#catholic things

But I think fantasy worlds could get a lot of mileage out of the fact that Christianity and paganism are two fundamentally different concepts of the divine. Pagan gods tend to be in the world and part of the world. They exist in a higher realm that is superior to the mortal world, but it's still within the universe. A pagan deity is in competition with other creatures. It often has physical needs and a need to be worshiped. The Christian concept of God, on the other hand, is outside the universe. He created it all and needs nothing from it. He can break into the world, but does so without destroying or displacing or competing with anything else already in it--the way the burning bush can be lit up with fire, but not consumed, or how Christ can have a divine nature while still having a fully human nature.

- When you get up to get a cup of water, always ask if anyone else in the room wants water too

- When you finish eating, look for people in the table who have also finished and discretly go wash their dishes / put their dish away / trow away their wrappers etc

- Routinely ask people who are happy to be useful to help you in small, effortless tasks. Specially small kids or older folk, even if it would be quicker to do it all by yourself

- When there's plenty of things to carry, pick the heaviest you can carry before other people notice

- When dividing tasks, pick the one the others like the least

- Take notes in class in a way people next to you can steal a glance (I started doing this when I sat near some kid with dyslexia, but it can help anyone if your handwriting is better than the teacher's, or if you're more organized)

- When eating something good, give the last piece to someone who also likes it in a way that's hard to refuse, eg "here, saved it for you" (it's important that it be the last piece, because that's the hardest to let go)

- Purposefully eat bits of food you dislike

- Say good things about other people behind their backs

Even if you're not Catholic, it's an incredibly well written analysis of all the ways AI and technology are used in our modern world. In this document, he looks at a very complex and nuanced issue from every angle, from the human cost of indentured labor and modern slavery that is used in mining and content moderation, to the environmental costs of data centers, to skill regression and the impact of dehumanization educators are seeing in young people, to unemployment and discriminatory hiring practices, to the true beauty of human art, to unethical military decision making. He urges that even if you think of AI as a tool, it's important to think about who's wielding the tool, for what purpose?

I've read the whole thing and it really resonated with me.

Here are a few particular quotes for my fellow creatives and makers:

"Authentic culture and art preserve this spark, resisting the normalization of evil. For this reason, certain works have taken on an almost prophetic significance: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony can be seen as a desire for unity; Guernica as a denunciation of dehumanization; Schindler’s List as a call not to consign the past to oblivion."

"Goodness does not advance automatically, but requires the perseverance, memory and interior conversion necessary to begin anew, even after defeat.