№ 830. The medieval understanding of intelligence is exactly what we need in the age of A.I.

By Boyd Taylor Coolman August 17, 2026 

In a recent essay in America, Terence Sweeney drew attention to Pope Leo XIV’s consistent concern with education in his writings, including in “Magnifica Humanitas.” Mr. Sweeney noted the pope’s attention to a new reality: that in an age of artificial intelligence, especially in light of what the pope labels a “technocratic paradigm,” we are experiencing “certain currents of thought that interpret progress as surpassing the human condition, and which are often grouped under the labels of transhumanism and posthumanism.” 

 

Monet

№ 525. Otherness and Prejudice

The least. The last. The lost. The minority. The fringe.

Speed Bump

№ 478. Trial and Terror, A Reckoning

China: The Cake of Kings... and of Emperors

Monuments are values made visible, embodying ideals we choose to honour. Unless we choose to celebrate their values, statues of slave owners belong in museums, not public streets. We cannot have a just and decent present as long as we refuse to face our pasts.

№ 442. A Brave and Startling Truth

Understanding Humanism

A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH
Maya Angelou

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth