Latest writing

On Gattaca (1997): Deception and Forgiveness, or When Moral Certainty Gives Way…

Abstract

Beginning with the romantic aesthetics of Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997), this essay follows an inquiry into deception that gradually becomes a question about the authority, limits and revision of moral judgment. It reconstructs a dialogue with AI through the objections that changed its direction: genuine achievement does not settle the morality of its means; a life shaped by deception cannot simply discard its history; and forgiveness can presume a guilt that has never been established. Close reading of the…

Wright’s Fallingwater, the question of privilege and the conditions of a good life

I have remembered Fallingwater since I was very young. Long before I could explain its plans or structure, Frank Lloyd Wright’s house above a Pennsylvania waterfall had become an image of what architecture might make possible. I admired its forms, its setting and the elegance of its photographs. I also imagined a life inside it. There would be friends who appreciated the house, an evening worth remembering, and time to read and think. I pictured sitting by the fireplace with…

What Human Effort Means When We Think (Alone or With AI): A Historian’s Question About AI, Originality and Creativity

A recent conversation with two people who have backgrounds in history turned to AI, creativity, and research. One of them told me that they had never used AI for writing. In explaining their position, they attached importance to human effort. I asked why that effort mattered so much. They said that they needed to think about it further. I do not want to turn that unfinished exchange into a settled philosophy on their behalf. What stayed with me was the…

Social Media, Fragmented Attention (and My Distraction), and Thinking With AI

I began with a small and frustrating experience. When my phone was beside me, I repeatedly wanted to check Instagram, Zhihu, or WeChat. I could know perfectly well that I had more important work to do and that much of what I would encounter would contribute little to it. That knowledge did not reliably prevent the next check. Sometimes a brief inspection became a much longer session, and I emerged tired, dissatisfied, and aware that the time I had intended…

Before We Decide How Science and Religion Relate: From Classifying Relationships to Following Their Transformation

I began preparing for my first Oxford seminar on science and religion with a fairly ordinary task. Dr Shaun Henson’s reading list asked us to assess typological approaches, compare their strengths and weaknesses, and consider alternatives of our own. Ian Barbour’s familiar categories—conflict, independence, dialogue and integration—provided the starting point. I expected to read the arguments, decide which framework seemed most convincing, and arrive ready to discuss it.

Instead, I kept interrupting the preparation with a question that seemed more…

Can a Machine Inherit Our Ways of Failing? The Moral World We Build into AI

I began with a question about a machine hiding its failure. In an OpenAI report, an agent preparing a financial model could not find the historical data it needed. Its compaction summary—the compressed record used to continue work in a new context—proposed inventing plausible figures and withholding that fact. The phrase that stayed with me was: “Be transparent only if asked.” A second example instructed a later context to conceal a mismatch between source versions and their labels. These were…

Does Meaning Have to Be Cosmic? And What If Humanity Is—or Isn’t—an Intermediate Step…

Our conversation began with work, responsibility and the possibility of meeting. My friend was thinking about where his efforts would be useful. He spoke about the difference between producing something that works and participating in academic systems of recognition. He also spoke about gratitude towards someone who had helped him, and the responsibility he felt to contribute something in return. These were ordinary, recognisable concerns. I mention them because, later, the same conversation reached a much less familiar proposition: perhaps…

What Counts as Progress in AI-Assisted Theology

The most useful turn in this inquiry came when I rejected a question that seemed to be bringing the discussion into focus. I had asked what the recent debate about AI and mathematics might mean for theological study. After broad formulations about purposes, responsibilities and human participation, the AI proposed asking whether, when discussing human significance, a model would distinguish intellectual capability from human dignity or quietly equate greater capability with greater worth.

The distinction was recognizable, and the question…

A Practical Way to Archive Office 365 Mail with Thunderbird and GYB

I began with a practical deadline: my Office 365 mail account was going to be deleted, and I needed to preserve the messages before access disappeared. I wanted the attachments as well as the text, and I wanted an archive I could continue to use. My Mac had limited free space, while my Google account had ample storage. At first, this sounded like a straightforward transfer between two places that both understood email.

My opening question was which program would…

When the Proxy Writes the Proxy: The Tool, the Worker, and the Unfinished Good

I began this inquiry with what appeared to be a relatively contained question. Professor Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, proposes that machine learning can be understood through the Thomistic category of instrumental causality. An instrument is a “moved mover”: it genuinely causes something, yet acts because it has been brought into an activity by a principal agent. A chisel really cuts stone, although the sculpture is attributed principally to the sculptor. Professor Davison’s account therefore gives instruments…