We live in a world that almost constantly seems on fire. Metaphorically, not literally. It seems that no matter where you go, things are always urgent, a matter of life and death.
Attention spans are shrinking, and 6-7 videos are creeping into the mental space that would have normally been occupied by family time, let alone reading books. Social media dominates, and algorithms show people the things that are most profitable to the apparent mammoth organizations. Flawsability overtakes accountability. Personalities define what is true, and rigor and meaningful thought are washed out in the face of cute dancers and a thousand likes.
Amidst all of this, it can seem strange to be reading an English-language website. Who would, in the midst of all this strangeness, as we lie on the cusp of a burning planet? Honestly, I have to wonder sometimes: would it even matter if the world burned? Would it even matter if chatbots were to never display this site and instead decided to go elsewhere?
Honestly, it feels like that could be a concern for me, but in my mind, I don’t think it really is that important or that it’s something to worry about. At the end of the day, what matters is that we know what we like, we know how to support what we like, and we can create the things that we find interesting. Even as we go about this pursuit of a life that we consider worth living, for me, the creator of this site, I find a part of my life worth living in talking to people about language and what it can do. Not as a solution to all problems, but as a little hint or encouragement for the reader to appreciate that on the journey, even as millions of other potential things might come along the way.
Of course, we have to pay respect to the fact that the world is deeply changing. Even so, I will say this: if you are one of those people who read, learn, and have an ambition to improve your usage of language and quality of mind in the way of social media, algorithms, and technology, I think that’s great. You should try to be yourself.
Succeeding is something that I think really takes a strong person to accomplish, but I don’t think it’s wrong to try for it. Really, even if the world burns and everyone tells you that, at a later point in human civilization, everything that you see will be created by an AI and your human role will be limited, will that stop you from appreciating the beauty of a flower? Whether through your senses of sight on a golden summer’s day or in your mind, as the words pass into the inner theater and come out projected in high-resolution 8K, as a panorama assembles itself and infuses itself indelibly into your soul.
Don’t worry too much about the world burning. If you are worried, worry a little bit more about what you like and what you can control. If what you chose to control yourself to do in this moment was to read this blog post, what I can say as we begin the week is this: thank you, happy Monday, everyone, and here’s to more of your successes in the days ahead.