So I still love old things. Old cars, old books… anything with heritage. And one thing that I haven’t written about on here is my love for classic literature. Now, one caveat. English is my mother tongue. And as much as I’ve tried to learn multiple languages, there’s something about quality literature in your native tongue. Now I do have experience reading “Days” by Taha Hussein in Arabic, one thing I’m proud about. And I’ve even done some work in Arabic classical poetry. And while these pieces of literature transported me to a time and space where I am unfamiliar, I was honored to have that experience. I think so much of our lives are confined to our body’s limitations.

Meaning, I was born into this body, which has existed in a particular time and place. But sometimes I yearn for a broader consciousness. Like, why do I have to be relegated to only one bodily experience? I’m greedy for more. And reading in Arabic allowed me greater expansion. But I couldn’t strike me to my core, because at it’s very root it is foreign to me. And that makes me sad. I hate that my limitation to this world is through the white modern, western perspective. It feels so shallow sometimes and that shallowness is repulsive.

Good language, well written language makes you feel. Brontë makes me feel. Wilde. Tolken. These authors and more help to alleviate that ache of the single body experience.

But let me talk about the trash that is LLM writing. You know when you walk past a trashcan in a busy downtown core, and it stinks? But not like, lightly stinks. It’s putrid and the odor lingers in the breeze as you pass it. That putridness is similarly felt when I read anything written by AI. It stinks and not just superficially, deeply. Unsettlingly.

I have a friend who works in communications and recently I’ve started worrying about her business because I fear that people will just use AI for their coms. Because AI does something important, it removes the struggle.

Communication is hard and when you have your own business, especially in this day and age, organizing your brand is an art. There is honest to God struggle in communication your vision to potential clients. That struggle is something that AI can just take away with a push of a button. And I understand the temptation. Struggle sucks, that feeling in my body when I’m trying to create something from nothing… to create a new short story or express my feelings? Its hard AF.

But AI is so yucky that I hope Emma that her business model can outlast this trend. She works mostly with nonprofits, so I think there is hope. Can you imagine a cancer society using AI in their comms? It would really downgrade their message.

So I urge you to go read a book. Your dopamine receptors will also thank you.