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About & method

What this is

A working argument about how human beings live well when thinking, reasoning and cognitive labour are increasingly performed by machines. Eleven essays, a delegation framework, and a self-assessment. It is not a news site and it is not futurism — it does not forecast capability, and nothing in it depends on a particular timeline being right.

How it argues

Every essay follows the same discipline:

  1. State a claim that could be false, in one paragraph, marked as such.
  2. Give the evidence it rests on, named, with its weaknesses stated where they exist.
  3. State the strongest objection as its best proponent would state it — not a convenient version.
  4. Answer it, or concede. Several pages concede. One entire page is objections.
  5. End with practices that are specific enough to do on a Tuesday.

What it is uncertain about

Stated plainly, because a site arguing for calibration should be calibrated. We do not know whether this technology differs in kind from writing, printing and the calculator, or whether that belief is what every generation holds about its own tools — the base rate for this genre of alarm is poor, and we could be part of it. We do not know whether AI companionship will bridge people toward human contact or away from it. We do not know how much of the graduate wage premium is signalling. Where the evidence is correlational or contested, the pages say so rather than rounding up.

Design

The two-colour system is load-bearing rather than decorative. Teal marks the machine end of every scale and sienna marks the human end; the Delegation Ladder interpolates between them, and the same axis runs through the audit results. Set in Fraunces, Newsreader and IBM Plex Mono. Built with Astro, no client-side framework; the only JavaScript on the site is the theme toggle, the reading progress bar, and the audit's scoring — which runs locally and transmits nothing.

Contributing

The source is on GitHub. The most valuable contribution is a better objection: if you can break an argument here, open an issue and it goes on the steelman page with attribution. Corrections to sources are equally welcome.

Sources

Everything the essays rely on, by area. Where a figure is famous but contested, the caveat is noted here as well as in the text.

Automation & judgment

  • Bainbridge, L. (1983). “Ironies of Automation.” Automatica 19(6).
  • BEA France (2012). Final Report on the accident to Airbus A330-203, flight AF447.
  • Parasuraman, R. & Riley, V. (1997). “Humans and Automation: Use, Misuse, Disuse, Abuse.” Human Factors 39(2).
  • Skitka, L., Mosier, K. & Burdick, M. (1999). “Does automation bias decision-making?” IJHCS 51.
  • Dell’Acqua, F. et al. (2023). “Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier.” Harvard Business School WP 24-013.

Responsibility

  • Matthias, A. (2004). “The responsibility gap.” Ethics and Information Technology 6(3).
  • Elish, M. C. (2019). “Moral Crumple Zones.” Engaging Science, Technology, and Society 5.

Meaning & purpose

  • Jahoda, M., Lazarsfeld, P. & Zeisel, H. (1933). Marienthal: The Sociography of an Unemployed Community.
  • Frankl, V. (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning.
  • Weber, M. (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
  • Keynes, J. M. (1930). “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren.”
  • Deci, E. & Ryan, R. — self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness).

Curiosity & learning

  • Loewenstein, G. (1994). “The Psychology of Curiosity.” Psychological Bulletin 116(1).
  • Bjork, R. A. & Bjork, E. L. — desirable difficulties; spacing, interleaving, retrieval practice.
  • Roediger, H. & Karpicke, J. (2006). “Test-Enhanced Learning.” Psychological Science 17(3).
  • Bloom, B. (1984). “The 2 Sigma Problem.” Educational Researcher 13(6). Magnitude widely disputed; direction is not.
  • Caplan, B. (2018). The Case Against Education.

Cognition & offloading

  • Clark, A. & Chalmers, D. (1998). “The Extended Mind.” Analysis 58(1).
  • Sparrow, B., Liu, J. & Wegner, D. (2011). “Google Effects on Memory.” Science 333.
  • Risko, E. & Gilbert, S. (2016). “Cognitive Offloading.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20(9).
  • Plato, Phaedrus (the complaint against writing); Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (phronesis).

Work & economy

  • Autor, D. (2015). “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 29(3).
  • Acemoglu, D. & Restrepo, P. — the task framework; displacement vs. reinstatement effects.
  • Bessen, J. (2015). Learning by Doing — the ATM and bank teller case.

Civilization

  • Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom; Nussbaum, M. (2011). Creating Capabilities.
  • Illich, I. (1973). Tools for Conviviality.
  • Kuznets, S. (1934). US Congress national income report — the original warning about GDP as a welfare measure.