A Premonition from the Rubiayat
The idea that the whole world is being “shattered to bits” and remade “better” may seem fairly close at hand these days. But if the means of actually engineering such a feat is very...
Don’t trust a teacher who…
A few weeks ago, I set out to learn something about volvelles, a legacy of the medieval period consisting of moveable paper or card circles that rotate to expose or conceal specific information. It...
Chatbot as Model
I don’t find it easy to think of a chatbot as a model. I’m sure it’s worth the effort, though, if for no other reason than to face up to that very resistance. They...
Medieval app
I have a new enthusiasm for volvelles (and yet another suspicion that I would have made a happy medievalist). A volvelle is a paper thing made of moveable layers, or more exactly, several circular...
Writers Against AI
With apologies to those writers among us who have been familiar with the label and the conviction for a long time now, I’m new. The immediate source of both words and image is an...
Review of Sirât (film 2025)
The film’s name, Sirāt, refers to the bridge Muslim souls must cross to get to paradise — “thin as a hair, sharp as a knife.” Like the scene of The Last Judgement in a...