Asterisk Magazine

Ada Palmer is a science fiction writer and historian. She teaches early modern European history at the University of Chicago, and her Terra Ignota quartet, beginning with Too Like the Lightning, imagines the world of the 25th century. Ken Liu is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer, the author of the Dandelion Dynasty series and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, and most recently the author of All That We See or Seem, the first novel in his new series.

Before I was interested in pastors’ wives, I was interested in pastors. Specifically, I got nerd-sniped by church planting, the evangelical domestic missionary system that furthers its members most sacred quest (introducing more people to Jesus) while honoring their need for independence.

I opened my interviews for this article with a simple question: “How long do we have?” Five years, or five to 10, or five to 20. One person said eight, then corrected herself to six; one said eight and stuck to it. In this, they aren't that far off from many estimates made by experts. The bluntly titled If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies has hit bestseller lists by warning of the imminent risks of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

A few years into my Foreign Service career, a colleague leaked a falsehood to the press. I couldn’t figure out why they’d done it. A more experienced colleague explained the situation to me: The leaker was trying to break into partisan Washington. Their false claim supported a narrative favored by certain political leaders — and saying what powerful people want to hear opens doors. That colleague was competing to enter offices on the Hill, a world with entirely different rules.

The received wisdom among a certain class of Bay Area/rationalist/AI-pilled thinkers is that universities are a hopelessly broken epistemic technology, especially now that AI is widespread. Some academics believe that they might just as well be replaced by recorded lectures or that the university’s only value comes from networking or costly social signalling. This essay does not speculate about blue-sky AI-powered epistemic institutions — you can use your imagination.

If you're literate — a safe assumption, since you're reading this magazine — you have almost certainly come across the claim that AI will take your job. We won't go so far as to say that the automation of work is the story of 2026, but it's been one of the hardest to avoid. Every other week, it seems, there's a new white paper, lab CEO, or viral essay declaring the end of white collar work, or, if we're feeling optimistic, maybe just software engineering.

Nearly three decades ago, Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, a leading authority on the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Africa, posed a question that has lost none of its sting today: “Where are the drugs? The drugs are where the disease is not. And where is the disease? The disease is where the drugs are not.” No matter how effective, a medicine cannot reach patients until it is authorized by their country’s medicines regulator.

A schism has emerged among members of the commentariat: Some pronounce Gen Z the biggest bunch of degenerate risk-takers in history (tales of the apathetic youth with nothing to lose abound), while others, thick with worry, proclaim Gen Z to be wholly risk-averse (shut-ins all, unwilling to talk on the phone, ask people out, or drink even a sip of alcohol).

The sibling inventors had, they claimed, built a machine that experts had considered impossible. It could do the work of dozens of men, at a fraction of the cost. It would not be defeated by knotty situations that had foiled previous machines. It would remake society, this machine, and its inventors were intent on protecting ordinary people from their creation.

One of the more interesting stories about Benjamin Franklin, told in his Autobiography, is his attempt to cultivate in himself 13 virtues. These were: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.