Parts of Speaking Publishing

For some reason, today, July 31, 2025, my status as a retiree became very real. First, usually this is the last day of any time off I have until, really, Christmas. School contracts start tomorrow. But not for me. I have no syllabi to write, no lectures to compose, no meetings to attend, no meetings to chair, no nothing related to my former place of employment (except still trying to work out my Medicare issues).  I have no burdens upon me except ministering to family, teaching a Bible class, keeping my home and yard in order, following Christ, living healthy, and maintaining relationships. Yes, I should be writing, but I do not have to. Retirement does make you aware that you are no longer important, and that you are not as strong as you once were. I have caught, somewhere--either from a trip to Maryland or from my granddaughter or from some public place--a nasty cold. I am wondering if it is COVID, really. Nausea, pain, chills, congestion, and a splitting headache. Mostly overwhe...

 

 This is a script of a podcast I am working on about  AI – What it is and what are we to do about it. I will probably add to it from time to time. Some of the listeners to this podcast know Jerry Drye, associate professor of communication at Dalton State. He has been on this podcast three times and some of you may know his office used to be right next to mine. Actually, his office is in the same place; I am the one no longer there. Ah, retirement. We were trying to hire a new faculty member for the department and he called a reference at his former institution whom he actually knew well. This gentleman told him how he had published 20 books in the past year. How? He used AI. Or I should say, he more than used it, he just prompted the AI generative software to write a book of a certain length along certain lines on certain subjects, and voila he had a book to publish on Amazon and make money form. Well, you know what I think about that. Yet, I know this person is one of m...

  What a stunning description of grief. 

 I've been a poor excuse for a blogger lately. Some catch up: Wonderful essay on grieving:  https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-faith/the-grace-of-grief/ Please be aware of my podcast: It's too good to have the few number of listens it has. It's not good because of me, but because of who I get for guests.  They astound me.  You can get it on Apple and Spotify or at https://rss.com/podcasts/dialogues-with-creators/  Dialogues with Creators. Also on YouTube but it may be hard to find unless you add the guest, and it's just audio anyway.  I am doing a LOT of study of AI, especially generative. I am not a Luddite, but I am staying as far away from this phenomenon as I can.  No thank you to the Google AI Overview! Will AI kill us by making itself too smart, or by making ourselves too stupid?  That seems to be the question!  Until AI has a physical body, it's going to be limited--but there is always robotics.  Maybe we should get ...

I'm reading a lot about this now (I have time in retirement). I want to distinguish between generative AI and AI that might be used for medical purposes, although I am not sure I trust that so much, knowing the flaws of generative AI and not knowing the technical and technological differences.   I am working on at least one podcast about it. A friend is going to help with some positives. I see very few, except for brainstorming and possible time saving (only if you just accept what it puts out without any proofreading, editing, or critical thinking). A couple of thoughts: From this morning's Dispatch (the Jonah Goldberg/Steve Hayes project, which has done very well in my opinion.)  As students increasingly outsource writing to artificial intelligence, the consequences may extend well beyond academic integrity. Writing for  Engelsberg Ideas , Aaron MacLean argued that AI poses an urgent and profound  danger to human reasoning . “An old professor of mine, in my fr...

  “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . . This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither ...

 In my Bible study books, which I am in the process of revising and re-issuing, I make it a point to say that I do not use the transliterated or anglicized version of the Tetragrammaton. This article explains why: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/god-who-must-not-be-named-biblical-history-jewish-practice/