Are Manners Obsolete?

(I first published a version of this essay six years ago and it feels quaint. Lots has changed since then, with the coming of AI, and being polite is hardly our main concern.)

One legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic is the increased use of robots in our society. Among their advantages, they don’t need masks or social distancing and they don’t take sick days, vacations or parental leave.

They also don’t easily take offense when treated badly or need to be thanked for doing a good job. In fact they don’t require any emotional involvement whatsoever.

As robotized services including Alexa and Siri have become more embedded in our offices and households, a question that occurs to me is what long-term impact are they having on the way we communicate with each other.

It starts, as do all things, with the children. Kids quickly learn to ask Siri or Alexa to do something in a commanding voice, which then becomes anger if the robot cannot comply with their wishes quickly enough.

I wonder how a child growing up in such circumstances will treat his or her employees in the future?

When voice commands first became a thing, I found myself speaking in a respectful voice and often thanking Siri for her help. Siri never replied. The engineers who developed her apparently hadn’t bothered to work “you’re welcome” into her vocabulary.

Thus, my politeness fell on deaf ears.

And although this type of software is supposed to be intelligent, i.e., it learning from interacting with us, in my experience our robotic friends are in no way learning to be more polite.

As for humans, when we are not rewarded for being polite, we tend to become less so over time. Gradually, for example, I’ve learned to issue simple straight-out commands to my voiced units. There is no point in engaging in social niceties with an entity that doesn’t respond accordingly, is there?

But what I am conditioning myself to become?

When it comes to the people who have designed the relevant software in this case, many of them value direct, logical and blunt sentences. Social skills simply are not at a premium during an intense Agile development cycle.

As our society populates the environment with robots, maybe the ultimate effect will be that nobody will have much of a reason to be nice anymore.

This would, of course, resemble our political culture, where it seems politeness and respect for others became extinct some time ago.

Indeed, being not nice is often a virtue in modern America. And those who cheer on the misogynist, racist, homophobic demagogues at political rallies? They resemble nothing so much as robots.

The news summaries in an age like this might as well be compiled by robots as well, but in fact I’ve done the ones that follow in the old-fashioned way. They are hand-picked. Please enjoy them.

HEADLINES:

• US, Iran agree to ceasefire, sending stock futures higher and oil lower (Yahoo)

• Iran war day 109: Tehran, Washington, sign MoU electronically (Al Jazeera)

• Trump Winds Down the War He Started With Goals Unmet (NYT)

• Trump’s Iran Deal Is a Humiliation for Him—and Good News for the World (Nation)

• Authorities in southern Lebanon warned people displaced by three months of war between Israel and Hezbollah against rushing home despite ‌the US-Iran deal, as Israel said it would not withdraw troops from the south. (Reuters)

• 82nd Airborne Deployment to Israel Went Unannounced (Military.com)

• FBI foiled alleged plot to attack White House UFC event, Kash Patel says (NBC)

• Eight Crew Members Dead in B-52 Crash at Air Force Base (NYT)

• ‘An awkward family gathering’: Trump and G7 leaders convene in France amid geopolitical divergences (CNN)

• Newsom Says Trump’s Justice Department Is Investigating Him and His Wife (NYT)

• Inside the Ludicrous, Deadly Serious Plan to Take Over Greenland (New Yorker)

• Trump ties FISA renewal to his stalled voting bill (Axios)

• Inside the Trump administration’s rapid rollback of gun regulations (WP)

• Voters are turning out against toxic pesticides. Will the Senate listen? (The Hill)

• As the U.S. turns 250, this historian has blunt advice: ‘America has to grow up’ (NPR)

• Vance’s fraud task force is sweeping up legitimate small businesses (WP)

• Britain Announces Social Media Ban for Children (NYT)

• What the ‘60 Minutes’ fiasco reveals about press freedom today (The Hill)

• ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Ratings Show Huge, Dramatic Swing (Yahoo)

• MLB sends warning letter to three Giants relievers for their anti-Pride Night protest (McCovey Chronicles)

• The US Government Is Letting a Key Data Center Regulation Expire (Wired)

• How a warning from Amazon led the White House to shut down Anthropic’s Mythos model (Fortune)

• AI robots can go rogue – a researcher on how easily it happens (Conversation)

• Bots Now Outnumber Humans on the Internet. Here’s What That Actually Means (CNET)

• Why AI Is Incorrigibly Didactic (Atlantic)

• How to Run a News Company in the Age of Polarization and A.I. Slop (NYT)

• MLB Demands Return Of All Foul Balls (Onion)

 

The World at Play

Among the options for ways to learn about and experience the larger world, travel is the best choice. If you go to enough places on several continents you begin to develop an appreciation for the diversity of human choices and conditions.

If you cannot travel, you can read books, watch films and try to meet those in your community who come from different countries and backgrounds. There also are ethnic restaurants, festivals and parades.

And then there’s sports, which brings me to the World Cup.

In our house there is a hand-drawn wall chart listing every matchup for all the teams playing in this year’s World Cup competition. My grandchildren drew it and filled in their predictions for all the games before the first match had been played.

Five of them did this by debating the merits of each squad from around the world, based on their knowledge as soccer players themselves and as fans.

We’ve had the games playing on TV all weekend. At one point, I found myself sleepily watching the match between Australia and Türkiye broadcast in Spanish with my 15-year-old granddaughter, who is fluent in French.

We both understand just enough Spanish to sort of follow the commentary, which was exuberant and fast-paced.

For those uninterested in the World Cup, or in sports generally, I can understand the irritation at all the hype.

But then again, this is the whole world coming together to play games and cheer their teams on in peace, not war, which is a lot better than the alternative.

HEADLINES:

• Iran and US agree deal to end war as Israel says its forces will stay in Lebanon (BBC)

• U.S. and Iran reach deal to extend ceasefire and open strait (Axios)

• U.S.-Iran deal explained: What we know — and what remains unresolved (CNBC)

• Trump Claims Strait Will Be ‘Permanently Toll-Free’ Under Agreement With Iran (NYT)

• Trump Celebrates While America Capitulates (Atlantic)

• A deal is only the beginning of the end of the US-Iran war (Economist)

• So Much for Leaving Abortion Up to the States (Atlantic)

• The White House UFC fights are a spectacle. And a reflection of America. (WP)

• Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline (NYT)

• Congress has lost its grip on funding the government (WP)

• Russia Is Rich in Ballistic Missiles. Ukraine Is Short of Ways to Stop Them. (NYT)

• Pilot and 11 skydivers dead after Missouri plane crash, officials say (CNN)

• Trump at 80: A President ‘Really Uncomfortable’ With Aging (NYT)

• As UFOs go mainstream, the jury is out on what the existence of alien life might mean for religion (AP)

• Germany and Japan Are Rearming Again, 80 Years After World War II (NYT)

• Why American Christianity Ended Up Like This (New Yorker)

• US asks Anthropic to block global access to top AI models: Why it matters (Al Jazeera)

• The World’s Leading Deepfake Expert No Longer Trusts His Own Eyes (NYT)

• Why it’s nearly impossible to build a robot without China (Japan Times)

• For centuries, math has been a human endeavor. Does AI mean it’s over? (WP)

• The skills people still perform better than AI, according to workplace experts (AP)

• Study: Crying Not Linked To What You Said But The Way You Said It (Onion)

 

Mattering

I’m not sure that I ever fully appreciated it at the time — in fact, I’m quite sure I didn’t — but during the years that one of my chores was to drop my kids off at school or camp it actually was a privilege.

Like all adults trying to balance responsibilities, I probably complained about it on occasion, and it certainly could be stressful when we were running late.

But it was a privilege because it was one of my opportunities to play an essential role in our social ecosystem. 

Believing that your role matters is not always the easiest thing to achieve in American culture. Years later, when the kids were grown, I missed it. And I started feeling rather inessential. 

Retiring from work made everything worse, as my professional responsibilities, once deemed by many as weighty and significant, melted away just like those parental duties.

And it was that point that I started pondering how much I ever did matter in the larger scheme of things.

Early in 2020, just as the pandemic was arriving and I was recovering from a stroke, I moved into an assisted care facility. At the time it seemed like the only option left for me. 

Nothing against the staff members in there, most of whom were terrific, or the residents, but every minute I spent in that place my hope was evaporating and my spirit was being crushed.

But in the end I was one of the lucky ones who escaped. My family rescued me and that’s why I can tell this little story today.

As I woke up one recent morning, it was obvious that the heat wave had finally broken. Fresh cool air swept in from the ocean. 

As I drank my first cup of coffee, my 12-year-old granddaughter appeared. Her parents were busy and she asked if I could give her a ride.

Without hesitation, I grabbed the car keys.

HEADLINES:

• Trump says US-Iran deal to be signed on Sunday as Tehran casts doubt on timing (BBC)

• Iranian foreign minister says deal with U.S. “never been closer” (Axios)

• Israel carries out air strikes on Lebanon, state media says, as Iran claims deal with US near (BBC)

• The U.S. and Iran Might Actually Have a Deal (Atlantic)

• What’s the deal on the Iran-U.S. peace deal? (Reuters)

• Judge Blocks National Parks From Removing ‘Negative’ Signs (NYT)

• Congress has lost its grip on funding the government (WP)

• America Has a Credit Card Problem, Just Not the One You Think (WSJ)

• Ariana Grande tells White House to stop using her music (CNN)

• Americans Are Reaching a Financial Breaking Point (Nation)

• The Supreme Court Hands a Surprising Death-Penalty Defeat to Alabama (TNR)

• DNI Gabbard Reveals Evidence of U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Global Biolab Program (DNI)

• Global HIV prevention declined drastically after Trump aid cuts, U.N. finds (WP)

• Hegseth Loses His Holy War (Bulwark)

• We’re replaying the Civil War, but the turf this time is the US government (Reveal)

• An Honored Canadian Journalist on the Importance of Investigative Reporting (NYT)

• A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews (Wired)

• Anthropic cuts off Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access following government order (Verge)

• Battery breakthroughs will lessen AI’s demand on the electricity grid (WP)

• This Ford exec used Claude to build her family a ‘chief of staff’ (BI)

• Olive Garden Unveils New ‘We Invented Spaghetti’ Slogan (Onion)

Setting Aside Bias

What is expected of journalists is very much like what we ask of jurors.

When the members of a jury are selected, they are asked whether they can be fair in coming to a judgement — whether they can put aside any biases or pre-existing opinions about the people and issues involved in that trial in order to come to a dispassionate, balanced decision based not on beliefs or prejudices but on the facts as established in sworn testimony.

They are also reminded of this pledge by the judge when they receive instructions just before they begin their deliberations.

The analogy is not perfect but what we demand of jurors is similar to what we insist of journalists when we send them out to gather the facts for stories.

Editors and news directors recognize that reporters are just like anyone else in that they have their own beliefs, opinions, biases, blind spots and flaws. That’s only human.

But what a good journalist, like a good juror, has to set that all aside in favor of an all-consuming commitment to get it right.

That this is hard to do is obvious, especially when the truths we discover contradict our core beliefs, prejudices or assumptions. But, as I’ve said many times to student journalists, you can’t discover the truth as you wish it to be, you have to report the truth as you discover it to be.

The integrity of our legal system depends on jurors who can follow strict jury instructions in a search for the truth. The integrity of our press depends on journalists who can maintain a similar discipline in their search for truth.

And our democracy depends on both.

HEADLINES:

• What’s in the Iran deal Trump says he’s ready to sign (Axios)

• Qatar pursued secret talks with Iran to shield gas complex from strikes, security officials say (WP)

• Whipsawed Between Fear and Relief, Iranians Hope for War’s End (NYT)

• Judge blocks DOJ ‘anti-weaponization’ fund for longer, wants guarantee it’s dead (CNBC)

• Trump’s allies have another way to pay ‘weaponization’ victims (Reuters)

• US to cut air and naval assets deployed for NATO operations in Europe (Al Jazeera)

• SpaceX stock pops 20% in first trades after record-breaking IPO (BI)

• Elon Musk becomes the first trillionaire after SpaceX surges out of the gate (WP)

• Americans Are Already Paying Dearly for the National Debt (Atlantic)

• Steve Hilton’s Chances of Beating Becerra to Flip California: New Poll (Newsweek)

• California’s schools are emptying out. Experts say it’s only going to get worse. (SFGate)

• In Cesar Chavez’s Labor Union, Women Often Worked in Fear (NYT)

• Silicon Valley needs to get God (Economist)

• Alarm as Ebola spreads into new areas of DR Congo (Al Jazeera)

• El Niño and the Iran war may spark hunger crisis for more than 100 million (WP)

• Suspect in Fatal Shooting Is Dead After a Standoff in Texas, Officials Say (NYT)

• Scientists gave an octopus a mirror. Here’s what happened next (BBC)

• Justice Dept. Clears Way for Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger (NYT)

• Live market odds: Are we heading for the hottest year on record? (Weather Channel)

• As World Cup Begins, Mexico City Becomes a Global Stage (NYT)

• Tom Hanks bought a 1930s Royal standard typewriter at Berkeley Typewriter last week (Berkeleyside)

• What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity (NYT)

• EPA Approves Use Of Napalm As Pesticide (Onion)

Starting Out: Peace Corps

One of the most consequential moments in John F. Kennedy’s candidacy for the Presidency was a spur-of-the-moment speech he gave in the early morning hours of October 14, 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

He was worn out from campaigning and had intended to go to bed upon arriving, but then he was told that 10,000 students had been waiting patiently for him for hours, so he decided instead to go to the campus of the University of Michigan and deliver what became a life-changing speech for many in my generation.

He proposed creating a new national service for students, and the youthful crowd roared its approval. After he was elected, he made good on that proposal by forming the Peace Corps.

A few years later, I was a naive young man of 22 when I went to Afghanistan as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1969, having never been out of the country before, let alone halfway around the world.

But by then, thousands of young people just like me were answering Kennedy’s call to serve our country not by going to war but by spreading messages of peace.

We were idealistic and naive, yes, but those of us who were male were also trying to avoid the draft, which would have sent us to Vietnam to fight a war we vehemently opposed.

Like others in my generation, I was radicalized in college to the point I considered U.S. foreign policy the imperial arm of an expanding empire.

Living in Afghanistan proved to be a rude awakening about some of my assumptions. I saw up close how mean and brutal people could be to each other in a poor society, including tribal wars, murders, bribery and cruelty like in the “Lord of the Flies.”

I also saw beauty, generosity and tenderness -- the whole range of human behavior was on display every day amid widespread illiteracy and ignorance.

The poorest people on the planet would welcome me into their homes to share the one good meal they would have that entire week. Strangers went out of their way to help me when I got lost.

When I taught high school in Taloqan, many of my students spouted political beliefs shaped by the five booming radio signals that reached our remote town -- Radio Moscow, Radio Peking, and to a much lesser degree, Radio Kabul, the BBC and the Voice of America.

The brightest kids seemed attracted by socialist and communist ideas similar to the Marxist-Leninist thinking I was familiar with on campuses back home. At first I went along with their ideas about how U.S. imperialism was oppressing people in poor countries, but eventually, like any committed teacher, I began to challenge their assumptions, if only to get them to think more critically.

It was easy to see how Soviet and Chinese propaganda was distorting these young minds, and also how their views of America were affected by the worst of Hollywood. The stories they repeated about U.S. barbarism were overblown and simplistic.

U.S. troops had slaughtered innocents at My Lai, it was true, which was awful, but all armies do horrible things. Certainly no country had a monopoly on human rights abuses. Meanwhile, there were also many, many Americans like Peace Corps Volunteers who were opposed to the military and dispensing aid, food, clothes, medicine and education instead of guns and napalm.

But to be truthful, I more or less agreed with my students’ political analysis and wanted no part of the dark sides of U.S. policy, What I did wish to share were the better parts of our culture -- our beliefs in freedom, gender equality, and universal literacy.

Fewer than ten percent of the Afghans population could read or write. The infant mortality rate was the highest in the world. Women had little access to education, jobs or independent lives.

I knew my students needed a counterweight to what they were hearing on Radio Moscow, but the irony was not lost on me that here I was, an anti-war American, seemingly defending my country’s military as part of my role as a mentor.

Anyway, for Afghans in 1970, the problem wasn’t the threat of impending American intervention. The problem was that the Russians had troops massed right next door. And within a few years of my leaving Afghanistan, the Russians indeed invaded, bombing and strafing the country into submission, or so they thought at the time.

But that ended badly for the Soviets a decade later as they limped back to Moscow in retreat. Once they lost the Afghan war, the entire Soviet empire crumbled as well.

(I first published a version of this one five years ago.)

HEADLINES:

• Trump claims peace deal ‘approved’; Tehran says not so (Al Jazeera)

• Proposed Iran-U.S. deal would reopen Hormuz strait and lift oil sanctions, Iran state media says (CNBC)

• Trump Retracts Latest Threats of More Strikes (NYT)

• Iran’s Crude Production Slumped in May Under U.S. Blockade (WSJ)

• The new precision weapon: Is the West ready for cellular drones? (The Hill)

• Trump Picks New Intelligence Chief After Revolt Over Pulte (NYT)

• Why Trump keeps avoiding Senate confirmation for top government roles (CNN)

• World Bank cuts global growth outlook to 2.5%, warns of drop to 1.3% if war fallout spreads to markets (Reuters)

• Business (Economist)

• Trump has a new, surprising take on the higher cost of living: ‘I love the inflation’ (AP)

• At least five states are bowing out of Trump’s ‘Great American State Fair’ (CNN)

• Trump Officials Say ICE Won’t Raid World Cup Games, but Fans Are Worried (NYT)

• Why Trump and Putin can’t escape their mistakes (WP)

• Ukraine’s police chief has accused Russia of ‌recruiting teenage Ukrainian girls to kill Ukrainian military personnel, following the arrest of a 17-year-old suspected of murdering a serviceman on the instructions of a Russian operative. (Reuters)

• The War in Ukraine Has Now Gone On Longer Than World War I (NYT)

• El Niño Is Back. Here’s What It Could Mean for Hurricanes, Heat and Flooding (USNWR)

• All clear given at Pentagon following after ‘hazardous materials’ alert (Al Jazeera)

• Southern Baptists advance a formal ban on churches with women pastors (AP)

• Anthropic apologizes for invisible Claude Fable guardrails (Verge)

• Anthropic v. OpenAI: Behind the bitter battle for the future of AI (Reuters)

• For a Second Time, Trump Muses About Americans Sharing in A.I. Wealth (NYT)

• Taylor Swift Urges Travis Kelce To Whittle Down Trampolines On Registry To One (Onion)