This week’s top 5 long reads

In this week’s issue:

• How Israel will use AI for assassinations in the Gaza war.
• A father looks back on his son’s growth.
• The rise of the term “gaslighting.”
• Toni Morrison’s widespread rejection letter.
• History of PostSecret.

Yuval Abraham | Local call to +972 | April 3, 2024 | 8,066 words

The biggest news coming out of Gaza this week was the death of seven aid workers from the nonprofit World Central Kitchen. This incident was nothing but perversion. As part of its strategy to demoralize and destroy all or part* of the Palestinian population, Israel targeted and killed those who were trying to manage the impending famine it had orchestrated itself. (*Yes, this is a reference to the international community’s codified definition of genocide.) Immediately after the attack on WCK, the word perversion came to mind again. +972 and local call A major study has been released revealing the extent to which Israel relies on artificial intelligence to select targets for assassinations in the Gaza Strip.exclude select and assassination AI systems pretend to be accurate when in reality they are not. The main program, called Lavender, “captured as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants” in the early weeks of the siege, and “the military encouraged officers to adopt the Lavender kill list.” We gave them full approval, but we didn’t have to look thoroughly at why.” Machines make those choices and look at the raw intelligence data that underpins them. ” Israel also tracked targets and invaded their homes, after that Drop the bomb regardless of the risk of collateral damage. That is, even if it means risking killing anyone else who happens to be in the house, including children. As technology journalist Sam Biddle wisely put it on social media, this important study is one of the best ever published in the post-war era, stating that “the value of military ‘AI’ systems is …It’s not about the decision-making, it’s about the decision-making.” The ability to use the brilliance of computerized “intelligence” to justify actions that were already desired. ” —SD

Paul Tough | New York Times Magazine | March 17, 2024 | 4,987 words

Attracted by the headline, I dove into Paul Tough’s essay out of curiosity, but I didn’t know what to expect. He writes about his son learning to speak Russian, but the larger journey he shares, as a parent, is full of worry, surprise, and emotion, and it surprised me. . By the end, I was in tears. He recalls his son as a young child, how he was completely absorbed in his interests, from toys to games to entertainment. He is to know the unknown world and master all its contours. ” He was shy, and as he grew older, these pursuits made him more solitary than his outgoing personality. But Max first came out of his shell during the pandemic and took up bird watching as his hobby. To Tuff’s surprise, Max interacts with the adult birdwatchers around him and joins in the conversation. When Max turns 12 years old, he decides to learn Russian. This was, at first glance, a fortuitous choice, but after he entered the Russian language school he became more confident and comfortable. When Max and his son go on a trip to Uzbekistan so Max can immerse himself in the language, Tuff watches as Max navigates his new surroundings with ease. He says this beautifully, and it’s such a joy to witness parents learning to sit still as their grown children get behind the wheel and engage with the world on their own. , it felt like a glimpse into my future and his future. I was slowing down and he was speeding up. ” I am in the early stages of my journey into motherhood, with a five-year-old daughter who is beginning to blossom and discover her own interests, albeit challenging and uncertain. Who will she become? This piece doesn’t have those answers, but Tuff’s perspective is comforting and exactly what I needed to read this week. —CLR

Leslie Jamison | The New Yorker | April 1, 2023 | 6,157 words

In recent years, the term “gaslighting” has become commonplace in everyday conversation. (Leslie Jamison says he saw a 1,740% increase in people searching for this term in 2022.) Language is constantly changing and evolving, but we’re especially eager to adopt this phrase. did. Why do the words of someone who makes us question our reality resonate so heavily? Jamison’s exploration of our love for this diagnosis takes us from the first use of the word to current case studies and It goes as deep as questioning whether she herself is a gaslighter. (She is, to some degree; most of us are.) As Jamison points out, gaslighting is a spectrum that “occurs on a spectrum from the highly toxic to the undeniably mundane.” . I read this work to read about the development of language, but Jamison’s perspective on the human mind fascinated me. A fusion of linguistics and psychoanalysis? Please join me too. —C.W.

Melina Mo | los angeles book reviews | March 26, 2024 | 2,493 words

For many young readers, the fact that Toni Morrison served as a book editor before (and during) her legendary career as a novelist is one of the great “I learned today” moments in literature. is. This fascinating article by Melina Mo delves into Mr. Morrison’s pioneering status and illustrious roster, highlighting an important but underconsidered aspect of the editor’s life: rejection. It’s never easy or fun to disappoint a writer, but it’s what editors have to do. a lot. And what Moe discovered in Morrison’s correspondence – what she calls an “asymmetrical archive” housed in the Columbia Rare Book and Manuscript Library – shows how talented Morrison was at his unfortunate art. It reveals how blessed I am. Any writer or editor will appreciate her warmth and empathy, her grasp of her craft, and her willingness to help writers gain a foothold even if they don’t accept their manuscript. But Mr. Morrison also gave submitting writers valuable insight into the industry itself. “In many cases, she cited the poor management of the publishing industry, her growing dissatisfaction with her unimaginative tastes, her industry’s aversion to taking risks, and her own sense of creative constraints working at a commercial print shop. , often compensate for rejection,” Moe writes. Editing is often imagined to be a single art. Your talent lies in honing the work given to you to its best and brightest. That can be both gratifying and frustrating, but it’s just one of many factors. Mo’s portrait exists as a rare record that fully explains all of the editing. There are no notes. —PR

Meg Bernhard Hazlitt | April 3, 2024 | 5,908 words

Meet Frank Warren, creator and curator of PostSecret.com, a site that displays anonymous posters’ most personal thoughts in postcard format. As Meg Bernhardt reports, hazlitt, this project was born out of deep pain. Shortly after his college graduation, Warren began volunteering at a suicide prevention hotline after a close friend of his took his own life. There he learned how to listen carefully when callers spoke of their despair. “Frank realized that people needed a way to talk about touchy topics that are often off-limits in everyday conversation,” Bernhardt writes. PostSecret will be an in-person art exhibition and a website dedicated to the cultural taboos that silence us, and a way for us to release what we cannot say in public or in our intimate relationships. I did. Bernhardt’s work is part profile, part fun and geeky deep dive into what secrets mean and why we keep them. “What is the secret?” she asks. “Knowledge hidden from others and etymologically linked.” temptation and excrement. To tempt someone to take a closer look. To make them look away. ” By revealing some of her own secrets, she invites us, her readers, to take a closer look, at the risk of turning her away. Since starting the project in 2004, when she distributed 3,000 return postcards at subway stations in Washington, D.C., Warren has collected and published over a million of her fears, desires, and outlandish concepts. We have carefully selected. Over time, he expanded the project into a book and public events, allowing participants to share their secrets with an audience, breaking the all-important fourth wall of the project’s anonymity. PostSecret was born out of a life tragically lost due to mental turmoil. It’s a lifeline for those who crave judgment-free emotional release. —K.S.

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