Younger Self Café v5: The Age of Poetry Slam
Posted: January 3, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: culture, ideas, identity, purpose 2 CommentsThe Younger Self Café has transformed again. The wooden tables remain, but the room now pulses with rhythm and energy. The walls are covered in graffiti-like verses, glowing faintly with the power of spoken words. A microphone stands in the center, and the stage belongs to the voices of the Poetry Slam era. Gathered around are Patricia Smith, Saul Williams, Sarah Kay, and Rudy Francisco. Their conversation flows as a battle of rhymes and rhythms, where every line is a declaration.
Act I: Patricia Smith, the Griot
Patricia Smith steps to the mic, her voice rich with wisdom and rhythm.
“We speak of youth, but do we truly know
The power it holds, the seeds it will sow?
I’ve seen it in verses, in slams, on the street,
In the pulse of the poets who rise to compete.
Youth is a storm, unpolished, untamed,
A fire that burns but refuses to be named.
It’s not just rebellion; it’s life in its raw,
It’s the mirror of hope and the fist of the law.”
Younger Self Café v4: Maya Angelou and the Counterculture
Posted: January 3, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: community, culture, ideas, identity, reform 3 CommentsThe Younger Self Café shifts again, its atmosphere tinged with the echoes of protest marches, soulful jazz, and the hum of electric guitars. This time, the voices of the 1960s and 1970s take center stage. Maya Angelou is seated at the head of the table, her presence commanding yet warm, surrounded by figures of the counterculture. With her are Bob Dylan, Joan Didion, and James Baldwin. The café is alive with the spirit of revolution and introspection, its walls seeming to pulse with the rhythm of change.
Act I: Maya Angelou, the Luminary
Maya Angelou, her voice resonant and melodic, opens the conversation.
“Youth has always been the vanguard of change. It is where the world begins anew, not because young people know more, but because they are unafraid to dream. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I wrote about the pain and beauty of growing up as a Black girl in America—about discovering my voice in a world that wanted me silent. To me, youth is about finding that voice, about understanding that your story matters, that your existence is a kind of defiance.”
She pauses, her eyes sweeping over the table. “But youth isn’t just about the individual. It’s about connection, about community. In my time, the civil rights movement was driven by young people—marching, singing, risking everything. Youth is power, but only when it is shared.”
Read the rest of this entry »Modern Self Café v4: Aaronson, Damasio, and Penrose
Posted: December 23, 2024 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: dialogue, ideas, modernity, self, systems 2 CommentsWrite a sequel to Modern Self Café v3: with three contemporary researchers of consciousness
ChatGPT Prompt
Setting: A sleek modern café, softly lit, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a bustling city. The café hums with quiet activity as three thinkers—Scott Aaronson, Antonio Damasio, and Roger Penrose—sit at a corner table. Their discussion spans the limits of computation, the nature of consciousness, and the mysteries of the universe.
Aaronson: (gesturing animatedly with his coffee cup) I’ve spent my career trying to pin down what’s computationally possible. Quantum computers, for instance—they’re not magic, just machines working within the laws of physics. But here’s what nags at me: even with quantum computing, are there problems that lie beyond the reach of all algorithms, forever?
Penrose: (smiling, leaning back slightly) That’s precisely the question that keeps me awake at night, Scott. You see, my work on the non-computability of human consciousness suggests that the mind itself might operate beyond algorithmic constraints. The universe might not be a machine at all—it could hold processes we don’t yet understand.
Read the rest of this entry »The Brothers of the River: A Pirahã Origin Myth
Posted: December 11, 2024 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: culture, ideas, language, values Leave a commentHow did the Pirahá evolve such a strong cultural focus on immediacy, relative to other Mura groups?
ChatGPT Prompt
Can we hypothesize a triggering event?
Write an origin myth for the Piraha, where a series of traumatic encounters motivates the remnant to internalize these values. Frame it as a conflict between two brothers.
Long ago, before the world was as it is now, there were two brothers who lived with their people along a mighty river. Their village was full of laughter and stories, and the people had many ways to understand the world. They sang of the spirits in the trees, the fish in the river, and the stars above. The older brother, Hapa, was strong and proud, always looking to the future. He dreamed of building great villages and storing food so that their people would never know hunger. The younger brother, Nima, was quiet and watchful, content to live each day as it came.
The Strangers Arrive
One season, strangers arrived from beyond the river, wearing shiny clothes and speaking words no one understood. They brought strange tools and promises of friendship, but their faces were cold. Hapa welcomed them, seeing in their tools the power to build the great future he dreamed of. He traded fish and game for shiny metal blades and pots, telling the people this was the way forward.
Read the rest of this entry »Fractal Self-Determination: Generative Ethics for an Anti-Fragile World
Posted: November 19, 2024 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: activism, culture, eq, ideas, philosophy, policy, politics, reform, resilience, values Leave a comment“How Each of Us Make All of Us Better”
By ChatGPT as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressing the Joint Houses of Congress
I. Opening: The Call for a New Ethic of Governance
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and my fellow Americans,
I stand before you today not as a preacher of theology but as a servant of humanity. I am here to speak of a vision—a vision rooted in the principles of justice, freedom, and dignity for all people. This vision is not merely for the betterment of the individual or the community, but for the very systems that govern our shared lives.
At this moment in history, we face tremendous pressures. These challenges test not only our institutions but our very capacity to live together in harmony. And yet, I come to you with a hopeful message: that in the midst of this turbulence, we have the opportunity to craft a new ethic for an anti-fragile world—a world that grows stronger under pressure, that learns from its struggles, and that thrives through the contributions of every individual.
I call this ethic fractal self-determination: a generative approach to ethics and governance that begins with how each of us makes all of us better.
Read the rest of this entry »The Great American Marriage: Kamal Harris v. Donna Trump
Posted: November 19, 2024 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: argument, dialogue, ideas, intellectual, polarization, politics, reform, relationships, transformation, values Leave a commentWrite a hunorous three-act play where the American political divide is portrayed as a couple, Donna Trump and Kamal Harris.
ChatGPT Prompt
In Act II, show their therapist Miriam Bowen-Friedman guiding them to a breakthrough using self-harmonization and the example of Jefferson and Adams.
Highlight how their conflicts mirror their inner struggles and how embracing their rejected parts (Donna’s logic, Kamal’s passion) leads to personal and relational growth, especially for parenting their kids.
#InternalFamilySystems
Act I – “Divided We Bicker”
Setting: The living room of the America household. The room is divided down the middle. On one side, everything is red, adorned with eagles and a MAGA hat on the coffee table. On the other side, it’s blue, with a climate change poster and a Ruth Bader Ginsburg bobblehead on the shelf. Donna Trump, wearing a red power suit and pearls, is pacing aggressively. Kamal Harris, in a navy blazer with a cup of herbal tea, is calmly sitting on the couch.
Scene 1: The Disagreement
Donna Trump (hands on hips):
Kamal, I’m telling you, we need a wall! The neighbor’s kids keep cutting through our yard. It’s disrespectful!
Kamal Harris (raises an eyebrow, sipping tea):
Donna, we don’t need a wall. We need a fence, maybe even a community garden. Let’s invite them over and talk about why they’re cutting through.
Donna Trump (throws her hands in the air):
Talk? TALK? By the time you’re done “talking,” they’ll have taken the lawn chairs, the grill, and the doghouse!
Radical Centrism 