While I already have a blog for publishing long form content (https://securing.dev), I wanted to create a new space to share writing that is primarily short form, and human-centric. My goal with this newsletter is to share a handful of ideas in less than a thousand words, and which hopefully spark thinking in others.
So, each week I will be sharing some of the thoughts that I don’t have time to draft long form content about – but that I think are still worth sharing. Hopefully these thoughts and ideas will spark something in you; they certainly have in me.
💭 A few quick thoughts
Call your parent(s); If you’re in your 30’s, odds are that your parents are in their late 60’s or 70’s. If you only see or speak with them a few times a year, you may only have a few dozen times left to see or speak with them before they’re gone; You can increase this number just by calling your parents more often. And if your parents are estranged or are already gone, I’m so sorry for your loss ❤️🩹
Take a photo with (or of) a loved one; Even if that’s just a picture of a pet – or yourself! Life moves quickly, and these cherished moments will be gone before you know it 📸
Make practice a habit; Whether you’re learning a new language, training for an event, or building a new skill – you can decrease the activation energy required to get started by transforming that action into a regular habit 🧘 Just Do The Thing ™️ consistently for a couple of weeks.
📚 From the bookshelf
Slow Down by Kōhei Saitō. In this work Saitō-san has written a treatise on global economics and climate change. His arguments for how capitalism is killing the planet feel dead-on to me, and really hit home after having read Limits to Growth this past Winter. I’m still working through this, and will be interested to see how he proposes we break out of this cycle.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps. This work is a collection of Zen and Pre-Zen writings, as well as the “Gateless Gate” collection of koans to help practitioners walk the path Zen. To begin walking the path, one must first understand “Mu.”
The New Chushingura by Eiji Yoshikawa. It’s a bit challenging to keep all of the names straight, but the story of the 47 Ronin is considered a profound cultural moment in Japanese history – which I am to understand before visiting Sengaku-ji later this year. These samurai warriors upheld the honor of their lord, and were sentenced to death by seppuku for their crime of vengeance. What strikes me about their story is that, in being sentenced to death, their story will live forever.
📖 Recently read
They Hang Me in Tokyo by Allan West. One of the things that struck me about Allan’s story was toward the end – when he discusses how one of the green pigments he uses in his art is no longer able to be made. The concept of no longer being able to manufacture something feels profound.
Could AI slow science? If the production-progress paradox holds true, then the authors have made a strong case for answering “yes”. I think the more pressing issue, which the authors also identify, is how scientific progress is incentivized today. This has nothing to do with AI, and everything to do with Goodhardt/Campbell’s law playing out in scientific research.
We might have just cured cancer – without the assistance of AI. Scientists at University of Florida have synthesized a universal cancer vaccine using mRNA technology after a successful human trial which trained the human immune system to destroy glioblastomas in the brain.
🤔 This week’s question
What knowledge has humanity lost to time
in the name of “progress”?
We used to be able to make things that would last: homes; appliances; furniture; vehicles; textiles; even software. Maybe it’s that we’ve lost the knowledge for how to make such things – or that we’ve abandoned focusing on quality in exchange for mass production. Maybe it’s capitalism and “planned obsolescence”.
It’s probably all of the above.
When asking myself this question, I often think about the number of COBOL programs that still operate most of the modern world – and how so few people alive today truly understand how to read (or write) this programming language. At times, this leads me to wonder what impacts Large Language Models (LLMs) will have on our global society – and the future of our species.
Will we slowly lose our ability to read (or write) other programming languages as we hand this work over to LLMs?
Will we lose our ability to reason (or think critically) about problems because we have a machine that will feed us an answer?
Will we lose the ability to discern truth from fiction when the answer provided is a statistically likely collection of words – but potentially untrue?
Does any of that matter? Should it matter?
Let me know what you think.
– Keith