I occasionally used Twitter to float a thought to see how it resonated (or didn’t). This struck me as a good way of using Notes. But then I thought why not post something a bit more developed, like a paragraph or two from an newsletter draft. So in the spirit of experimentation, here’s a bit from an essay I’m working on which explores AI through the lens of Ivan Illich’s work. Maybe this snippet presumes too much familiarity with Illich’s way of thinking, but if there’s something that catches your attention here feel free to comment.

In his day, Illich believed that it was already the case that for most people in the modern world “making the necessities of life” had ceased to take up most of our time. Illich believed that this led to a distinct form of “unemployment.” The kind of unemployment Illich had in mind is “the idleness of a man for whom there is nothing to ‘make’ and who does not know what to ‘do’–that is, how to ‘act.’”

Illich goes on to say that “one way to fill available time is to stimulate increased demands for the consumption of goods and, simultaneously, for the production of services. The former implies an economy which provides an ever-growing array of ever newer things which can be made, consumed, wasted, and recycled. The latter implies the futile attempt to ‘make’ virtuous actions into the products of ‘service’ institutions.”