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Artificial Intelligence
Christian Mind

“Why not ‘read’ more books by leaning on AI’s synthesizing prowess, gaining knowledge more efficiently? Because it’s a bad trade. It’s like swapping a feast for fast food.” - TGC

Discussion

Tue, 07/29/25

Some good thoughts in the article. Reading is good for the mind. But there’s a false choice running through a lot of it.

Nobody can read all the books. Nobody can even read all the ‘best’ books. So if you read AI summaries instead of reading you could or would do, that’s one thing. If you read AI summaries of books you never would have read anyway, that’s a different thing.

But there’s also the issue of whether the summary is accurate. Have more than one AI summarize it for you. The differences can be really interesting, and you may find that soon you’re studying/researching questions you never would have thought about otherwise—because you never would have even picked up the book.

I recently got curious about Nietzsche and learned quite a bit. I was never going to actually “read Nietzsche.” It wasn’t even on my bucket list.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Tue, 07/29/25

The discussion over AI here reminds me of the debates over using "Cliff's Notes" booklets instead of reading assigned books in college, as really AI simply automates the process of creating, in effect, a "Cliff's Note". The algorithms are basically the same; write down what established authorities, as perceived by the editor, have to say in truncated form.

Now agreed; you can't actually read every great books--even going through Adler's Great Books series is a huge burden. Granted. But there is something big to be gained by actually reading a portion of them, as there is a big difference between the life experience of someone who's actually read, say, Pride and Prejudice, and the person who takes an hour or two to read the Cliff's Notes. Good literature teaches us a lot about our human experience.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Tue, 07/29/25

A summary doesn’t usually quote much, though it might. I think in the case of older books, you can probably also ask the AI for several lengthy excerpts that show the author’s thought and style, etc. I haven’t tried that yet. For newer books, there would of course be copyright issues.

I would add, though, that a lot of books are not worth reading but are still worth knowing about. So that’s a distinct category from ‘worthy books I don’t have time to read.’

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Wed, 07/30/25

I’m still waiting for Augustine’s ‘Confessions, the Movie’

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.