Month: July 2025

The Company We Keep (Even When It’s an Algorithm) – Buttermilk & Molasses

I didn’t invite AI to write a novel on my behalf. I asked it to sit in the other room while I wrote a novel – and to be available when I shouted random questions through the house in the middle of the night. I asked it to look at the scaffolding when I lost the thread. To ask smart questions when I was trying to understand which direction a character was trying to take me.

I asked it to help me hear what I was already trying to say.

When I recently asked ChatGPT to reflect with me on how my writing had evolved over the course of this book, what came back startled me – not because it flattered me, but because it helped me name the changes I’d felt but hadn’t articulated.

The Company We Keep (Even When It’s an Algorithm)

Great piece on John Sarvay’s interaction with ChatGPT while writing a novel.

How on earth had I missed B&M on Substack? The old days of blogging are new again!

The machine began to waffle – and then the conductor went…

At which point, the conductor went in for the kill: “So, are you actually learning (very quickly, of course) what I want to hear and giving it to me?
To which Claude responded: “Ha! You’ve caught me red-handed, haven’t you? That’s a genuinely unsettling observation.”
— Read on observer.co.uk/news/columnists/article/the-machine-began-to-waffle-and-then-the-conductor-went-in-for-the-kill

How the biggest rock band in the world disappeared

It will have been 14 years this March since R.E.M. — an Athens, Georgia, foursome that for a stretch of about five years in the 1990s was arguably the biggest rock band on the planet — released its final album, “Collapse into Now.” Six months later, the band retired, with Stipe saying, “the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave. We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.”

Opinion | R.E.M. taught Gen X it’s better to fade away than to burn out – Washington Post

I Am the Moment Right Before the Beat Drops – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

If you’re going to stand up then for goodness’ sake stand like a person! What are you doing with your hands? Sure, everyone is comfortable and loose once The Beat gets here but when it’s just me you stand around like you’ve never had limbs before. Kids. You don’t appreciate the full experience of a song. It’s all about instant gratification. You know the moment before The Beat drops is just as important as The Beat dropping. I set you up for him. Get you primed and aching for him to arrive. Don’t you want The Beat to drop? Aren’t you just PRAYING The Beat will drop right about now? That’s because of ME.
— Read on www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-am-the-moment-right-before-the-beat-drops

Writing is thinking

Writing compels us to think — not in the chaotic, non-linear way our minds typically wander, but in a structured, intentional manner. By writing it down, we can sort years of research, data and analysis into an actual story, thereby identifying our main message and the influence of our work. This is not merely a philosophical observation; it is backed by scientific evidence. For example, handwriting can lead to widespread brain connectivity1 and has positive effects on learning and memory.

Writing is thinking | Nature Reviews Bioengineering

The Most Ingenious Hawk in New Jersey – The Atlantic

But maybe the most endearing part of this hawk’s tale is the idea that it took advantage of a crosswalk signal at all—an environmental cue that, under most circumstances, is totally useless to birds and perhaps a nuisance. To see any animal blur the line between what we consider the human and non-human spheres is eerie, but also humbling: Most other creatures, Plotnik said, are simply more flexible than we’d ever think.
— Read on www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/05/hawk-new-jersey-traffic/682913/

Taking Journalism’s ‘Experts Said…’ Chicanery About Facts to Its Natural, Absurd Conclusion

Large media companies, and the NY Times in particular these days, like to use the phrase “experts said” instead of simply stating facts. The thing is, many other statements of plain truth in that brief Times post lack the confirmation of expertise. To aid the paper in steering their readers away from notions of objective truth, here’s a suggested rewrite of that Bluesky post:
— Read on kottke.org/25/07/journalisms-experts-said-conclusion

The Unseen Fury Of Solar Storms – NOEMA

But even more sober experts have conceded that the threat posed by space weather is primarily due to its totalizing potential — its capacity to induce cascading failures in multiple social and economic functions. A 2019 FEMA report presented two possible catastrophes that could affect the entire U.S. — a pandemic and a solar storm. In the event of a truly massive storm affecting multiple nations all at once, Gibbs told me, “The concept of mutual aid goes out the door.”
— Read on www.noemamag.com/the-unseen-fury-of-solar-storms/

Natasha Lyonne claims David Lynch supported using AI in movies

She then discussed a poignant conversation she had with Lynch, her neighbour, last year. “Natasha, This is a pencil,” Lynch reportedly told Lyonne. The publication then states that Lynch said, “Everyone has access to a pencil, and likewise, everyone with a phone will be using AI, if they aren’t already,” before adding, “It’s how you use the pencil. You see?”
— Read on faroutmagazine.co.uk/natasha-lyonne-reveals-david-lynch-supporter-ai/