Today, Alec Watson posted a video titled “Algorithms are breaking how we think” on his YouTube channel, Technology Connections. The whole thing is excellent and very well argued. The main thrust is: people seem increasingly less mindful about the stuff they engage with. Watson argues that this is bad, and I agree. A little while ago I watched a video by Hank Green called “$4.5M to Spray Alcoholic Rats with Bobcat Urine”. Green has been banging this drum for a while. He hits some of the same notes as Watson, but from a different angle. This last month has been a lot, and I’ve withdrawn from news and social media quite a bit because of it. Part of this is because I’ve been very busy with work, but it’s also because I’ve felt overwhelmed. There are now a lot of bad-faith actors in positions of power. Part of their game plan is to spray a mass of obviously false, intellectually shallow, enraging nonsense into the world as quickly as possible. At a certain point the bullshit seeps in if you’re soaking in it. The ability to control over what you see next is powerful. I think it would be great if more people started being a bit more choosy about who they give that control to.

A quick look at the physics of conductors, insulators, and electric charges.

An apology and some entertainment

Week 8 of my humanities crash course focused on ancient Egypt with musical excursions to modern North Africa. I also finally saw an astonishing opera I’d heard countless times but had never seen. The internet delivers! Readings Rather than a specific text, like the Odyssey or the Histories, Gioia recommended an anthology of ancient Egyptian texts. I couldn’t find that specific collection as an ebook, so I went with Writings From Ancient Egypt, an anthology compiled by Toby Wilkinson. The book consisted of text fragments found in papyri, buildings, and objects such as stele and sarcophagi. Egyptian culture focused on the afterlife, and many of their writings deal with preparations for death and beyond. But several also focused on the here-and-now. Wilkinson groups them by function: Autobiographical inscriptions: boasting about conquests Battle narratives: same Hymns: prayers to gods and Pharaohs (who were considered gods) Lamentations: philosophical tracts Legal texts: contracts Letters: communications Mortuary texts: instructions for successfully navigating the afterlife Royal inscriptions: found in monuments to Pharaohs Songs: mostly instructive; as with Homer, sung by blind harpists Teachings: explicitly instructive texts Most are dense and reflect unfamiliar formal language patterns. For example, references to the Pharaoh and/or his palace are invariably followed with the phrase “life, prosperity, health.” Religion directed Egyptian thinking. My favorite texts in this collection were the teachings, especially those dealing with writing. Few people could write at the time; these texts were part of their instructions. As such, they’re explicit about the superiority of writing over other occupations. Most ancient Egyptian art and writing is anonymous and they believed in life after death. So it was fascinating to see that they, too, understood writing as a means for a kind of immortality: Be a writer, take it to heart, so that your name will fare likewise. A book is more effective than a carved tombstone or a permanent sepulchre. They serve as chapels and mausolea in the mind of him who proclaims their names. A name on people’s lips will surely be effective in the afterlife! Audiovisual Again, Gioia led me to astonishing music I hadn’t heard before. This time, it was two artists from North Africa, Ali Farka Touré and Tinariwen. The latter sounded to me like Tuareg Radiohead. (!) The following lectures provided an intro to ancient Egyptian art and architecture. I studied some of this in university, but it was a good reminder. As with the Mesopotamians, part of the lesson here is that for the ancients, “the arts” were functional (and not merely decorative) expressions. Reminder: I’ve started a YouTube playlist of videos I’m sharing in this course. Rather than a movie, this week I watched an opera. I’m a fan of Philip Glass’s work, and his 1983 opera Akhnaten is one of my favorites. But I’d only ever heard it. Akhnaten’s libretto includes some of this week’s readings, so I thought it’d be a good opportunity to finally see the show. I wasn’t disappointed. Apple TV has a lovely recording of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera production starring Anthony Roth Costanzo. It includes jugglers! It’s a stunning show, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a first opera. Glass’s music is an acquired taste; there are long (repetitive!) passages where characters walk very slowly through the stage singing in ancient Egyptian. I loved it, but I was familiar with the music. YMMV. If you do plan to watch, note that it’s a four-hour show. I took in each of the three scenes on subsequent nights, which is doable. But Apple TV gives you 48 hours to watch rentals, so you must plan if you want to see it over three nights. Reflections As happened with the ancient Mesopotamians, these texts connected me with the ancient Egyptians. Sure, there’s a lot of formal, ritualistic language in there. But humanity breaks through: amidst the repetitive formulas, you can see people struggling with everyday moral dilemmas. One interesting pattern evident in both Egyptian texts and arts: their society had strict hierarchies, and people in higher rungs were represented more formally and abstractly than “common” folk. As a result, the latter are much more relatable. Accordingly, hymns and royal inscriptions are highly formalized, whereas more practical/intimate writings (letters, teachings) are fluid and relatable. Of course, that’s true today as well: consider the stylistic differences between a Vatican pronouncement vs. a post like this one. One big difference: reading and writing were much rarer back then. Unlike today’s authors, Egyptian scribes had an exalted position in society. One of the writings explicitly mocked manual laborers, contrasting their back-breaking and dirty work with the scribe’s idyllic job. Another difference was the ancient Egyptians’ preoccupation with life after death. The Book of the Dead contains lists of assertions the recently departed were supposed to convey to the gods when requesting passage into the afterlife: I have not done people wrong. It goes on like this, page after page. (Like a Philip Glass opera!) The point isn’t gaining actual passage into the afterlife, but living better. Many of these assertions are sound advice. But while advice is good, accountability is better. Threat of eternal discomfort is one way to do it. Notes on Note-taking I didn’t use AI to help with the course this week. The texts were fragmentary, so there was no story to track; I mostly followed unaided. (Except by Wilkinson’s excellent notes.) As usual, I created an Obsidian note for the book and captured my reflections there. (Some of which I pasted above.) Overall, this week felt like a break from thinking. While watching Akhnaten, I laid back and let the spectacle wash over me; it was more an experience than a story. This was also true of the texts. Some stuff to think about, but much to feel. Not gonna try to bottle that. Up Next Next week, we’re reading selections from the Bible: Genesis, Ecclesiastes, the four Gospels, and the Epistle to the Romans. I grew up with these teachings and read the whole book back in 2009, so we’ll be revisiting familiar ground. Check out Gioia’s post for the full syllabus. Again, there’s a YouTube playlist for all the videos I’m sharing here. And as a reminder, I’m also sharing these posts via Substack if you’d like to subscribe and comment.

Waymo’s factory, a map of US land values, ships in the Arctic Circle, battery industry trends, and more.