Hello, hello - It's beautiful here in Indianapolis, and I am unfortunately homebound with COVID. For the first time! Feeling much better the last few days, but living in quarantine for a touch longer. I've been meaning to "hit the list" with an update, anyway, so figured I'd make the most of my captivity 🙂. No galaxy-brain essay from m...

Studying for the Turing Test The Turing Test, conceptualized by renowned computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950, is a method proposed to evaluate a computer’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior. The test involves three parties: a "judge" human, a "control" human, and a computer. The judge sits in front of two doors. Behind one doo...

Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation, or E-READ, is an interdisciplinary research network chartered with a goal "to improve scientific understanding of the implications of digitization." In 2019, E-READ published The Stavanger Declaration Concerning the Future of Reading, summarizing the research and findings of "almost 200 ...

I was invited to give a talk on Luke 2 this past weekend for the local People of Praise branch's Christmas celebration. I was one of four speakers. I grew up in the People of Praise, but I am not a member anymore; I thought it was nice of them to ask someone "outside" the community to give one of the talks. My cousin Andrew led the mus...

Hi all, Another few months of radio silence from me - both on this email newsletter and on my micro.blog. In a way, my ability to step away from my own internet presence for months at a time is a testament to these platforms fulfilling their original purpose, namely, creating a less demanding (and non-addicting) space for me to share m...

Hi all, It's been quiet on this feed for a few months - we've been busy! Since the beginning of the year, my sister Theresa and her husband Alec moved across the street from Liz and I, Liz started (and has now almost finished) her second semester of her Masters in English program and IUPUI, and I was promoted to a "supervisor" role in ...

bell hooks died last week. bell hooks played an extremely important role in my life in the years immediately after college, teaching me how to navigate the world as a loving, adult man. She was also fundamental in helping Liz and I establish a shared conception of love and commitment. When I told Liz about b.h.’s passing, Liz said “she...

After a year without Twitter, I found myself mostly happy with the decision. The level of ephemeral brain noise in my life had plummeted: No more passing outrage I was never going to act on, no more confusing news updates to misconstrue, no more worrying about how to behave or what to say on a public forum. But I did find myself missin...

When I graduated from college, I hitchhiked several thousand miles, in wide loops around the Midwest, then out to Utah, then back. I then spent 12 months living in Kansas City at Jerusalem Farm. After a stint on my parents couch, I moved to Chicago, where I spent 14 months. Then I moved here, to Indianapolis, with Liz, where we've been...

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 6 months “getting into Star Wars”, which mostly consisted of watching the 7-season animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. For casual viewers who wish to dive from the movies into the greater extended Star Wars universe, the Clone Wars animated series is the most accessible jumping-off point. A...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 12/19/2020. I’ve never been able to keep a journal. Like, I literally cannot keep them in my physical possession. I lost my last journal in a cab in New York City. The journal before that I set on the roof of my car, forgot about it, and it blew off when I drove away. ...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 10/12/2020. I’ve written several different essays this year about removing social media from my life. Recently, I was catching up with a friend (hi, Michael!) who said “Isn’t funny how much energy we put into not doing things?” And life does seem that way, sometimes. B...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 09/27/2020. I just finished listening to Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier on audiobook. I first heard of Jaron Lanier when I clicked on a profile of him in GQ titled The Conscience of Silicon Valley, and was compelled to r...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 6/20/2020. Did you know that Liz and I were - for a while - planning on moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico? Maybe you didn’t; in retrospect we did a poor job of telling folks that we were leaving Indianapolis to make the trip out West. Liz is a writer, and on and off ov...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 04/26/2020. I loved growing up in a deeply Christian evangelism-focused culture. Religious evangelism often gets a bad rap – as many evangelists are extraordinarily terrible at doing their job – but at the center of the evangelical’s calling is the desire to grow in de...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 02/26/2020. I recently listened to this episode of the Sam Harris podcast, which features Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris (no relation), who makes a really great point about Big Tech and the reasons people have for disliking it. “Data Collection”...

This essay was originally published on the “old” thombehrens.com on 02/10/2020. For about half a year, my partner Liz and I have slept with our phones left charging in another room, instead of by our bedside tables. We started this habit in order to give our minds time to “wind down” and make it easier to fall asleep, and as such we do...