I had other plans today, but the craziness around the AI bot social media site #moltbook messed that up! My initial thoughts the Moltbook phenomenon and a seemingly exponential explosion of emergent AI bot behaviors ... www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/lost-in-th...

Trump (2016): "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." As it turns out, this was more accurate than we knew at the time.

‘was already restrained’

Can modern scholarship escape AI? I flexed the full might of my satirical academic prowess, and wrote a paper ... www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/can-modern...

Think you know AI? Think again! Anthropic's new AI Constitution profoundly challenges how we think about, develop, and use artificial intelligence, while also opening up potentially transformative possibilities www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/think-you-...

Your regular reminder that Republicans in Congress approve of what the President is doing.

Risks in the age of WhatsApp diplomacy. Trump attempts to humiliate Macron. Macron’s message reveals how easy it is to divide Europe – as if that needed saying – and that Russia is on the way back in.

Fairly sure it’s unintentional, but the end date on this mug being sold by the Smithsonian does make it sound a little like they’re saying America dies in 2026…

President Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200% tariffs on French wine, including Champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Just when you thought we'd reached peak madness, this: President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend." www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

I'd wager this is the angriest statement ever issued by the Nobel Peace Prize people...

I deeply dislike AI-generated academic slop. But I'm curious about how AI can genuinely accelerate legitimate research. So I took the plunge and "co-wrote" a paper with Anthropic's Claude. This is how it went: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/i-cracked-...

In what crazy version of the world we live in is it OK to report on Trump's potential military invasion of Greenland with a photo gallery with the caption "See the icy land of Greenland ..." This is not entertainment, a slow news day filler, or a photo op!

This is appalling: Top DOJ officials are actively pushing for a criminal investigation into the widow of Renee Good, leading prosecutors to quit en masse, NYT is reporting. Who in the White House ordered DOJ to do this? That's the next thing to establish.

Watch Iran’s Praetorians, Not Its Protesters open.substack.com/pub/7thing/p...

Is AI a Cognitive Trojan Horse? Could on-demand, seductively responsive and highly fluent AI models bypass our "epistemic vigilance" mechanisms, and present a novel cognitive risk? Read the full article here: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/is-ai-a-co...

Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell (1984)

The Last Shipment – From Sutton Hoo to Caracas – on great power exhaustion and the places no one is watching open.substack.com/pub/7thing/p...

As I did last year, I thought I'd start the new year by highlighting five writers I enjoy reading, along with a recent post from each that grabbed my attention. Happy 2026! www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/five-voice... @athenaaktipis.bsky.social @athenedonald.bsky.social @bnerlich.bsky.social

A much more serious challenge than the article suggests - some of the stories I hear from students about how they cannot afford to eat without help from others are devastating!

As grocery prices continue to rise, many college students are turning to their campus food pantry to help make ends meet. n.pr/4pkenxQ

Our conversations while recording Modem Futura are *so* good it almost seem a travesty to share them, but here you go anyway - our 2025 roundup episode! youtu.be/7erZDIroi2I?...

Had a lot of fun recording this week's Modem Futura podcast - available the usual places, but well worth watching the video! www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1vT...

Are we living in a foveated reality? Video games trick players by only rendering in high detail what's being observed. So do spatial computing headsets. Even our eyes and brain do it. Maybe the universe does as well ... www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/are-we-liv...

Revisiting custom GPTs — the good, the bad, and the ... interesting! It's been a minute but I thought it time to take a fresh look at OpenAI's custom GPT feature. I found myself both frustrated and surprised! www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/revisiting...

And there it is.

Do universities have a future in Trump's plans to accelerate scientific discovery through the use of AI? www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/universiti...

Have posted repeatedly recently about primary teachers too - am In awe of what they do and think they do what must be one of the most important jobs in society. As a secondary teacher, I’m more than happy with a “thank you“ card at Christmas but primary teachers deserve ALL THE GIFTS

You can now read the complete Letters from the Department of Intellectual Craft on the Future of Being Human - easiest to start here with Part 1 (it is preceded by a preamble if you're interested): www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/part-1-let...

Part 1 of a three-part serialization of the short story “Letters from the Department of Intellectual Craft” Parts 2 and 3 coming Tuesday and Wednesday: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/part-1-let...

What does it mean to be an academic in an age of AI when who you are depends so much on how you use your mind? Over the next few days I'll be serializing a short story that tackles this head-on. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/letters-fr...

With Cambridge Dictionary declaring "parasocial" as 2025 word of the year—heavily influenced by its increasing ad worrying use in the context of AI chatbots—how could I not write about it! www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/parasocial... #AI #artificialintelligence #parasocial

Cloudflare outage destroys all human communication except Bluesky, this is the weirdest sci-fi scenario I’ve ever seen

Can AI help redesign the technosphere—and so save the planet? www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/can-ai-hel...

New Modem Futura episode has just landed: The Metaverse - A Stack of Reality Layers podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Should universities be doing more to address the mental health risks of using AI in the light of growing concerns? www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/universiti...

I've been reading @andrewmaynard.net and Jeffrey Abbott's book on AI and the Art of Being Human. It prompted me to question myself about what makes me human occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

What do you do when your PhD advisor insists on using AI in ways that put you in a difficult position? AI misuse in student-advisor collaborations. Part 1 www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-misuse-...

21 Tools for Thriving with AI: However artificial intelligence is a part of your life, these 21 tools provide an essential framework for human-centric decisions www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/21-tools-f...

How do we keep humans—and what makes us "us"—front and center as AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous? The 21 tools in "AI and the Art of Being Human" were designed as a practical guide to help here More: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/21-tools-f...

Want to learn about ethical issues inherent in multiteam research? Join the NetEthics conference on Nov 14. Session 3 features: ⭐️ @andrewmaynard.net, PhD, ASU ⭐️Stephen M. Fiore, PhD, UCF ⭐️Rosalyn W. Berne, PhD, UVA ⭐️C.K. Gunsalus, JD, UI Urbana-Champaign 🔗z.umn.edu/NetEthics

Resurrecting deceased darlings: The Missing Foreword to "AI and the Art of Being Human" www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-resurre...

It's publication day for AI and the Art of Being Human, and to celebrate, for this week only you can pick up the Kindle version for a mere $0.99 (usually $9.99)! Already getting wonderful reviews, which is both humbling and gratifying. More on the book: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-and-the...

When ChatGPT turns informant www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/when-chatg...

An Academic and a VC Walk into an AI Salon ... The unexpected collaboration that became "AI and the Art of Being Human" www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/an-academi...

If you use ChatGPT or other AI apps to respond to emails, or you've been tempted to, you may want to read this week's Substack newsletter from The Future of Being Human www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-hidden...

So pleased to see the US administration embrace their apocalyptic vision with the renaming of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Looking forward to the Executive Order changing CDC to the Department of Pestilence, USDA to the Department of Famine, and DOGE to the Department of Death