We’ve got a date (Oct. 9-10), location (Indianapolis), theme (Neighborly Arts), and rough schedule for the fall FPR conference. More details to come, but do make plans to join us for what should be a convivial weekend.
“The Multibillion-Dollar Foundation That Controls the Humanities.” Tyler Austin Harper’s excellent essay isn’t really about the absurd funding choices the Mellon Foundation makes. It’s really about the value of non-utilitarian approaches to human thinking, approaches already threatened by economics and politics and now further endangered by AI: “The humanities are in the mess they’re in because of federal budget cuts, and because of administrators who care more about the football team than about William Faulkner, and because of the toxic pragmatism of an American culture that has a hard time valuing anything that is not immediately, aggressively useful. But the humanities are also in this mess because those of us who care about them have often preferred hunkering down in a defensive crouch, rattling our donation jars and begging for scraps, to serious soul-searching about the real purpose of American arts and letters. . . . At their best, the humanities remind us that our problems are petty not because they are small, but because they are born of the same questions that have plagued all humans since our species lowered itself down from the trees and traded monkey chatter for wisdom-seeking: How to live virtuously? How to exist together peaceably? How to die with grace?”
“Set in Stone.” Chris Jones praises the humble yet remarkable stone walls that thread across the northeastern US: “They also represent extraordinary physical labor, as thousands of stones were placed by hand, often by farmers working alone or with family; women and children participated as well. These walls are records of endurance and a long-term relationship with place. Each reflects local geology, available material, and the choices of the people who built it.” (Recommended by Rob Grano.)
“This ‘Screwtape for Our Times’ Will Challenge and Confound You.” Brad East reviews Ross McCullough’s new book, This Body of Death, and captures its uncapturable wonders as well as anyone could do: “it is almost—but not quite—a novel, a theological treatise, a collection of aphorisms, a series of correspondence, a science fiction dystopia, and a tract for Roman Catholicism. It is also the best new book you’ll read this year.”
“The AI Jobs-Apocalypse is Here: Prepare for the Laptop-Class Revolt.” Ryan Zickgraf ponders the likely consequences of AI-provoked job losses: “We are already seeing the emergence of a new, non-partisan “AI Populism” where something like the “Humanists” square off against “Tech Accelerationists.” Across the country, local communities are already revolting against the construction of massive AI data centres, even without the sting of massive job loss. These eerie windowless temples of compute strain local power grids and suck up millions of gallons of water, and arrive with the footprint of a fleet of spaceships: alien, resource-hungry, and indifferent to local life. The political backlash is no joke. These fights are erupting in swing states and battleground districts, animating local elections and straining party coalitions.” (Recommended by Adam Smith.)
“The Mad Farmer on Claude, AI, and the Church.” Hayden Nesbit turns to Wendell Berry’s most famous poetic character for guidance in our AI-obsessed moment: “This contrary community cannot be pinned down by technology, but must be a congregation of image-bearing Mad Farmers who plant and till and reap in seemingly wrong directions by unpredictably glorious and mysterious means––Heaven’s favor––in spite of AI’s best advice.”
“The Perfect Mirror.” Matthew Milliner asks ChatGPT for spiritual advice: “I broke the mirror by telling it to break itself, but only thanks to human counsel. And while I may have gotten it to briefly mirror this sanity back to me, the mirror did not make me sane. Again, I am not afraid of it, as AI proponents might assume pieces like this necessarily betray. The Renaissance artist Alessandro Botticelli became a better artist after he received Savonarola’s counsel to put his more lascivious paintings into the fire. I may use AI with caution to help with select technical tasks in the future, but that was my last foray to AI for genuine spiritual guidance, my last request for its frictionless grace.”
“How to Lose Immigration Voters in 10 Months.” Amber Lapp talks with Trump voters in Ohio about their views on immigration: “On the one hand, the MAGA voters I spoke to want elected officials to uphold law and order. They want systems that honor the American notion of fairness—that you work hard for what you get and wait your turn without cutting in line. They want jobs in America that allow people to support themselves. On the other hand, they want a system that treats people humanely.”
“The Enemy of the Good.” Nicholas Clairmont ponders the myriad ways that optimizing life can destroy that which makes it valuable: “Unlike many critics of effective altruism or polyamory or racking up credit-card points, I really do allow that their proponents have the better of the arguments they take part in. The problem is not with the premise-by-premise arguments, it is with the mindset. What you lose in optimizing morality is the same thing you lose in maximizing your airline-mile spend. In other words, nothing quantifiable—but precisely the chance to escape quantification, to orient toward something that cannot be counted, predicted, analyzed. Such things exist, even if they can’t always be captured in words and numbers. If alternative mindsets were easier to imaginatively inhabit, perhaps we could harness FOMO to greater ends—fear of missing healthier mindset. ‘The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.’”
