The Sartredey Evening Post (Modern)

“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.” - Jean-Paul Sartre

Where am I?

I’m sitting at my dining room table. We visited the pediatrician this morning. My son has strep. He’s not uncomfortable except when his fever spikes. But it’s strep. Yay. Praise God for antibiotics.

On technological marvels…

I have a stack of unread or partly-read books here beside me. I am not sure where to jump back on the ride. I started Seth Godin’s Tribes last night. I enjoy much of the stuff he puts online. This is no different. Trouble is that it was published in 2008 and everything has…changed? Amplified? Blown up yet again?

How many technological sea changes must we endure?

I find the cycle of innovation → profit → obsolescence → innovation again to reek of greed. How long do we milk the current technological marvel before we release the next one? How much of marketing is o maintain interest and satisfaction with the current product while simultaneously building desire for The Next Thing? All that to say that I am giving Godin’s book another 25 pages before I give up on it.

I think that leadership is in crisis and our so-called tribalism (Godin’s term) is simply the ongoing unraveling of the social fabric (See: Bowling Alone).

Please understand. I agree with Seth. These societal fragments/affinity groups/tribes are loci of change and innovation. They require leadership…new styles and forms of leadership. And I find Godin’s examples inspiring. But I wonder if even he knows who is actually leading us and where to these days.

I feel pessimistic about the whole endeavor.

When we are burdened by a loneliness epidemic, for example, the temptation to capitalize on misery is powerful. What makes the most money? Encouraging loneliness and isolation? Healing the social ills that make for such misery? These questions pass for righteous discernment and virtue. Making money is not a virtue. Making money off of the pain and misery of others is most certainly not a virtue. But it is our right in the United States. And rights sell.

I’m Happy McCheerfulpants today. I’m sorry. My bad.

I’m just processing the enormous comfort and excitement that some others feel in relationship to AI. AI is deeply problematic. Its infrastructure is expensive and corrosive. The data searches are algorithmic plagiarism. It is a poor proxy for human inspiration and intelligence. It is yet another means of making money for the few from the labors of the many. Finally, it is not the technological endgame. Those of us who care for and about human community need to be looking to the technological horizon. Technological innovation does no end here.

So, to recover some of my own humanity, I have been handwriting this post. The practice grounds me.

I’m done for the evening.

Y’all be excellent to each other.