When the inevitable technologically-mediated future promises so breathlessly to make it so impossible for humans to remain human—in our relationships, our education, our work, and even our conflict—we really must ask what in God’s name we should be doing. For a slower world in which I have to think my way through difficult problems, puzzle through the mystery of another person, and tarry patiently with student ignorance is surely not a worse one than the one Sam Altman is building.