David Pennington
@dtpennington
I write stuff. I’d like to write more stuff. Currently: reclaiming my brain.
David Pennington
dtpennington.com
Like everything else in modernity, people want instant results without putting in any sort of effort to earn them. And then they wonder why they’re empty inside, their life the product of an ongoing process to make everything ‘more efficient’ for the sake of efficiency. They listen to podcasts at 2x, guzzle down Soylent, abuse stimulants to... See more
Adam Singer • The rise of AI nihilism
Persistently for the last twenty years the ideals of order or liberty have dwindled in our books; the ambitions of wit and eloquence have dwindled in our parliaments. Literature has purposely become less political; politics have purposely become less literary. General theories of the relation of things have thus been extruded from both; and we are
... See moreG. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton • Heretics
“If the machine can take over everything man can do, and do it still better than us, then what is a human being, what are you?”
When Krishnamurti (1895–1986) asked this question, he was an 85-year-old sage who’d spent nearly 60 years probing the mysteries of the mind, consciousness, and the need for a psychological revolution.
When Krishnamurti (1895–1986) asked this question, he was an 85-year-old sage who’d spent nearly 60 years probing the mysteries of the mind, consciousness, and the need for a psychological revolution.
Big Think • Mechanized Minds: AI’s Hidden Impact on Human Thought
Collecting and archiving are ways to reclaim and own our attention—they are acts of meaning-making. These practices are rituals: habits and skills that demand time, patience, and a willingness to look beyond the surface.
To collect well is to resist algorithmic influence. A true collection reflects deeply personal values and a genuine desire to... See more
To collect well is to resist algorithmic influence. A true collection reflects deeply personal values and a genuine desire to... See more
Patricia Hurducaș • Archives: Anchors For Attention
“The villain here is not necessarily the internet, or even the idea of social media,” she writes. “It is the invasive logic of commercial social media, and its financial incentive to keep us in a profitable state of anxiety, envy, and distraction.” The business model of platforms like this — which rely on advertising and clicks and “engagement ”
... See moreJenny Odell • How to quit Facebook without quitting Facebook
Idleism and Techocalypse
I Talked to the Cassandra of the Internet Age
archive.ph
Techocalypse and Idleism
Michael Goldhaber is the internet prophet you’ve never heard of. Here’s a short list of things he saw coming: the complete dominance of the internet, increased shamelessness in politics, terrorists co-opting social media, the rise of reality television, personal websites, oversharing, personal essay, fandoms and online influencer culture — along with the near destruction of our ability to focus.
The decline of polymathy... is a crisis of too much information.
Erik Hoel • Polymaths are back from the dead
We live in an age of lexical abundance. More words, more access, more content than at any time in human history. And yet something essential is slipping away. Not reading itself, but the kind of reading that once shaped minds and formed character: slow, immersive, reflective, and richly human. As Harold Bloom noted: “"We read deeply for varied... See more
