Thomas

Intelligence is not central to the success of most life on Earth. Consider the grasses: they’ve flourished across incredibly diverse global environments, without planning or debating a single step. Planarian worms regrow any part of their body and are functionally immortal, a trick we can manage only in science fiction. And a microscopic virus... See more

I’ve always loved spending time with photographers not because of the way they capture moments or compose shots or manipulate light and angles to construct portraits. It’s not because of the making at all but because of the way photographers can peer into. The way they slow themselves to allow themselves to be pulled into visual situations. Or... See more

Wandering is thus intrinsic to the operation of equanimity. One opens toward being affected by things as yet unexperienced or unknown. The world becomes an expansive horizon of possibilities.

All original ideas are combinations of other people’s ideas. So the more you curate other people’s ideas, the more you develop your own rare and valuable ideas

I personally think that an AI needs to die.

Implicit in the promise of outsourcing and automation and time-saving devices is a freedom to be something other than what we ought to be. The liberation we are offered is a liberation from the very care-driven involvement in the world and in our communities that would render our lives meaningful and satisfying. In other words, the promise of... See more