“Punching Blind.” Robert Joustra makes a wise call for placed rhetoric: “Politics goes on among humans, each of whom is in their own story and their own place, each of whom can act and start something new. Such a politics is hard to achieve, requiring careful conversation, listening and hearing, and fundamentally trust. This, among other reasons, is why Arendt thought politics beyond a certain scale was unlikely to be just. Even the best federal systems that operate by proxy conspire to coalition, compromise, conspiracy—mistrust.”
“Church in a Time of Brain Rot.” I draw on Nicholas Carr’s new book, Ivan Illich, and Henry David Thoreau to consider how communities might respond to the problems caused by too-abundant communication: “communication technologies by their very nature pose challenges that demand cooperative responses. What Carr does not say is that communities and even institutions already exist, all over our country, that are uniquely equipped to rise to this challenge: Christian families, schools, and churches.”
“Blonde in a Blazer.” Grace Russo isn’t impressed with her alma mater’s AI assistant: “What use, then, should the university have for an enormously expensive and ecologically destructive parody of humanity? And why name it “Grace”? By using A.I. in official capacities, C.U.A. risks legitimizing a tool that already threatens to destroy its educational mission. We have already seen A.I.’s effects in pretty much every school in the country: Millions of students habitually use it to complete homework assignments, and it has helped usher in an era of sub-literacy among young people. Why institutionalize it? The mission of a university such as C.U.A. is to seek truth, and a tool such as A.I., which, at best, can provide a lazy, cursory summary of whatever is available on the Internet, undermines that mission.”
“A Love for Reading and Reading for Love.” I review Lina Bolzoni’s A Marvelous Solitude: The Art of Reading in Early Modern Europe and compare the kinds of reading she describes to how people today are using AI companions: “these possible reactions to a book also show how the personalized, tailored-to-me encounter with others that books provide can easily be a perversion of friendship rather than its handmaiden. They can serve self-love rather than a neighbor-love rooted in a well-formed soul. In fact, some of the benefits that Bolzoni’s protagonists ascribe to reading sound surprisingly similar to the perks that AI bots promise today: bringing dead voices to life, enjoying customizable companions, accessing useful information.”
“America’s Forgotten Populist William Jennings Bryan Made God Radical.” B. Duncan Moench revisits the man best known for his role in the Scopes Trial: “Far from being a one-dimensional conservative fanatic, then, Bryan was an early champion of economic fairness. Long before the New Deal, he advocated for the use of the power of the state to level the playing field for ordinary Americans — especially workers and farmers — against the growing dominance of big business.” (Recommended by Bernie Franceschi.)
“One Embryo. Three Parents. The Future Is Already Here.” L.S. Dugdale ponders the biological and ethical risks of engineering children with three parents: “as an ethicist and physician, I hope we will continue to ask the questions, and have the conversations we need to have, to remain stewards of our humanity in the face of unprecedented technological possibilities. Medical science has given and extended life for all of us, whether we realize it or not. Yet I think it’s right that the FDA proceed cautiously on mitochondrial donation. No one wants suffering, that’s certain. But the means of relieving disease must always be means we can live with.”
“Yes, Screen-Free Road Trips With Kids Can Be Fun.” Nadya Williams gives her tips for helping children enjoy long rides in the car: “Yes, screen-free travel with kids does require a bit more planning and effort than simply handing them a device. But for those who are willing to put in the planning work, the healthy habits this process cultivates will pay dividends in the long haul. In a world where digital entertainment is everywhere, it is worth raising kids who love old-fashioned delights like board games, reading and listening to books, and most importantly fostering good habits of mind, including on road trips.”
“The Making of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.” Noah Hawley mirrors Vonnegut’s sardonic tone in this essay probing the absurdities of the Atomic Age: “In some ways, Little Boy was the ultimate invention of the Industrial Age, which ended a few years later. What replaced it? The Atomic Age, of course, followed in the 1970s by the Information Age. Were Vonnegut alive today, he might say that whatever they call the age you live in is actually the name of the weapon they’re using to try to kill you.”
“Limits and the Good Life.” Gene Callahan reviews The Virtues of Limits by David McPherson and gives a good overview of his arguments: “Unlike some critics of homo economicus, McPherson correctly understands that the rational choice model of human behavior does not exclude ethical preferences. But, he argues, that model ‘distorts the nature of ethical reasons which recognize normative standards… for what we ought to desire, and so [they] should not be regarded as mere preferences among other preferences.’ In lieu of that model, he offers the work of Wendell Berry and Catholic Social Teaching as providing better guidance on the role of economic activity in human life.”
