Excellent piece, Ben. It seems like systems are psychologically satisfying because they give us the opportunity to abdicate personal responsibility. But they’re ultimately unsatisfactory because they’re existentially insufficient.
The abdicating responsibility part is really tempting, yes. I liked how Porcu talked about the need for personal responsibility in the pursuit of sainthood.
Watching that morning routine and I think I speak for all parents of little (and therefore uncontrollable, noisy, sometimes unpredictable, needy) children when I say: watching it makes me want to hurl my computer into a lake.
This is one of the best things I've read on here in a while. Thank you 🙏
Wow, that means a lot. Thank you for the encouragement!
This was the Orthodox AI discussion I didn't know I needed!
Creatureliness please! Thank you for this lovely and thoughtful article.
Thank you!
Excellent piece, Ben. It seems like systems are psychologically satisfying because they give us the opportunity to abdicate personal responsibility. But they’re ultimately unsatisfactory because they’re existentially insufficient.
The abdicating responsibility part is really tempting, yes. I liked how Porcu talked about the need for personal responsibility in the pursuit of sainthood.
Watching that morning routine and I think I speak for all parents of little (and therefore uncontrollable, noisy, sometimes unpredictable, needy) children when I say: watching it makes me want to hurl my computer into a lake.
Very compelling, thank you. It reminds me of T.S. Eliot:
“Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws?
She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget.
She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft.
She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.
They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
But the man that is will shadow
The man that pretends to be.”