Roundups are for Cowboys

yee-haw!

I’m not usually a roundup writer, but I’m making an exception because I’ve been asked for recommendations for better understanding AI and what’s happening to our society. Everything that follows will be found on Substack.

First, Read Max’s Max Read shared this video in one of his recent newsletters, and I highly recommend listening to every word. (I did avert my eyes from most of the visuals, because, well, look at the video and you’ll see.)

Read Max is a bit flippant and goofy and full of dad-jokes, 90s movies rankings (according to dads), and occasionally even sportsball news, but he does a great job of reading twitter so you don’t have to, and pulling out the juicy bits that are relevant to what the hell is wrong with people, especially algorithmically-influenced people, in the world today. As an actual journalist with journalistic connections, he also has a good perspective on some complex events, although it will often be delivered with a maximum of sarcasm.

Read Max by Max Read

Sharif Islam writes The S.A.D. Newsletter (the S.A.D. stands for “Software, Algorthim, and Data.”) This newsletter isn’t flashy, but I learn a lot from reading it. Sharif Islam is a knowledgable and no-BS writer, and he gives a fully-human but well-informed-by-Computer-Science view of how things work in the world today.

The S.A.D. Newsletter by Sharif Islam

My favorite substack newsletter is The Convivial Society, by Michael Sacasas. He posts rarely, only when he has something meaningful to say, and I really appreciate that. I don’t need “more content” in my life, I need well-informed, thoughtful conversations. He tends to reference many great thinkers from the past, Ivan Illich mostly but also a lot of Hannah Arendt, Wendell Berry, and others, and he tests their ideas against the rapid change we see happening in the world today. Almost every newsletter Sacasas writes I save and re-read multiple times.

The Convivial Society by LM Sacasas

Erik Hoel writes The Intrinsic Perspective, which is another wonderful newsletter from which I learn a lot. I can say at this point that “I don’t agree with everything I read” from Hoel — although I could have said that about anyone on this list! But Hoel makes more bold claims than most of us, and that’s part of what makes his writing so compelling. He also works with a really amazing artist who illustrates his newsletters — it’s beautiful work on all levels.

The Intrinsic Perspective by Erik Hoel

Ruth Gaskovski writes School of the Unconformed, which is about non-conformity in general, home-schooling (and un-schooling, de-schooling), and is very thoughtful and detailed in its observations and proposals. Gaskovski is a bit more religious than I’m inclined to be, and I appreciate that because I like engaging with a variety of perspectives, and I think non-dogmatic religious perspectives are particularly valuable today.

School of the Unconformed by Ruth Gaskovski

Rohit Krishnan writes Strange Loop Canon, which takes a lot of these realms of technological change and social upheaval, and this wonderful curious and critical approach to their examination, and he combines them with economics. Reading Krishnan I’m guaranteed to confront a perspective I hadn’t thought of before. Highly recommend.

Strange Loop Canon by Rohit Krishnan

I hope this roundup is useful to anyone who is interested in the topic of my particular newsletter — being Human in the Post-human World. I think all of these writers are very important, and they inform and widen my world-view whether I happen to agree with any particular thing they write or not. I’m long since tired of echo-chambers. I want to read diverse perspectives. Here are an excellent few.

If you would like to suggest others I / we all should read, please add them in the comments!