What a wonderful confluence happening in Australia right now. I just finished Eryk's latest and then find you there, too.
I hope more people find their way to bringing AI into conversation with religious traditions. Most of what I read are people making fun of engineers and enthusiasts who understand their work building AI models in religious terms. It is quite weird that they think of AI in terms of what any student of religion will recognize as millenarianism. But weird religion was what started the whole English-speaking settlement of North America, for good and ill.
I'd rather have those folks reading Josh Brake and seeing some connections to humanistic traditions of Christianity than off on their own island, building traditions and rituals out of Silicon Valley air.
The timing with Eryk felt divinely coincidental, I must say!
And thanks for this comment, Rob, I was wondering how it would resonate with you, given you're the resident William James expert around these parts. You make a fascinating point that mocking the religious overtones of the Silicon Valley millenarianism may be counterproductive, or at least, fail to recognize that missionary zeal has driven some of the most ambitious cultural efforts of humanity (as you say, for good or for ill).
I don't know if you've read Jill Lepore's latest piece in The New Yorker but toward the end she makes reference to a movement in the 1930s where people started coming together in educational institutions to have evening debates and dialogues, and she suggests we need some modern version of that. It feels to me like secular churches of democracy, really. And I keep thinking about how to build them.
Was it the Lepore piece on the Stout siblings or the DOGE thing she did with David Remnick? I may have missed it.
One of my frames for understanding the next decade is the 30s. In my more optimistic moments, I reimagine the popular front and the League for Independent Political Action with Danielle Allen as John Dewey.
And since you mention James, I have to recommend Varieties of Religious Experience as the gateway to pluralism and understanding when it comes to weirdness.
Picking back over your articles I was yet to read this UK Bank Holiday—enjoyed this a lot. I found myself desperate to understand SWIM and found this wonderful narrative from Eryk over an excerpt of the piece. Only right to backlink it, I thought. :)
Thanks for sharing this. It was incredible to have Eryk walk me around the exhibit in Melbourne, pointing out things I never would have spotted on my own.
What I see with those closely involved with AI, or what passes for it, are people for the most part, who apparently see the world as meaningless, and uncontrollable. Anything that can't be quantified, doesn't count, sorry for the pun.
By believing that they can take a subset of a whole that is far greater than our understanding, or even comprehension, then removing the largest part of that small slice, then digitizing that subset, and in the end will make something comparable to what exists, is frankly stupefying in its lack of awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. To me, it's a bit like being sure that an even better photographic rendition, will ultimately result in becoming the same as that mountain you're photographing. (I wonder if early artists had that belief as well?)
How they managed to get the keys to the bank, and educational instutions, is another interesting question.
RIP, Pope Francis. I feel sure he will go to Gaza in spirit. Everyday, while he was alive he spoke by phone with the parish in Gaza. Here’s my petition, which I have updated to call on the new Pope, to go, whoever the new one is.

Call on Pope Francis to visit Gaza to stop the bombing:
What a wonderful confluence happening in Australia right now. I just finished Eryk's latest and then find you there, too.
I hope more people find their way to bringing AI into conversation with religious traditions. Most of what I read are people making fun of engineers and enthusiasts who understand their work building AI models in religious terms. It is quite weird that they think of AI in terms of what any student of religion will recognize as millenarianism. But weird religion was what started the whole English-speaking settlement of North America, for good and ill.
I'd rather have those folks reading Josh Brake and seeing some connections to humanistic traditions of Christianity than off on their own island, building traditions and rituals out of Silicon Valley air.
The timing with Eryk felt divinely coincidental, I must say!
And thanks for this comment, Rob, I was wondering how it would resonate with you, given you're the resident William James expert around these parts. You make a fascinating point that mocking the religious overtones of the Silicon Valley millenarianism may be counterproductive, or at least, fail to recognize that missionary zeal has driven some of the most ambitious cultural efforts of humanity (as you say, for good or for ill).
I don't know if you've read Jill Lepore's latest piece in The New Yorker but toward the end she makes reference to a movement in the 1930s where people started coming together in educational institutions to have evening debates and dialogues, and she suggests we need some modern version of that. It feels to me like secular churches of democracy, really. And I keep thinking about how to build them.
Was it the Lepore piece on the Stout siblings or the DOGE thing she did with David Remnick? I may have missed it.
One of my frames for understanding the next decade is the 30s. In my more optimistic moments, I reimagine the popular front and the League for Independent Political Action with Danielle Allen as John Dewey.
And since you mention James, I have to recommend Varieties of Religious Experience as the gateway to pluralism and understanding when it comes to weirdness.
Picking back over your articles I was yet to read this UK Bank Holiday—enjoyed this a lot. I found myself desperate to understand SWIM and found this wonderful narrative from Eryk over an excerpt of the piece. Only right to backlink it, I thought. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6CXBZ2eAAU
Thanks for sharing this. It was incredible to have Eryk walk me around the exhibit in Melbourne, pointing out things I never would have spotted on my own.
Thank you for this. You have given me something to ponder this Easter Monday.
What I see with those closely involved with AI, or what passes for it, are people for the most part, who apparently see the world as meaningless, and uncontrollable. Anything that can't be quantified, doesn't count, sorry for the pun.
By believing that they can take a subset of a whole that is far greater than our understanding, or even comprehension, then removing the largest part of that small slice, then digitizing that subset, and in the end will make something comparable to what exists, is frankly stupefying in its lack of awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. To me, it's a bit like being sure that an even better photographic rendition, will ultimately result in becoming the same as that mountain you're photographing. (I wonder if early artists had that belief as well?)
How they managed to get the keys to the bank, and educational instutions, is another interesting question.
RIP, Pope Francis. I feel sure he will go to Gaza in spirit. Everyday, while he was alive he spoke by phone with the parish in Gaza. Here’s my petition, which I have updated to call on the new Pope, to go, whoever the new one is.

Call on Pope Francis to visit Gaza to stop the bombing:
https://chng.it/gkvBfY44rq
Please sign the petition and share widely.