As I step more into making public-facing media for the projects I'm involved in, I continue to see how much there is a compulsion to basically question the intelligence, masculinity, or general capabilities of others - as a way of seeming like an expert.

I have been away from the game for a few years, but I was fairly involved earlier, especially around the early SciComm (science communication) era. If you know any ("influencers"?) or creators who you'd recommend that buck this trend, I'd be happy to hear about them.

I feel like if I don't want to be negging others, or just stirring the pot about AI hype/doom, it's the arena and its opportunities look quite different. My current best answer tends to return to what I talk about in this piece below: look for the builders.

The people trying to actually build out new things in the world seem to be my place of respite. I am all for theory, and for "dreaming a bit before you think", but, in a world where ideas are sensationalized and viewpoints are shifting often ( see the second link in comments),

grounding within the practice and disciplining of creating things (actually going through the conception, birthing, and development process) seems to be the place that gives me the most sense of substance. It's though as there is tremendous assault on agency, sense of future, or even 'hope' in general.

But we can show up for each other in terms of creating the space and capacity to "do" and "make" and "materialize" the better aspirations we might have access to.