His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, may have just dropped the most significant Encyclical of all time. In offering his strategy for safeguarding the human in the age of AI, Leo goes so far as to quote the great Catholic author, and Beowolf scholar, J.R.R Tolkien, that lover of all languages near and far, new and old, fact and faery. In particular, he quotes Tolkien's main character, Gandolf, who famously says: `It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.' 

Beautiful words that resonate with the wisdom of the Encyclical itself. But perhaps the hidden message here is that too many have for too long viewed history, and acted accordingly, in light of the wrong story. Who are the Saurons of our day, and who are their minions; and how should we come together, if only to head out on separate paths in smaller bands, to stop them?

But before there was the Pope Leo's Encyclical, yet still in the Age of Claude, I wrote Last Words, which constitutes a much deeper dive (and a much shorter read) into the nature of artificial intelligence, the logic of evil incorporate, and the singularity of human agency---and hence actual intelligence---on collective scales. As light and nutritious as lembas, hobbits, critical theorists, and adventurists of all sorts, will hopefully find it sustaining on the journey ahead.

Moreover, and in the full (and holy) spirit of 'safeguarding the human', my essay was written by "Paul Kockelman," and edited by the good folks at Prickly Paradigm Press, whereas parts of Pope Leo's essay may have been written, translated and edited by Claude AI.