Peter Biles

Writer and Editor, Center for Science & Culture

Peter Biles graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Hillbilly Hymn and Keep and Other Stories and has also written stories and essays for a variety of publications. He was born and raised in Ada, Oklahoma and is the Writer and Editor for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture.

Archives

The Crisis of Identity That Tech Doesn’t Help

Consumerism works well but leaves us empty
Peter Biles
April 15, 2024
Writer and cultural commentator Aaron Renn wrote recently about the dissolution of identity in the United States, contending that if we don’t know who we are, we will never know what to do. Renn writes frequently on issues facing young men in America and the challenges of living well in the secular world. He writes, The reality is that a lot of people in top positions of our society act as if they want you living like Simba. They want porn available for you to watch. They want you betting on the big game on your phone. They want you focused on “experiences” and consumption, like hitting the latest hot travel destination or going to the new farm-to-table restaurant that just opened. They want you to define yourself as an atomized individual without much of an identity …

Green Goblin, the Hasty Transhumanist

A classic Marvel villain presents a picture of hurried science gone wrong
Peter Biles
April 12, 2024
“The product is certified ready for human testing.” I’m not quoting Elon Musk in relation to Neuralink. That’s the line from the fictional Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and the green maniac himself, Willem Dafoe. I’ve seen this movie dozens of times, so maybe it’s due to the weird fact that twenty-plus years after this film hit the scene, we now live in a world where big science organizations like Osborn’s Oscorp seem to be dealing with similar conflicts that ultimately produced the iconic Green Goblin. Not that Elon Musk or Sam Altman are going to start flying around on saucers and terrorize New York City. But they are eager to rush new technologies down the pipeline. Are …

David Foster Wallace: If Screens Are Your Main Media Diet, You’re Going to Die

The novelist warned about the pitfalls of the online life
Peter Biles
April 8, 2024
“If we ate like this all the time, what would be wrong with that?” So asks David Foster Wallace, compellingly played by Jason Segel, in the 2015 film The End of the Tour. Wallace is in the car with a Rolling Stone reporter, David Lipsky, cramming down sweets from a gas station when he says that. After Lipsky quips back about obesity, Wallace says, “It has none of the substance of real food, but it’s real pleasurable.” The End of the Tour is set in 1996 shortly after Wallace’s gargantuan novel Infinite Jest hit the literary scene and impressed the nation with its length, wit, tragedy, and insight. A massive book about loneliness, Infinite Jest takes place in a semi-futuristic America where technology and entertainment have merged so fearfully …

I Don’t Need an AI Refrigerator, but Thanks

We need to clarify what AI is good for and what it would only complicate
Peter Biles
April 4, 2024
The AI hype seems to know no bounds. Is there any sphere of life the optimists will leave untouched? AI techies are coming for home appliances now, too, because it isn’t enough that our refrigerators store our food for us; we need them to refashioned top-down into AI bots that can spin out recipes for us. The main problem with this domestic infestation of AI is the simultaneous invasion of privacy, as noted in a recent Futurism article. Also, it’s just a hassle to keep up with. There’s no doubt there are certain things AI simplifies, like facial recognition on apps and generating an email via ChatGPT, but when I’m in the mood for a frozen burrito, there’s really only so much that computer mediation can do for me. These appliances were designed for a …

Why Dune Might Be the Saddest Film I’ve Ever Seen

Are we saved through the love of power or the power of love?
Peter Biles
April 3, 2024
If you’ve seen Dune Part 2 already, read on, but this commentary will include some spoilers, so beware for those who have yet to witness Denis Villeneuve’s visually stunning adaptation of the 1965 classic by Frank Herbert. I read Dune a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it, but J.R.R. Tolkien’s rumored distaste for the book soured some of my reception. Seeing the new films, though, illustrates why this story is so deeply tragic. Herbert drew much of his world and mythology from religion, and Dune is rich in religious allusion. Young Paul Atreides is the “Messiah” figure, and he “resurrects” after drinking the poison of the sandworm (a.k.a., the “Water of Life). There are fanatics in southern Arrakis ready to die for the prophesied …

Who Needs Teaching Assistants? Bring In the Bots, Please

In defense of a human-led humanities
Peter Biles
March 29, 2024
According to Philosophy Nous, the Dean at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences suggested that a group of teaching assistants going on strike be replaced conveniently by artificial intelligence. It would be a much cheaper option while the TAs demand higher pay and benefits, and would, apparently, accomplish the same desired ends. The dean, Stan Sclaroff, is a computer scientist. Another article from the same publication makes a list of reasons why philosophers are declining across the country, and why philosophy and humanities departments are getting cut. Justin Weinberg writes, Skills taught at universities may increasingly thought of as unnecessary to learn because we can automate them. Search engines are ways of automating research, and now we have large …

The Lord of the Flies and the Problem AI Can’t Solve

The problem of evil is spiritual and can't be solved by more technology
Peter Biles
March 27, 2024
Somehow, I evaded The Lord of the Flies, the young adult dystopian novel by William Golding, while in high school, which is when many Americans encounter it. The ominous aura surrounding this little book always made me hesitant to pick it up. That’s now changed. The book arrested me this past week and had me almost panting by the end of it; this gorgeously written book about a group of schoolboys who crash on an island on the cusp of the third world war is as shimmering in detail as it is horrifying in its theme. The overly optimistic, including those who believe new technologies like artificial intelligence will drastically improve (and possibly even perfect) the human being and the human experience, might be vexed by The Lord of the Flies. The island these boys chance upon is …

Thinking of the “Bigger Picture”

New study on how transcendent thinking enhances and improves the brain in adolescents
Peter Biles
March 22, 2024
Going beyond worksheets and standardized tests to grapple with "the bigger picture" looks to be the sort of education we all need the most.

U.S. Drops in Happiness Poll

A year ago the U.S. was 15th in the world. Now it's 23rd. What happened?
Peter Biles
March 20, 2024
Increases in loneliness tell part of the story, also overall decline in social cohesion and for Gen Z, meteoric increases in internet and social media use.

Former Googlers Weren’t Shocked by Gemini

The new bot simply reflects the tech giant's ideological commitments.
Peter Biles
March 19, 2024
For them, Gemini is in keeping with Google's corporate culture and represents the tech giant's prioritization of ideology over excellence.

Anna Karenina and How to Read Long Books

"One chapter at a time" is actually how books like Tolstoy's were intended to be read.
Peter Biles
March 16, 2024
We shouldn’t think we have to climb the mountain before hiking the foothills. Baby steps is the name of the game.

Too Much Focus on Mental Health?

Is our fixation on wellbeing making us miserable?
Peter Biles
March 14, 2024
“We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health.” So tweeted former presidential nominee Nikki Haley back in January. Most people knew what she meant, which was that we have to take mental health seriously and do our best to foster positive mental health. From the way she phrased it, though, you’re tempted to think that “mental health” itself is, well, what she said it is: a “cancer.” The emphasis on mental health and therapy is widespread. In many ways, it is good and proper to encourage people to be more open about their mental struggles and to get help for what they’re going through. The amount of trauma, abuse, and other mental disorders that people hide is much greater than we might expect. There should be no shame for …

Escaping the Dopamine Cartel

We can't even be bothered with "entertainment" anymore.
Peter Biles
March 13, 2024
Ted Gioia investigates the impact of the "dopamine culture," our modern tendency to flit among tabs and scroll endlessly through fifteen-second-long video clips.

Jean Twenge: Gen Z Isn’t Reading

Zoomers were born into smartphones, not Shakespeare
Peter Biles
March 7, 2024
As we are being hypnotized by fifteen-second soundbites, crafting the ability to attend to longer works of art will only become a rarer, but more valuable, skillset.

A Canticle for Leibowitz, a Canticle of Speculative Warning

A 1959 novel's speculation of nuclear fallout is yet a story of hope.
Peter Biles
February 21, 2024
This past year seems to have been the year of the atomic bomb, at least in what I’ve read and watched. I started 2023 by reading The Passenger and Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, a pair of novels that consistently alludes to Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer arrived a few months later in July, sobering audiences worldwide and reinvigorating public interest in the godlike power these brilliant scientists had unleashed on the world. Most recently, I read the 1959 dystopian novel by Walter Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz, a speculative tale about nuclear holocaust and the perennial human tendency for self-destruction. What a cheery year it’s been! Maybe I’ll switch things up and read Anne of Green Gables as a heart warmer. …