For a start, you can say that exact same thing to Claude and ask it to start walking you through the process. I recommend exploring Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex (they’re more than chatbots). You’re not behind. It’s a personal decision how much to integrate this tech into our lives.
I can’t bring myself to use AI by choice bc of the serious environmental impact, it feels complicit. Instead, I’ll minimize my interactions and impact by co-creating in the garden. We know AI is here to stay but we make choices as to how much we hand over and I’m simply unwilling.
I admire you Annette! I do pray that the advances in technology will also curb the environmental factors. Humanity has been hurting the earth for a while… Laudato Si!
That’s very kind of you but I think it’s just me being selfish bc of my children and nieces and nephews (and grands…) I just want them to know that whenever we have this kind of bulldozing it usually means something is going to give. AI in all things is not a foregone conclusion and I think (as many of your articles say, humanity comes first). I’m happy to write imperfectly (or do anything else imperfectly) as long as it is authentically me. There are still ways to avoid the encroachment. God bless your own endeavors!
"So being a pure consumer, of media, of other people’s products, of a monthly allowance, is not a neutral way to pass the time. It is a slow un-making. A smaller life than the one you were handed."
There is a small irony in spending an hour of the very commodity you are writing about and coming away certain the hour was gained rather than lost. Your piece kept its own rule. It used my time without taking it. And somewhere in the middle of that hour, Abraham Joshua Heschel pulled up a chair.
If his name is new to anyone in the room, Heschel was a Polish-born rabbi and philosopher who escaped Warsaw just ahead of the catastrophe that took most of his family, taught for decades in New York, and marched beside Dr. King at Selma. In 1951 he wrote a small but powerful book called "The Sabbath," and he opens it with a sentence that could have been written about your dividing line: "Technical civilization is man's conquest of space." The triumph, he goes on to say, is frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely time. He called Shabbat (שַׁבָּת) a palace in time, the one day we stop conquering long enough to remember that time is not raw material waiting for our ambition. It is the house we actually live in.
I should say plainly that I stand on your side of the line. I build with these tools nearly every working day, and I like your idea that the displacement will not be machine against man but the person who builds with the tool against the person who only consumes what it builds.
What I want to lay underneath your call is not a caution against the building. The human is placed in the garden l'ovdah ul'shomrah (לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ), to work it and to keep it, and shamar, the keeping verb, is the same verb the commandment later reaches for at Sinai, shamor (שָׁמוֹר) et yom haShabbat. The same grammar that sends us into the garden to make things also sets apart a day on which we make nothing, as though the working and the ceasing were two halves of a single vocation.
The rabbis noticed that the Torah says God finished His work on the seventh day rather than the sixth, and they asked what could have been created on a day of rest. Their answer was menuchah (מְנוּחָה), rest itself, as though the world remained unfinished until stillness was added to it.
I have come to wonder whether the user of these tools who keeps a day like that can ever slide across your line into being used, because he has already stopped believing the one thing the algorithm needs him to believe, that every hour is either his to optimize or theirs to take.
This Friday evening, when the candles go into the window and the phone goes into a drawer, your dividing line will still be somewhere in the room with me. For six days, I intend to build the way you are urging all of us to, and for one day, there will be nothing to use and no one to be used by. The palace has room for everyone.
I struggle with whether using AI in writing blog posts is ethical, do I need to cite when I use AI to brainstorm in my personal writing, for example if I use it to help me generate ideas? Writing on substack is not the same as submitting a scholarly paper governed by an academic honor code, but I want to be honest in my writing, even online. Does it matter? Does anyone care? What do you think Sean? I can put my ideas in AI and then summarize some of what AI gives me, do I cite this on substack posts? If I should, how would I word this?
I don’t have a lot of time to write on substack, but I have good ideas, and using AI could definitely cut down on time and help me stay focused.
I treat AI like a good editor or think tank. It can help you talk out ideas to clarify what you want to say, even ghost write. That is already a function within agencies and media teams. What’s most important I believe is to stand behind what you say. I know this is sensitive… the Pope’s encyclical was touched up by Claude AI as well. Check out this article I wrote on the issue: https://drseantobin.substack.com/p/i-used-ai-to-write-this?r=5ltt2z
I agree with the entire article ! I have a son-in-law who uses it with his cyber security business . It saves him a lot of time! My son uses it to check his focus on his job and clarify. I’m a teacher and I’ve start to create with AI. I teach 5th grade and the students have used it to make logos and they were creative and very proud of their work . I’ve caught myself a few times wishing AI could do more. I figure in no time it wil .
I think they are going to come up with ways to integrate AI more than I will. I’m not a huge fan of computers in my classroom, as they have become more for kids to play games on, etc….
They asked me if they could use AI. They were making a logo for a project. The were to create an amusement park and have a theme. They came up with the theme and asked AI/Gemini. . I think about 25 percent of my student took advantage of it. They didn’t better their prompts. Most then went with the first try. I’m a math teacher and the amusement park focus was on multiplying fraction etc using area etc…. So the logo was a very small, but nice touch to the students ownership of the project . I’m taking a 1 credit class summer to learn more.
I’m challenged by this. I hear that my wait and see approach isn’t a good one.
But I don’t know where to start. I’m 76 not afraid of tech but out of the orbit of these things
For a start, you can say that exact same thing to Claude and ask it to start walking you through the process. I recommend exploring Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex (they’re more than chatbots). You’re not behind. It’s a personal decision how much to integrate this tech into our lives.
Thank you. I'm definitely going to take your advice. Much appreciated
I can’t bring myself to use AI by choice bc of the serious environmental impact, it feels complicit. Instead, I’ll minimize my interactions and impact by co-creating in the garden. We know AI is here to stay but we make choices as to how much we hand over and I’m simply unwilling.
I admire you Annette! I do pray that the advances in technology will also curb the environmental factors. Humanity has been hurting the earth for a while… Laudato Si!
That’s very kind of you but I think it’s just me being selfish bc of my children and nieces and nephews (and grands…) I just want them to know that whenever we have this kind of bulldozing it usually means something is going to give. AI in all things is not a foregone conclusion and I think (as many of your articles say, humanity comes first). I’m happy to write imperfectly (or do anything else imperfectly) as long as it is authentically me. There are still ways to avoid the encroachment. God bless your own endeavors!
Another great post. I love this line ...
"So being a pure consumer, of media, of other people’s products, of a monthly allowance, is not a neutral way to pass the time. It is a slow un-making. A smaller life than the one you were handed."
Dr. Tobin,
There is a small irony in spending an hour of the very commodity you are writing about and coming away certain the hour was gained rather than lost. Your piece kept its own rule. It used my time without taking it. And somewhere in the middle of that hour, Abraham Joshua Heschel pulled up a chair.
If his name is new to anyone in the room, Heschel was a Polish-born rabbi and philosopher who escaped Warsaw just ahead of the catastrophe that took most of his family, taught for decades in New York, and marched beside Dr. King at Selma. In 1951 he wrote a small but powerful book called "The Sabbath," and he opens it with a sentence that could have been written about your dividing line: "Technical civilization is man's conquest of space." The triumph, he goes on to say, is frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely time. He called Shabbat (שַׁבָּת) a palace in time, the one day we stop conquering long enough to remember that time is not raw material waiting for our ambition. It is the house we actually live in.
I should say plainly that I stand on your side of the line. I build with these tools nearly every working day, and I like your idea that the displacement will not be machine against man but the person who builds with the tool against the person who only consumes what it builds.
What I want to lay underneath your call is not a caution against the building. The human is placed in the garden l'ovdah ul'shomrah (לְעָבְדָהּ וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ), to work it and to keep it, and shamar, the keeping verb, is the same verb the commandment later reaches for at Sinai, shamor (שָׁמוֹר) et yom haShabbat. The same grammar that sends us into the garden to make things also sets apart a day on which we make nothing, as though the working and the ceasing were two halves of a single vocation.
The rabbis noticed that the Torah says God finished His work on the seventh day rather than the sixth, and they asked what could have been created on a day of rest. Their answer was menuchah (מְנוּחָה), rest itself, as though the world remained unfinished until stillness was added to it.
I have come to wonder whether the user of these tools who keeps a day like that can ever slide across your line into being used, because he has already stopped believing the one thing the algorithm needs him to believe, that every hour is either his to optimize or theirs to take.
This Friday evening, when the candles go into the window and the phone goes into a drawer, your dividing line will still be somewhere in the room with me. For six days, I intend to build the way you are urging all of us to, and for one day, there will be nothing to use and no one to be used by. The palace has room for everyone.
Ty
I struggle with whether using AI in writing blog posts is ethical, do I need to cite when I use AI to brainstorm in my personal writing, for example if I use it to help me generate ideas? Writing on substack is not the same as submitting a scholarly paper governed by an academic honor code, but I want to be honest in my writing, even online. Does it matter? Does anyone care? What do you think Sean? I can put my ideas in AI and then summarize some of what AI gives me, do I cite this on substack posts? If I should, how would I word this?
I don’t have a lot of time to write on substack, but I have good ideas, and using AI could definitely cut down on time and help me stay focused.
I treat AI like a good editor or think tank. It can help you talk out ideas to clarify what you want to say, even ghost write. That is already a function within agencies and media teams. What’s most important I believe is to stand behind what you say. I know this is sensitive… the Pope’s encyclical was touched up by Claude AI as well. Check out this article I wrote on the issue: https://drseantobin.substack.com/p/i-used-ai-to-write-this?r=5ltt2z
I agree with the entire article ! I have a son-in-law who uses it with his cyber security business . It saves him a lot of time! My son uses it to check his focus on his job and clarify. I’m a teacher and I’ve start to create with AI. I teach 5th grade and the students have used it to make logos and they were creative and very proud of their work . I’ve caught myself a few times wishing AI could do more. I figure in no time it wil .
I think they are going to come up with ways to integrate AI more than I will. I’m not a huge fan of computers in my classroom, as they have become more for kids to play games on, etc….
Curious how you approach AI with your students?
I’m approaching AI cautiously. I do think in 10 years my grandkids are going to say to me “grandma I can’t believe you didn’t have AI growing up “
They asked me if they could use AI. They were making a logo for a project. The were to create an amusement park and have a theme. They came up with the theme and asked AI/Gemini. . I think about 25 percent of my student took advantage of it. They didn’t better their prompts. Most then went with the first try. I’m a math teacher and the amusement park focus was on multiplying fraction etc using area etc…. So the logo was a very small, but nice touch to the students ownership of the project . I’m taking a 1 credit class summer to learn more.