ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper

Alright buddy, it's time to be my friend. There's no getting out of it .

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

Hello. My new book is out. Please buy 1 million copies so that I can be rich.

Features:
-space wizards
-cryptic poetry
-online peasant romance
-suburban knighthood
-naked guys with spears
-gnostic robots
-werewolf love story
-pastoral longings
-human sacrifice
-moonlightenment

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

I dont know about this assessment, but my homeschooled 13yo just fell in love with a selection from Gatsby and asked me to get her the book. Then she started telling me she was glad she wasn't reading it for school because she actually likes it and that would make it work

[Liza Libes @pensandpoison]

The greatest tragedy of Gatsby is that no one takes it seriously anymore because it's been reduced to one of those "high school books." But Gatsby and Catcher are two of the most profound books ever written in the English language.

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@MisterW00 I dont think i agree with Heidegger on technology, but I do think hes worth reading

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@AaronIrber Operating on the principle that there's no true distinction between reality and illusion. If an illusion becomes realistic enough that we can't call it out, then it must be real. Thats basically the argument

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@AaronIrber Me this morning, except I actually just had to fill out forms and email them to a professional association (basically the same thing)

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

Thats a very good question that has been written about extensively. I am not smart, so all I can say is that a common answer is more or less that the soul is not a full human, but still exists in relation to the body, which is part of why Christians affirm the resurrection of the dead

Regardless of how one parses that, the distinction between this view of soul and body and proper dualism is real, and it would be a significant difference even were one to deny the immortality of the soul

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@mllichti @dwaldenwrites The contention is that body and soul together are one substance, a human person, whereas dualism is more often used to suggest 2 substances (material and spiritual) that are united only accidentally

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@MisterW00 Even if its part of a larger vision of Great Books, we should still shoot for a particular appreciation of our own language and national literature. Wouldn't want to know Homer in translation but not Hawthorne

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@agostino_harry The philosophy of common sense

[Harry D'Agostino @agostino_harry]

I do earnestly think boilerplate low-commitment hylomorphism is going to be more and more of a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for retaining sanity over the next few decades.

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@AaronIrber @theblessedsalt @HaikuFictionDJU One tricky part is the correct balance is not the same for every family, or every kid within a family

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@ChHouseBooks Beauty should be restored, but its not the only metric. Art can also be fun, charming, cute, lively, without being beautiful in any serious sense. I would feel odd calling the caterpillar beautiful, but that doesn't mean it is therefore grotesque

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@DeanDeeann51268 Nice, I'm putting that on my Amazon list

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

Right. Knowing what an AI summary is, how its generated, certainly is one consideration in when and how someone uses it. If i get a summary of average plumbing rates its helpful to know its not actual numbers from actual plumbers in my area, but it is not for that reason useless to me as one of many things I might consider. It just means I need to have some concept of where that summary came from as I'm evaluating it as one possibly helpful note in a bigger picture

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

We're about to enter an age of anti-ai guys quoting the critical comments vs pro-ai guys quoting the notes of promise, while 8 academics write "actually it's complex" papers no one reads

Much like discourse on pro vs anti market statements from past encyclicals

[Mark Brumley @mabrumley]

Pope Leo XIV provides a compelling Christian response to the rise of digital technocracy, showing how faith, reason, and Catholic social teaching can guide us through rapid technological change and ethical use of AI. Preorder a deluxe hardcover edition at https://t.co/fM51NMTySg.

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

No amount of "technically this isnt information" clarification on the philosophical level really comes into play in the case of an actual person using an AI summary as one of a million things they might consider when making a business decision, hiring a service company, etc

Knowing what an AI summary is certainly helps me evaluate when and how I want to make use of it, and in what ways I want to be cautious, but it doesn't make it useless to me

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

Fair clarification, but doesn't change anything. If i make an expensive mistake because I get bad advice from a human consultant, vs an expensive mistake from AI, vs a good business decision based on a consultant or an AI summary, I am ultimately making my own judgment as a business owner based on my own considerations.

A plumber who searches "average service rates" when considering making a change to his billing, alongside listening to his customers, talking to other people in the trade, looking at what kind of income he needs for his family, hasnt lost his humanity by looking at a summary of average rates as one of a million little things he uses in making his decision, and he remains the one making the judgment

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@MScarince Human generated information can be true or false, and also is often wrong in very expensive ways. In either case, I'm ultimately left with my own judgment, and an AI summary is just one tool I can use in making that judgment alongside many others.

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

@MScarince Right. Knowing how it gives me that information is interesting, but doesnt effect its usefulness to me. Nor does using it in place of a phone book erase my humanity

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

That claim is obviously false. If I'm looking for a local service company, the information is useful to me based on its accuracy (phone numbers, rates, quality of service, etc) regardless of where that initial information comes from. Its not less useful to me because it was generated probabilistically, nor does it create any special kind of problem for me to know the AI summary could be inaccurate, any more than knowing the information from a customer review or an ad or any other human generated source may also be inaccurate for other reasons

For me as the potential customer, the usefulness of the information is relative to its accuracy regarding local service companies, regardless of how the accuracies or inaccuracies came about

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

If i were (absurdly) suggesting an AI testify in court, where the truthfulness of its statements were a moral issue, that would be relevant. In this case, I'm just looking for some promising names of local companies, and I have to call those companies myself regardless of how I get their names and contact information

This distinction points to a limitation for anyone who wants to treat AI as quasi-human, not with its basic function as a technology that can sometimes be useful

The response essentially confirms my claim: the rejection of AI as such is only the mirror image of the tech bro "AI is really alive" nonsense, whereas stepping aside from that framing quickly reveals a much more mundane set of "when and how do I find this useful, where and why do I find it dangerous" questions

[ELBrooks, hero, poet, housekeeper @PoetRegressive]

I ask an Ai search "what are average moving costs in my area, and some good companies to look into" then get quotes from the companies that sound promising, vs googling "moving companies near me" seeing reviews and getting quotes, vs looking in the phone book, calling 3 random companies and getting quotes. I'm not convinced ive lost a fundamental part of my humanity because the function behind my initial search was different than some years ago