Kickoff For January 27, 2025
Here we go again. I've got nothing to say other than I hope you enjoy this week's selection of reading.
With that out of the way, let's get Monday started with these links:
The Therapist in the Machine — Wherein Jess McAllen explores the rapidly-growing landscape of AI-powered psychological therapy tools, their benefits and limits, and how they might be the impetus to get more humans to fill the shortfall of trained therapists.
From the article:
AI mirrors traditional mental health treatment in that more generic problems are still prioritized over complex mental health needs — until someone gets to the point of inpatient hospitalization, at least, and by then they’ve already suffered considerable distress. AI is meant to fill treatment gaps, whether their causes are financial, geographic, or societal. But the very people who fall into these gaps are the ones who tend to need more complex care, which AI cannot provide.
IYKYK: When Novels Speak a Language Only Part of the Internet Gets — Wherein Greta Rainbow explores the reference novel, which in many ways relies on the reader to know or understand references to people and products in order to help them understand the story and push it forward.
From the article:
If a reader does not know the reference, there’s the feeling of lurking at the conversation circle’s edges, at a party you were indirectly invited to, listening to strangers talk about someone they’ve all met before but who isn’t present himself. The name sort of sounds familiar: ah, you realize you follow him but he doesn’t follow you back.
The big idea: is convenience making our lives more difficult? — Wherein Alex Curmi explores why we seek convenience in many of life's tasks (whether simple or otherwise), and why seeking convenience can be a a trap.
From the article:
Modern hyper-convenience is a kind of deal with the devil. It is seductive because it appeals to our instincts, but it surreptitiously depletes us. It has made it easier to get by, but in many ways harder to truly succeed. Human flourishing and happiness is not just about subsistence, but also depends on growth, dynamic problem-solving, and solidarity through hardship.
How I hunt down fake degrees and zombie universities — Wherein we learn about the work of André Hesselbäck to investigate and combat degree fraud using nothing but exhaustive research and an incredibly keen memory for details.
From the article:
Degree-mill operators have seized on the growing scale and prestige of US research universities over the past century, he says. Their bogus websites might show images of idyllic campuses reminiscent of the Ivy League, a group of prestigious US universities, and have names such as Barkley or Manhattan Bay University that resemble those of familiar US institutions.
How the Occult Gave Birth to Science — Wherein we learn about how, in order to break from a reliance on ancient and incomplete texts, scholars gradually turned to experimentation to better understand the world and how that led to the methods that we know as science today.
From the article:
These investments, regardless of the occult motivations of those who contributed them, resulted in real scientific progress: Alchemy led to an interest in mining and the study of minerals, improvements in the distillation process, the design of furnaces, ventilation systems, and glass and ceramic making techniques. Interest in astrology led to better lenses, mirrors, astronomical equipment, and even clocks, which were used to time the movement of stars.
The Problem With AI Is About Power, Not Technology — Wherein Jason Resnikoff explores the idea of AI being a tool not merely to increase productivity (for which it's often touted) but as a tool for employers to gain more power over labour.
From the article:
AI, in other words, is not a revolutionary technology, but rather a story about technology. Over the course of the past century, unions have struggled to counter employers’ use of the ideological power of technological utopianism, or the idea that technology itself will produce an ideal, frictionless society. (Just one telling example of this is the name General Motors gave its pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair: Futurama.) AI is yet another chapter in this story of technological utopianism to degrade labor by rhetorically obscuring it.