When political leaders fail to demonstrate virtue, ordinary citizens must step up. This analysis explores how America’s addiction to junk media—from talk radio to cable news to social media—has created cognitive decline paralleling AI “brain rot,” eroding our capacity for democratic deliberation.

Humanity’s record of wars, genocide, and destruction presents a paradox: how can AI align with human values when humans can’t align with their own? A conversation with a prominent foundation LLM explores this question, plus a troubleshooting session that might reveal AI misalignment—or just bugs.

A creative experiment in AI-assisted screenplay development explores human vice through absurdist post-apocalyptic fiction. Twenty years after ASI takeover, Chinese researchers document fragmented America’s competing societies—from ethnostates to Manhattan’s prison-turned-art-colony.