via The Atlantic:
Hubris Without Idealism
by George Packer
published on March 2, 2026
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via the report published by MIT’s Ad Hoc Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training:
“AI threatens the shared social fabric of MIT and creates new risks to the well-being of our students. MIT needs to invest in creating shared norms, establishing new community rituals, and addressing new academic, social, and emotional challenges introduced (or exacerbated) by AI.”
Published on August 13, 2026.
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A world war is not inevitable, but the threat of a catastrophic conflict between big and well-armed powers is closer than it has been for decades.
~ Margaret MacMillan via The New York Times
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Once matter passes through the bowels, the effectiveness of the anal sphincter is also thought to be affected by intense exercise. The sphincter has two rings — first, a less powerful, outer, voluntary ring, and second, a more powerful, inner, involuntary ring. As other parts of the body are prioritised during all-out efforts, this involuntary ring weakens — and triggers the final, messy repercussion of faecal incontinence.
~ Jacob Whitehead via The Athletic
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Europeans are gradually realizing that they have been duped, that there can be no technological power without protecting start-ups from foreign direct investment and subsidizing a homegrown digital ecosystem. Disruptive innovations present too many risks to come from the private sector alone. European leaders have therefore had to accept, for better or worse, this symbiotic proximity between Silicon Valley and American state power, through such items as Elon Musk’s participation in the U.S. administration, or Mark Zuckerberg’s changes in Meta’s moderation policy to make it more compatible with Donald Trump’s line. None of this is to mention the president’s constant threats of retaliation against the European Union and other jurisdictions for their digital regulation policies.
~ Baptiste Detombe via American Affairs
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Finding broadly shared truths and convictions is becoming nearly impossible, and this has enabled the cultural rise of tech and finance, which are governed by a specific kind of quantitative thinking.
~ Jay Caspian Kang via The New Yorker
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London, England
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