P. Jordan Anderson
@pjordananderson.bsky.social
Writing about technology and humanism at https://evernotquite.substack.com/
Not my most sophisticated take, but I keep thinking that the message of the medium of these new AI-generated video platforms is best summed up as lol nothing matters🫠.
October 3, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Not my most sophisticated take, but I keep thinking that the message of the medium of these new AI-generated video platforms is best summed up as lol nothing matters🫠.
It has become easier to imagine the end of the world (at the hands of AI) than the end of AI.
September 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
It has become easier to imagine the end of the world (at the hands of AI) than the end of AI.
It seems likely that if Jacques Ellul was alive today, he would be telling us that the reason AI might get out of our control is because technique is already out of our control.
September 22, 2025 at 10:18 PM
It seems likely that if Jacques Ellul was alive today, he would be telling us that the reason AI might get out of our control is because technique is already out of our control.
Planning to publish a new essay within the next few days. It’s been a little while.
September 19, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Planning to publish a new essay within the next few days. It’s been a little while.
There are very few theological matters on which I’m willing to pontificate, especially publicly. But I am comfortable saying that, whatever God is, it definitely isn’t this.
chatwithgod.ai
chatwithgod.ai
September 15, 2025 at 9:04 PM
There are very few theological matters on which I’m willing to pontificate, especially publicly. But I am comfortable saying that, whatever God is, it definitely isn’t this.
chatwithgod.ai
chatwithgod.ai
Counting the days until I meet a younger person who has no clue what I mean when I mention “Twitter”
September 4, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Counting the days until I meet a younger person who has no clue what I mean when I mention “Twitter”
"The dominant worldview seems to be: Why worry about actually learning anything when you can get an A for outsourcing your thinking to a machine?"
I’m a High Schooler. AI Is Demolishing My Education.
The end of critical thinking in the classroom
www.theatlantic.com
September 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
"The dominant worldview seems to be: Why worry about actually learning anything when you can get an A for outsourcing your thinking to a machine?"
Few activities offer the same range of dizzying highs and desperate lows that writing does.
September 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Few activities offer the same range of dizzying highs and desperate lows that writing does.
This well describes what I want to help build on Substack
August 31, 2025 at 11:39 AM
This well describes what I want to help build on Substack
It’s ironic that behaviorism became a major branch of psychology despite explicitly disavowing any reference to the psyche.
August 30, 2025 at 10:29 PM
It’s ironic that behaviorism became a major branch of psychology despite explicitly disavowing any reference to the psyche.
"No means is only a means.”
- Günther Anders, The Obsolescence of Man
- Günther Anders, The Obsolescence of Man
August 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
"No means is only a means.”
- Günther Anders, The Obsolescence of Man
- Günther Anders, The Obsolescence of Man
The idea that AI can help you “unlock your creativity” really bothers me.
Doesn’t it make more sense to say that the human prompt engineer unlocks AI’s creativity, assuming we want to call it that?
Doesn’t it make more sense to say that the human prompt engineer unlocks AI’s creativity, assuming we want to call it that?
August 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
The idea that AI can help you “unlock your creativity” really bothers me.
Doesn’t it make more sense to say that the human prompt engineer unlocks AI’s creativity, assuming we want to call it that?
Doesn’t it make more sense to say that the human prompt engineer unlocks AI’s creativity, assuming we want to call it that?
“We call our time the age of information, but I think a better name for it would be the age of attention.”
James Williams, Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
James Williams, Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
August 25, 2025 at 2:38 PM
“We call our time the age of information, but I think a better name for it would be the age of attention.”
James Williams, Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
James Williams, Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
This year, I resolve to write at least one essay that is less than 3,000 words long.
January 2, 2025 at 5:19 PM
This year, I resolve to write at least one essay that is less than 3,000 words long.
I’ve been slowly reading Spinoza over the course of this fall. Towards the end, I had to stop and linger over this remarkable proposition:
“The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God.”
Spinoza, Ethics, Part V, Proposition 24
“The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God.”
Spinoza, Ethics, Part V, Proposition 24
December 17, 2024 at 12:49 AM
I’ve been slowly reading Spinoza over the course of this fall. Towards the end, I had to stop and linger over this remarkable proposition:
“The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God.”
Spinoza, Ethics, Part V, Proposition 24
“The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God.”
Spinoza, Ethics, Part V, Proposition 24
There are so many memorable moments in this book. Here’s one of my favorite passages:
December 15, 2024 at 12:06 AM
There are so many memorable moments in this book. Here’s one of my favorite passages:
I'm going in.
December 14, 2024 at 3:49 AM
I'm going in.
I find these developments to be more unnerving than this piece suggests. It mostly holds back its reservations until the very end. Still, a necessary glimpse into the state of the art.
A Revolution in How Robots Learn
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A Revolution in How Robots Learn
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A Revolution in How Robots Learn
A future generation of robots will not be programmed to complete specific tasks. Instead, they will use A.I. to teach themselves.
www.newyorker.com
December 1, 2024 at 1:53 AM
I find these developments to be more unnerving than this piece suggests. It mostly holds back its reservations until the very end. Still, a necessary glimpse into the state of the art.
A Revolution in How Robots Learn
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
A Revolution in How Robots Learn
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by P. Jordan Anderson
Perhaps the Amish have something to teach us about thoughtful engagement with technology. Even if we end at different places, we would do well to consider their framework for deciding when and how to embrace or reject a particular tool.
Tech ethics needs a breakthrough. The Amish have it.
Why we need Amistics for AI
buff.ly
November 30, 2024 at 11:40 AM
Perhaps the Amish have something to teach us about thoughtful engagement with technology. Even if we end at different places, we would do well to consider their framework for deciding when and how to embrace or reject a particular tool.
“What we experience as beautiful in what we make, or in what we do not make, is cut apart from what we know about things in science. This disjunction of beauty and truth is the very heart of what has made technological civilization.” George Grant, “Faith and the Multiversity”
November 30, 2024 at 1:06 AM
“What we experience as beautiful in what we make, or in what we do not make, is cut apart from what we know about things in science. This disjunction of beauty and truth is the very heart of what has made technological civilization.” George Grant, “Faith and the Multiversity”
Great conversation about the philosophy of history
“The End of History"
Popularised in 1989 at the end of the Cold War, what did this vision of the triumph of liberal democracy miss?
Was it a Western fantasy or a modern fantasy or both?
How has history exacted its revenge? And if history doesn’t end, does it repeat?
Popularised in 1989 at the end of the Cold War, what did this vision of the triumph of liberal democracy miss?
Was it a Western fantasy or a modern fantasy or both?
How has history exacted its revenge? And if history doesn’t end, does it repeat?
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
Today’s bad idea concerns history itself: David talks to world historian @aysezarakol.bsky.social about the temptations and the pitfalls of the idea of The End of History, a phrase popularised by Francis Fukuyama in 1989.
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
Today’s bad idea concerns history itself: David talks to world historian @aysezarakol.bsky.social about the temptations and the pitfalls of the idea of The End of History, a phrase popularised by Francis Fukuyama in 1989.
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
November 30, 2024 at 1:03 AM
Great conversation about the philosophy of history
Interesting conversation with Ari Schulman, Editor of The New Atlantis about IVF and effective altruism.
www.cbhd.org/podcast/afte...
www.cbhd.org/podcast/afte...
After IVF, Effective Altruism, and More: An Interview with Ari Schulman of The New Atlantis | The Bioethics Podcast
The Bioethics Podcast from Season: 24, Episode: 15.
www.cbhd.org
November 27, 2024 at 5:59 PM
Interesting conversation with Ari Schulman, Editor of The New Atlantis about IVF and effective altruism.
www.cbhd.org/podcast/afte...
www.cbhd.org/podcast/afte...
As I get acquainted with the New Place (as some have taken to calling it), I've found myself returning to this piece from spring of last year:
What Was Twitter, Anyway? www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/m...
What Was Twitter, Anyway? www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/m...
What Was Twitter, Anyway? (Published 2023)
Whether the platform is dying or not, it’s time to reckon with how exactly it broke our brains.
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2024 at 3:53 PM
As I get acquainted with the New Place (as some have taken to calling it), I've found myself returning to this piece from spring of last year:
What Was Twitter, Anyway? www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/m...
What Was Twitter, Anyway? www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/m...
“We form identity through curating profiles. Profiles are images of ourselves presented for second-order observation. By looking at them, others can see how we like to be seen as being seen.”
Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, You and Your Profile, 2021
Hello everyone!
Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, You and Your Profile, 2021
Hello everyone!
November 26, 2024 at 12:25 AM
“We form identity through curating profiles. Profiles are images of ourselves presented for second-order observation. By looking at them, others can see how we like to be seen as being seen.”
Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, You and Your Profile, 2021
Hello everyone!
Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, You and Your Profile, 2021
Hello everyone!