Kyle Munkittrick is a product manager by trade, bioethicist by training, and writer at heart. Like Ada Palmer, he would only take a time machine forward. He is grateful he was born in one that does just that, albeit slowly. His past writing has explored the ethics of killing zombies, the importance of Mass Effect, and how Pixar prepared a generation to embrace personhood. He lives with his partner and two cats in San Francisco. Email: kmunkitt [at] gmail.com
by Kyle Munkittrick Silicon Valley has rediscovered ‘taste.’ Maybe it was Jony Ive at Stripe Sessions. Maybe it’s Substack aesthetes like Henry Oliver and David Hoang. Maybe it’s everyone trying to figure out if AI can have taste. But taste is, in every case, either ill or incorrectly defined, if at all. Let’s fix that.…
by Kyle Munkittrick You are scrolling the news, half awake sipping your coffee, when you see the announcement. A startup, not quite unknown but not familiar, has a new product unveiling video. Ok, sure, another hype reel. You scroll past. But it shows up again on your socials. Everyone seems… excited? Fine. You tap the…
by Kyle Munkittrick During covid, amid the maelstrom that was American healthcare, a miracle happened. State medical boards suspended their cross-state licensure restrictions. No special legislation required, no political capital spent. Overnight, every state declared they would recognize medical licenses from any other state. One day you needed 50 licenses to practice nationwide—an expensive, tedious,…
by Kyle Munkittrick Two types of people are very worried about global fertility — social conservatives and Silicon Valley weirdos. I have the rare privilege of having been both at one point in my life, neither at the same time, and, how apropos, I also have training in bioethics. This is my moment. Pro-natalists want…
by Kyle Munkittrick There is an anti-AI meme going around claiming that “Writing is Thinking.” Counterpoint: No, it’s not. Before you accuse me of straw-manning, I want to be clear: “Writing is thinking” is not my phrasing. It is the headline for several articles and posts and is reinforced by those who repost it. Paul…
by Kyle Munkittrick Imagine you are in room of literati types in the early 2010s. These are smart, well-read, curious people. The books on their shelves are impressive, as are their movie collections. You notice classics, hits, and obscure artistic works on display. The conversation turns to favorite fictional characters and you bring up, say,…
by Kyle Munkittrick A Song of Onyx (Storm) and AI Ted Gioia recently highlighted that when it comes to media, abundance is the name of the game. He cited Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm, a 544 page romantasy novel that is also the fastest selling book in twenty years, as an example. While Gioia sees Yarros’s…
by Kyle Munkittrick Nearly every argument against longevity is a version of, “But death is good sometimes.” Death creates finitude, thereby creating meaning and forcing change. Take Frances Fukuyama’s recent piece “Against Life Extension” in Persuasion. Fukuyama argues slower generational turnover delays social and political dynamism. He does this at 72, recapitulating an argument from…
by Kyle Munkittrick To write well with AI, you’ve got to understand Socrates. Paul Graham and Adam Grant argue that having AI write for you ruins your writing and your thinking. Now, honestly, I tend to agree, but I thought these smart people were making a couple mistakes. First, they seemed to be criticizing first…
by Kyle Munkittrick Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book, Abundance, inadvertently exposes a blind spot in our collective moral calculus. In making their case for a better politics, I think they’ve also, as an accidental by-product, solved the infamous Trolley Problem. Abundance argues that improving the supply of things like housing and energy is…
by Kyle Munkittrick We’re on the cusp of The Culture. This Iain M. Banks series has recently replaced Star Trek as the lodestar for The Future We Want. Why? Because it shows us how good the future can be with AI. Critically, both fictions also offer key lessons about the threat and promise of human…
by Kyle Munkittrick When I think about AI, I think about poor Queen Elizabeth. Imagine being her: you have access to Shakespeare — in his prime! You get to see a private showing of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the height of the players’ skill and the Bard’s craft. And then… that’s it. You’ve hit…