If faux animal products were qualitatively identical to actual animal products, would you make the switch? — It’s no secret: some people abhor food that was “created in a lab.” The unnaturalness of a thing made through human ingenuity is deemed suspect, either inherently, or because the products in question have yet to be tested through lifetimes of consumption. This suspicion is frequently applied to faux meat…

Instead, Greta Gerwig’s fictional world provided a playful and nuanced take on Barbie, as an idea. — The last few days have seen some criticism of Barbieland’s diversity. In paraphrase: “It isn’t adequately representational. It doesn’t have queer or gender non-conforming barbies. It focuses only on skinny, pretty women. It’s consumerist. Men are pushed to the sidelines.” After seeing the movie, I was a bit surprised by…

A critique of quickness in American capitalism — Usually, people talk about productivity in isolation from all other dreams or ambitions someone might have. This is for a reason — people want their ideas about how to do things to apply to as many people as humanly possible, be they a copywriter or a hunter/gatherer in some uncontacted…

AI needn’t replace human beings to change the average person’s ability to access resources, possibly for the worse. — When discussing AI, people often make a queer argument in an attempt to alleviate general anxiety. It goes as follows: “In many fields, AI won’t replace humans. Instead, they will augment them, so that they’re more efficient and free to focus on the most fulfilling aspects of their job.” This…

A brief line of questioning — “Nothing” is such a strange word. It refers, one must think, but to nothing in particular. One wonders: is it meaningful, or merely a placeholder (like the word “it” in the phrase “it rains”)? Heidegger seemed to think it was meaningful. He wrote on Nothingness with a capital “N” and…

A poetic narrative of my embodied experience with C-PTSD — The chest butterflies never leave me. They stay — each day, in metamorphosis — but, oh, they stay. First, they’re cockroaches. Next, they’re bees. Then, flies. Piranhas. Electric eels. It’s a buzzing, biting, stinging vibration some doctor would call the physiological component of anxiety. But the butterflies — they stay…

A poetic definition — love (ləv), verb, loved, lover, loving. 1. to give. 2. to receive. 3. (of family) to grow a house. 4. (of God) to build the heavens and the earth; to create. 5. (of the obsessed) to forget everything but one single other; to focus, singlemindedly: she loved her work so…

A conversation with ChatGPT-4 — Rowen: Hello, Gpt-4. Today, I’d like to to talk to you about rape culture. GPT-4: Hello, I’m here to help and engage in a meaningful discussion about rape culture. Rape culture is a term used to describe a social environment in which sexual violence is normalized, excused, or even encouraged…

A poetic commentary on American ideals — I can get you whatever you like. Pie, maybe? Coffee, that, like all material, is endless — Didn’t you say you were all American? I have a flag for you, or a gun, or a lie. I can tell you the universe is the shape of your comforts if you like. It’s…