the velvet ropes are expert humans with discernment.
Surely these dynamics will play out in education, too, where most students will get the generic, “slightly off” AI bots; elite education will still be AI-centered, but a more personalized experience.
The one caveat I’d add: it does seem like knowledge graphs offer one possible way to bring this “last mile” forward, and build it into the AI dev process from the start. If we can successfully leverage knowledge graphs to minimize or eliminate hallucinations, we could change these last-mile dynamics and create truly democratizing AI tools. 🤖
Parables are strange; finding your life transformed into a parable, even stranger.
Boy do I wish I had been in Chicago last Friday 🎵
It’s a glorious time to be an American tennis fan. Half of the US Open men’s & women’s semifinalists are American! Unreal. 🎾
Currently reading: All Things Are Full of Gods by David Bentley Hart 📚
Finished reading: Middlemarch by George Eliot 📚
Currently reading: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake 📚
The wisdom of simplicity: an interview with Uruguya's former president José Mujica 🔗
A brief, powerful interview with Uruguay’s former philosopher-president, who is now battling cancer.
Though I disagree with him on many things, he has a lot of profound, simple wisdom to share:
Humans can create infinite needs. The market dominates us, and it robs us of our lives. Humanity needs to work less, have more free time and be more grounded. Why so much garbage? Why do you have to change your car? Change the refrigerator? There is only one life and it ends. You have to give meaning to it. Fight for happiness, not just for wealth.
What meaning can we give to life? Man, compared to other animals, has the ability to find a purpose…. If you find it, you will have something to live for. Those who investigate, those who play music, those who love sports, anything. Something that fills your life.
The book is the greatest invention of man. It’s a shame that people read so little. They don’t have time.
Four years ago, I threw [my phone] away. It made me crazy. All day talking nonsense. We must learn to speak with the person inside us. It was him who saved my life. Since I was alone for many years, that has stayed with me. When I’m in the field working with the tractor, sometimes I stop to see how a little bird constructs its nest.
The power of journalism rises & falls inversely to journalists' belief in the power of journalism. The more journalists are convinced of their world-changing power, the less anyone listens. The more they just do their job, the more people tune in.