I was walking on a snowy trail wearing some spongy Walkman headphones the first time I heard a cassette tape playing Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. Songs often take you back to a specific moment in your life, and I'll always remember the first time I heard that song. Luke Combs wasn't yet born during my slow walk with Fast Car, but the same song conjures a memory for him, too. He's riding shotgun in a Ford F-150 and his dad pops a cassette into the tapedeck as he takes his only child for a ride through the roads of their North Carolina home town. As Combs, now a country music star explains, "It was my favorite before I knew what a favorite song was." Both of those moments took place in what feels like a lost America, when art and culture didn't have to cut through the static of viral, social media rage; when everything wasn't just about politics, we weren't so relentlessly divided, and before nonsensical takes that wouldn't even qualify for the 'letters to the editor's section of a local newspaper were elevated to top story status on national cable news. During last night's Grammy Awards, Luke Combs, now a country music star, played his number one selling cover version of Fast Car with a special guest: Tracy Chapman. It took Combs back to that Ford F-150. Maybe it took Chapman back to busking at the Harvard T Station. It took me back to that snowy walk and a different time in America. Maybe the surprise perfomance was a reminder that the American duet is still playing beneath the din, among regular people who actually interact in real life, freed from their social media silos of homogeneity. Maybe, for a second, I bought the idea that the lyrics of the song could be applied to our two Americas: Maybe we make a deal. Maybe together we can get somewhere. Whatever it was, for the duration of a song, I didn't believe all the divisive rhetoric. I believed Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman performing Fast Car together. A great American song, a beautiful American moment. 2AI's Rounding Error"These programs have been hailed as the first glimmers on the horizon of artificial general intelligence — that long-prophesied moment when mechanical minds surpass human brains not only quantitatively in terms of processing speed and memory size but also qualitatively in terms of intellectual insight, artistic creativity and every other distinctively human faculty. That day may come, but its dawn is not yet breaking." Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull give humans a solid chance against the AI we're all either so worried or so hopeful about. Very interesting stuff in the NYT (Gift Article): The False Promise of ChatGPT. "Whereas humans are limited in the kinds of explanations we can rationally conjecture, machine learning systems can learn both that the earth is flat and that the earth is round. They trade merely in probabilities that change over time." (What I'm worried about are those who will use AI to convince more people that the earth is flat—and other wrongheaded, and often dangerous, ideas.) 3The Sure Thing"I’d launch into a long assessment of it. I’d be certain—absolutely positive—that I was right. My father would listen, head cocked a little to the side, often smiling a bit, sometimes raising his eyebrows after an especially bold point. For some reason, I would feel encouraged—not wary—and I’d bash ahead into bolder assessments. Eventually, I’d run out of steam and finish up, with some sort of gesture meaning 'case closed.' There would be a moment of silence. And then my father would say—gently, because there was zero need to say it any other way: 'And what is the best argument of the other side?'" Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Colleges Are Lying to Their Students. They aren’t teaching them "how to think." (When I used to lecture my dad about a topic and I was absolutely certain I was right, there'd be a moment of silence. And then it just stayed silent. And he went back to reading the paper.) 4Weight for It..."Novo Holdings, the parent company of Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk, agreed to buy New Jersey-based contract manufacturer Catalent for around $16.5 billion in cash. This deal is about boosting production of Wegovy, the anti-obesity drug whose demand has far outpaced supply." So now we're over-consuming anti-obesity drugs? 5Extra, ExtraBetting the Spread: Antony Blinken is back in the Middle East trying to push a new ceasefire deal. Meanwhile, Iran proxies are starting to respond to US airstrikes that took place over the weekend. It's a concerning moment to say the least. Here's the latest from CNN. 6Bottom of the News"The report read like background notes for an airport thriller: A Bond-villain-like corporation would set up shop as a legitimate business, managing a series of nominally independent subsidiaries responsible for different parts of weapons production in locations around the world." WSJ (Gift Article): Could a Rogue Billionaire Make a Nuclear Weapon? (If so, can we at least pick the billionaire??) Read my 📕, Please Scream Inside Your Heart, or grab a 👕 in the Store. |