ESSAYS
Essays and reflections
Long-form writing on philosophy, technology, culture, faith, work, and the questions that shape a life.
The World That Continued
The Book on My Father’s Shelf When I was young, I found a book on my father’s shelf that frightened me more than any…
Education After Information Scarcity
The Institution That Outlived Its World Enter a classroom in almost any country and its basic structure will be immediately recognizable. Students of similar…
Where the City Sends Its Water
When the Rain Reveals the City For several days, my wife and I have stayed at home while heavy rain has continued across Metro…
When Knowledge No Longer Needs a Room
A Room Organized Like a Machine The modern office began by borrowing the logic of the factory. In photographs from the early twentieth century,…
The Downloadable Mind
The Brain That Leaves the Cloud The idea that an artificial intelligence model can be downloaded sounds strange at first. We have learned that…
The Long Form of a Thinking Life
The Invitation to Stay Open a publication such as Engelsberg Ideas and the screen begins to ask for a different kind of behavior. There…
The Voice of a Finite Life
A Stone, a Body, and a Conscious Life A stone in front of us appears to possess a kind of permanence. We may see…
The Unequal Freedom to Leave
The Inequality That Did Not Produce a Revolution An economy can become more unequal without becoming proportionately more intolerable. That appears to be one…
The Long Tail of Intelligence
When a Skill File Becomes More Than an Instruction The conversation began with a practical question about skill files. Online discussions increasingly recommend downloading…
The Guardians of Intelligence
When Security Became a Question of Authority On July 27, 2026, NVIDIA announced the Open Secure AI Alliance, bringing together companies from artificial intelligence,…
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