Last week I boldly stated that I wouldn’t use AI to write these posts. But how would you know? In this digital post-human world, proving that a human wrote something is becoming more and more difficult. It used to be about em-dashes and overly loquacious words. Now it’s nearly impossible to tell.

For example, let me tell you a story about Russia’s cyborg pigeons. My mom in Oregon sent me a news article about how Russia is supposedly putting brain implants into pigeons to turn them into spy birds. 

Then the other night, Brad and I were at dinner with friends (eating burgers, fried pickles, and sweet potato fries), playing a game called “Sussed.” 

In this game, my friends wanted to know: how do pigeons (of all things!) make me feel? 

So naturally, I said they were scary. Not because I’m scared of regular pigeons, of course. But because Russia is putting brain implants into them. And can’t we all agree that international cyborg spy pigeons are kinda scary?

To prove I’m writing this (as opposed to an AI), I could tell you the names of my friends. You could look them up on Facebook to verify that this actually happened.

I could tell you how the sweet potato fries tasted, dipped into the gooey marshmallow sauce. How it reminded me of Thanksgiving, how it felt like enjoying my dessert with the meal. A guilty pleasure.

ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude wouldn’t know these things. 

But beyond that, I can’t prove that I wrote this. I can only make it personal, writing from my own lived experience, hoping that you give me the benefit of the doubt. Hoping that you meet me here, human to human, bringing all the complexities of our shared condition to this conversation.

(Just don’t mention pigeons, not unless you’re ready to talk implants. And please bring some of those sweet potato fries. They’re delicious.)

Here are some other things I’m thinking about this week…

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Something New:

• Anthropic’s clash with the Pentagon. This story developed rapidly last week and has far-reaching implications for the future of AI. The Pentagon told Anthropic that its AI must fully participate in military surveillance and autonomous weapons development (aka killer robots). Anthropic refused, landing them on the government’s blacklist. Since then, Anthropic’s Claude AI has become even more popular. Score one for ethics.

Something Old:

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick, 1968). This is the sci-fi novel that eventually became Blade Runner (1982). You may remember from the movie that the main character, Deckard, goes around killing replicants, which are human-like androids void of empathy and emotion. But the movie doesn’t cover Deckard’s motive. He kills replicants so that he can someday afford to buy a live animal for his wife (real animals are rare and expensive in this dystopian world). It’s a quirky, entertaining story. Check it out.

Something Inspiring:

• Brain implant helps stroke patient regain movement. Neuralink isn’t the only BCI company making waves. In the summer of 2025, stroke victim Matt Kidd became the first human recipient of a brain implant developed by the German company CorTec. During six weeks with the implant, Kidd “regained more function in his hand and arm than he had during more than a year of physical therapy.” The improvement remained even after the implant was deactivated. Pretty awesome stuff.

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Alright, that’s it for now. Join me here next week for more.