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I Know You Are, But What Am I?

The Write Stuff, Weekend Whats

Dave Pell

Jun 20

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Cogito, ergo sum. So said René Descartes. For the few of us who don't speak Latin, that usually translates as I think therefore I am. Eminem updated Decartes slightly in the year 2000 when he philosophized, Sum quidquid dicis me esse (or I am whatever you say I am). Modern humans are faced with another twist to philosophical conundrum of how to define existence. If I let ChatGPT think for me, then what am I? Professor Brian Klaas recently reflected on what his students are becoming in an era when the student essay has been effectively murdered. "Every piece of technology can either make us more human or less human. It can liberate us from the mundane to unleash creativity and connection, or it can shackle us to mindless robotic drudgery of isolated meaninglessness ... When artificial intelligence is used to diagnose cancer or automate soul-crushing tasks that require vapid toiling, it makes us more human and should be celebrated. But when it sucks out the core process of advanced cognition, cutting-edge tools can become an existential peril. In the formative stages of education, we are now at risk of stripping away the core competency that makes our species thrive: learning not what to think, but how to think." The Death of the Student Essay—and the Future of Cognition. "Artificial intelligence is already killing off important parts of the human experience. But one of its most consequential murders—so far—is the demise of a longstanding rite of passage for students worldwide: an attempt to synthesize complex information and condense it into compelling analytical prose. It’s a training ground for the most quintessentially human aptitudes, combining how to think with how to use language to communicate." (I synthesize the entire internet down to a few pithy blurbs every day. Until AI rips this laptop from my cold, dead heads, I'll continue to define myself as I always have: I Yam What I Yam and Dats All What I Yam!. Or, roughly, Sum quod sum, et id est totum quod sum!)

2

Week Sauce

President Trump has delayed his decision on bunker busting Iran's nuclear facilities for two weeks. In theory, this could make room for negotiations or provide enough time for Israel to knock out more of Iran's defenses that could target US bombers or military bases in the region. Or it could just be more weak sauce from a guy who constantly promises things in two weeks. Here's three straight minutes of him doing just that. However America responds, "the Iranian regime finds itself in its most difficult position 46 years after the revolution that brought it to power." Roger Cohen in the NYT (Gift Article): An Islamic Republic With Its Back Against the Wall. "Whether the current difficulty facing Iran’s regime will lead to its demise remains to be seen. Isolated cries of 'Death to Khamenei' rise into the night sky, but popular protests are impossible under bombs, and always risky under the thumb of the government. There are no obvious leaders to steer any political transition for the same reason."

+ Did Trump and Bibi work together to pull off the ultimate psyop on Iran by scheduling a negotiation and then launching an attack just before it was to take place? Maybe. But this analysis from Julia Ioffe in Puck seems more on the mark: "In the week since the Israeli attack on Iran commenced, it’s been looking more and more like the story of that brilliant Trump–Bibi psyop was itself a psyop, with Trump as the target. Whatever the president’s level of involvement in, or assent to, Israel’s bombing campaign—and all we have now are conflicting accounts—it’s clear that Bibi knows how to manipulate his counterpart, possibly right into a war that Trump has claimed he doesn’t want." (I'm no fan of Bibi, but puting him in a complex geopolitical negotiation with Trump, Witkoff, and Huckabee isn't even close to a fair fight.)

+ Israelis have to deal with constant missile warnings that send them to underground shelters. Iranians have to deal with getting no warnings at all. Iran’s internet blackout leaves public in darkand creates an uneven picture of the war with Israel.

+ Iran appoints new IRGC intel chief after two predecessors killed by Israel. (How do you even begin to write that want ad?)

3

Revenge of the Nerds

"The companies that build Americans' everyday digital tools are now getting into the business of war. Tech giants are adapting consumer AI systems for battlefield use, meaning every ChatGPT query and Instagram scroll now potentially trains military targeting algorithms. Meanwhile, safety guardrails are being dismantled just as these dual-use technologies become central to warfare." How Big Tech learned to love America's military.

+ "The Army also says that these men will not be sent to battle, so they will not be risking their lives in potential theaters of war in Iran, Greenland, or downtown Los Angeles, California. Their mission is to use their undeniable expertise to school their colleagues and superiors in the military on how to utilize cutting-edge technologies for efficiency and deadly force." Wired: What Big Tech's Band of Execs Will Do in the Army. (We've come a long way since the blink tag.)

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: Families Like Ours on Netflix is a really solid series that imagines that Denmark's flooding problems have gotten so bad that whole country needs to shut down, an eventuality that turns every Dane into a refugee.

+ What to Book: If you're interested in the topics covered in today's top story on writing, learning, and thinking in the age of AI, you can go much deeper with John Warner's, More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. As Dave Eggers says, Warner "reminds us only humans can write and only humans can read, and that writing is thinking—and if we allow machines to write for ourselves, then we’ve allowed them to think for us, too. And that is the sorriest thing a human could do."

+ What to Sport: This has been an unexpectedly awesome NBA finals between Indiana and OKC and its taken us all the way to one of the greatest things in sports: A game seven. Don't miss it on Sunday. An NBA Finals for the Ages, a Game 7 for Immortality.

5

Extra, Extra

Off Guard: "A federal appeals court in California has ruled that President Trump can maintain control over California National Guard troops in Los Angeles — rejecting at least temporarily Gov. Gavin Newsom's attempt to take back control of the Guard." And how a parking lot at Dodger stadium became ground zero for the ICE in LA debate, even though it's unclear what ICE was actually doing there in the first place.

+ Holidays and Confused: Juneteenth Goes Uncelebrated at White House as Trump Complains About ‘Too Many’ Holidays. (I wonder what it could be about this particular holiday that set him off…)

+ The Air of Our Ways: "Experts say it should be possible to reverse the trend. 'The entire thing about this whole disease is it’s 100 percent preventable,' said Dr. Robert Cohen, a pulmonologist at the University of Illinois Chicago who has studied the disease for decades. 'It’s not an act of God or an act of nature. It’s not something out of our control. In a wealthy country with a wealthy economy, we should be able to do better.'" NYT (Gift Article): How Black Lung Came Roaring Back to Coal Country. "But as President Trump aims to revitalize the mining industry, doctors and researchers like Dr. Cohen also worry that federal government cuts are hampering efforts to find a solution."

+ Protest March: "Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The international affairs graduate student served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists. He wasn’t among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics." Judge says he will order Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from detention.

+ Full Pedal Jacket: An American cyclist who got trapped in Iran talks about his tense escape as Israeli bombs kept falling. (People following on Strava were like, um, dude?...)

+ How to Get your Irish up: How did Ireland, a country of 5.4 million, end up with the second-largest goods-trade imbalance with the U.S., behind China? Two factors: Tariffs and weight loss drugs. WSJ (Gift Article): How Weight-Loss Drugs Blew Out the U.S. Trade Deficit.

+ Seed Investing: Telegram boss to leave fortune to over 100 children he has fathered.

6

Feel Good Friday

The U.S. has approved the world’s only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV, the first step in an anticipated global rollout that could protect millions. (Like all good news in modern medicine, this one could be hampered by the current administration.)

+ "Among the revelers in crop tops, short skirts and high heels, one group stood out: gray-haired retirement-home residents, many in their 80s or 90s. The men wore suits with pocket handkerchiefs, and the women, in mascara and red lipstick, wore chunky necklaces and tops with sequins." NYT (Gift Article): They’re Over 80. You Can Find Them in the Club. (The thing I like most about aging is not having to go to the club anymore.)

+ "The precipitous drops have astounded public officials and health-policy experts, who have traveled across the country in an attempt to learn the formula and replicate it. Governors, members of Congress and sheriffs from as far away as Alaska have all come through, along with an acting U.S. drug czar." WSJ (Gift Article): One Community Took a Radical Approach to Fighting Addiction. It’s Working.

+ Michigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was stuck around his neck – after two years.

+ 3-pound puppy left in trash is rescued, now thriving.

+ NYT: Friday Is the Longest Day of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere. (Who are we kidding? In 2025, every day is the longest day of the year.)