diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-32-october-2025/index.md b/content/journal/dispatch-32-october-2025/index.md index 06d01d6..2d8bf45 100644 --- a/content/journal/dispatch-32-october-2025/index.md +++ b/content/journal/dispatch-32-october-2025/index.md @@ -29,10 +29,6 @@ references: url: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/04/jose-naranja-travel-notebooks/ date: 2025-10-04T17:58:06Z file: www-thisiscolossal-com-bknqfp.txt -- title: "An E-bike For The Mind - by Josh Brake" - url: https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind - date: 2025-10-04T17:58:17Z - file: joshbrake-substack-com-jwoo1m.txt --- Claire took the kids away for a weekend with her sister and some childhood friends, all of whom have boys roughly Nico's age. I find myself home alone for the first time in ... I don't know how long, before Nev was born almost four years ago. Strange feeling -- so quiet. Not bad, just so different from my normal life. I can't believe I used to live like this. @@ -162,13 +158,8 @@ I've a lot of things I _think_ I want to do, but then don't. Maybe I need to adm > From postage stamps to jetliner specifications to items he packed for the journey, José Naranja’s sketchbooks capture minute details of numerous international trips. “I’m lost in the intricate details, as always,” he tells Colossal. Everything from currency to noodle varieties to film references make their way into small books brimming with travel ephemera and observations. -* [An E-bike For The Mind - by Josh Brake][26] - - > At the end of the day, we must remember that innovation is a bargain. We often consider what technology promises to enable for us, without considering what it will almost certainly disable. Most of the time, we fail to stop and consider the tradeoffs. Perhaps e-bikes may give us a metaphor to frame our thinking. - [21]: https://usesthis.com/interviews/roly.allen/ [22]: https://johan.hal.se/wrote/2025/09/26/david-please-stop-posting/ [23]: https://www.noemamag.com/the-last-days-of-social-media/ [24]: https://bogdanthegeek.github.io/blog/projects/vapeserver/ [25]: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/04/jose-naranja-travel-notebooks/ -[26]: https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind diff --git a/static/archive/joshbrake-substack-com-jwoo1m.txt b/static/archive/joshbrake-substack-com-jwoo1m.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 98a73d5..0000000 --- a/static/archive/joshbrake-substack-com-jwoo1m.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,417 +0,0 @@ -[1] -The Absent-Minded Professor - -[2]The Absent-Minded Professor - -SubscribeSign in - -An E-bike For The Mind - -E-bikes and what they can teach us about AI - -[7] -Josh Brake's avatar -[8]Josh Brake -Jun 10, 2025 -32 -[9] -6 -5 -[10] -Share - -Thank you for being here. As always, these essays are free and publicly -available without a paywall. If my writing is valuable to you, please share it -with a friend or support me with a paid subscription. - -[21][ ] -Subscribe -━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ -[23] -[https] -A photo of my new ride, the OG [24]Aventon Abound. Not quite the same capacity -as the new minivan, but close. Fitting four kiddos is easy. Probably could -squeeze three on the back bench to make five in a pinch. - -I've always had a philosophical objection to e-bikes. It probably started a few -years ago when I was out of the saddle, cranking my way up the hills west of -the Rose Bowl to reach the top of the hill and a glorious overlook of the San -Gabriel Mountains when I got passed by some older ladies calmly powering their -way up past me, hardly breaking a sweat. On further reflection, maybe it's not -just a philosophical objection. - -And yet, as you’ve seen in the picture above, I am now the proud owner of—you -guessed it—a beautiful, used-but-new-to-me, cargo e-bike. - -[25] -[https] -The trusty, now semi-retired, kid trailer hauler with a photo of the San -Gabriel Mountains in the background on a fine morning from 2017. - -As I've been pedaling around town over the past few days, I've been reexamining -my beef with e-bikes. And as I've wrestled with it, I've come to a few -conclusions that I think are relevant not just to e-bikes but—wait for it, I'm -sure you didn't see this one coming either—our use of artificial intelligence -too. - -Steve Jobs famously imagined the computer as [26]a bicycle for the mind. If the -computer is a bicycle, perhaps AI is an e-bike. - -Narcissus as Narcosis - -In an early chapter of his magnum opus, [28]Understanding Media (with the -blog-post worthy title "The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis"), Marshall -McLuhan makes the case that technological augmentation is simultaneously -amputation. He writes: - - Any invention or technology is an extension or self-amputation of our - physical bodies, and such extension also demands new ratios or new - equilibriums among the other organs and extensions of the body. - -He goes on to quote the 113th Psalm to argue that by using technologies, we are -both formed by them and conformed to them. - - Their idols are silver and gold, - The work of men’s hands. - They have mouths, but they speak not; - Eyes they have, but they see not; - They have ears, but they hear not; - Noses have they, but they smell not; - They have hands, but they handle not; - Feet have they, but they walk not; - Neither speak they through their throat. - They that make them shall be like unto them; - Yea, every one that trusteth in them. - -"They that make them shall be like unto them." Indeed. - -This is the question we had better be asking much more regularly, publicly, and -with each other: to what image is our technology conforming us? In recent -years, there has been much conversation about the conforming power of -algorithmically-powered social media and internet-connected devices that are -practically attached to our hands. In so many ways, we accepted them into our -lives with a false promise of augmentation without amputation. Only in -retrospect are we noticing what’s been cut off. - -In the midst of it all, there is hope. We can work to reclaim those things we -have lost. Perhaps amputation is the wrong metaphor, and it is more a -desensitization from infrequent attention and use. But if we thought that the -societal impact of smartphones and social media was significant, just wait till -we see the downstream amputations on offer with the promises of artificial -intelligence. - -As we consider the potential augmentations of AI, we need to hold them in -tension with the concurrent amputations. E-bikes and their tradeoffs can offer -us some wisdom. - -Today, I’d like to riff on three e-bike-inspired perspectives I’m using to -think about my technology use. - - 1. What: What is being augmented and amputated? - - 2. How: How does the augmentation interact with our effort? - - 3. Why: What are the values and stories motivating our choices? - -1. What: Augmentation and Amputation - -The question is not a question of whether a technology has enabling and -disabling effects, but rather a question of what they are. Many times, this has -to do with your perspective. - -In the case of the e-bike, the most obvious augmentation is the ease of travel -compared to a standard bicycle. With the addition of a motor, the bike can -propel itself with an energy source that supplements (or completely replaces) -that of its human rider. If you look at the advertisements for any technology, -the augmentations are clear. E-bikes are no different. What’s front and center? -Range, speed, and power. - -But how to judge the choice depends on the alternative. If I were to trade my -road bike for an e-bike, that would indicate a certain set of values and -choices. However, in my case, I sold a car and got a cargo e-bike. - -The cargo bike will enable me to get around town and accomplish many of the -things a second car would have. It doesn't solve any long-range transportation -needs, but it will solve the majority of our need for a second car by giving me -a more convenient and efficient way to get around town with enough space on the -back for the kids and some groceries, too. - -Yesterday, I biked to my dentist appointment. It was only a mile away and -certainly in reach with my road bike, but the e-bike makes it even more -accessible without the car. - -Of course, there is always an amputating influence, even if the overall -motivation for the e-bike was a good one. It is worth asking why not use a -regular bicycle or even walk. Some of the benefits of bicycling, like getting -fresh air and being able to move more slowly and intentionally, or taking time -to pay attention to your surroundings, are even more accentuated when moving -less efficiently. - -Whatever our choice, we should be clear about the tradeoffs. - -2. How: The Principle of Proportional Augmentation - -When we think about what a certain technology does for us, it is also important -to consider how that technology is conforming us. The features of the -technology matter, but often the conformational power of the technology is -significantly influenced by how they are implemented. - -Take, for example, the implementation of the electric motor assist on an -e-bike. When you first think of an e-bike, you may think of it essentially as a -motorbike. Most e-bikes can be ridden without pedals. You can use throttle -control to power your forward movement completely from the onboard battery and -motor. - -But most e-bikes today are primarily designed to be driven using pedal assist. -In this mode, sensors on the bike detect the force or speed with which you are -pushing on the pedals and use this measurement to supplement, not totally -replace, the power being exerted by the rider through the pedals in the -old-fashioned way. In this mode, the assistance from the motor is proportional -to the effort that you, as the rider, are putting in. - -Functionally, there is little difference between the throttle and the pedal -assist. In both cases, the motor is giving you a significant boost. -Philosophically, however, there is a big difference. In pedal assist mode, you -are still required to exert some effort. You have some choice over how strong -the assistance will be, but in any situation, the level of assistance remains -directly connected to the amount of effort you put in. - -This sort of design strategy is important to consider as we think about AI, -especially in educational contexts. If we eliminate the connection between -effort and results, we are training ourselves to become reliant on our AI -tools. Just like only using the throttle on our e-bike will deprive us of the -health benefits of exerting ourselves and cycling, using AI in this way will -sacrifice opportunities we have to build our cognitive and intellectual skills. - -3. Why: The Ruthless Elimination of Friction - -One last question we should be asking as we choose our technology is why we are -choosing to use it. In many ways, these three questions cannot be disconnected -from each other. The what, how, and why are interconnected. - -In the case of my e-bike, am I really getting it to replace my car, or will it -just serve as an excuse to ride my road bike less? As we think about AI, is the -thing it will accomplish for us worth doing the old-fashioned way? Why exactly -are we choosing to outsource it? What does our choice indicate about our -values? - -In my case, I feel pretty justified in my purchase, having towed all three kids -around town multiple times already. My previous bike just didn’t have the space -to fit all of them, and trying to tow a bike trailer behind a cargo bike with a -five and almost four-year-old on the back without some assistance just isn’t a -tenable solution. - -But enter a little electronic boost, and the bike has new life again. Last -week, we rode to get ice cream as a family on bikes. I had a smile on my face -for the rest of the weekend. Yesterday, we explored a new neighborhood and -checked out a new park. All these things were enabled by the e-bike and the -additional boost of power that comes with it. - -[32] -[https] -[33] -[https] -The Innovation Bargain 2x2. Original design by me based on [34]the idea from -[35]Andy Crouch. - -At the end of the day, we must remember that [36]innovation is a bargain. We -often consider what technology promises to enable for us, without considering -what it will almost certainly disable. - -Most of the time, we fail to stop and consider the tradeoffs. Perhaps e-bikes -may give us a metaphor to frame our thinking. - -[47][ ] -Subscribe -Got a thought? Leave a comment below. - -[49]Leave a comment - -Reading Recommendations - -I’ve been intrigued and encouraged by the work that The -[51]Cosmos Institute -is doing to ask thoughtful questions about AI. Their mission to cultivate -philosopher-builders resonates deeply with my own and the kind of impact I hope -to have at Harvey Mudd. -[52]Brendan McCord -’s latest, where he uses Wilhelm von Humboldt as a frame to think about our -future with AI, is worth a read. - -[53] -[https]Cosmos Institute -AI vs. the Self-Directed Career -Two centuries ago, as mechanization began reshaping society, German philosopher -Wilhelm von Humboldt issued a vision and a warning… -Read more -5 months ago · 69 likes · 12 comments · Brendan McCord and Cosmos Institute -[64][ ] -Subscribe -━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - -The Book Nook - -[67] -[https] - -Slowly but surely making progress on [68]The Devil and the Dark Water. Getting -more and more interesting, page by page. - -━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - -The Professor Is In - -Hard to believe we are quickly coming up on the end of four weeks of summer -research already. It’s always amazing to see how much progress my students make -so quickly during the summer, and great fun to get to dig into building and -debugging optical systems with them. - -━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - -Leisure Line - -[https][https][https] -[https][https][https] - -Some pies from the weekend. Went with a slightly higher than usual hydration -(65%), which led to some nice chewy texture on the crust. - -━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - -Still Life - -[72] -[https] - -#1 and I went to see the Mets last week at the Dodgers game. We took the train -in from Claremont and the bus to the game, which was fun. The good guys lost, -but we took the season series from LA and were in it all four games of the -series we played out west. Metsies are just fun to watch this year, and boy, -Alonso is just ripping the cover off the ball lately. - -32 -[73] -6 -5 -[74] -Share -PreviousNext - -Discussion about this post - -CommentsRestacks -User's avatar -[ ] -[ ] -[ ] -[ ] -[81] -Colin's avatar -[82]Colin -[83]Sep 5 -Liked by Josh Brake - -Interestingly in the UK e-bikes _must_ be propelled with human energy and can -only support you up to 15.5mph / 25kph. Otherwise, it's a moped and you need to -get a drivers license / register it as a motor vehicle. There are 'jailbroken' -bikes where you can just use the motor but the police are cracking down on -those as they're proving to be a public safety issue. [86]https:// -www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/04/ -britains-e-bike-boom-desperation-delivery-drivers-and-unthinkable-danger - -Expand full comment -Reply -Share -[87] -Kalen's avatar -[88]Kalen -[89]Jun 10 - -It's funny- I had the e-bike thought a few days ago-but less charitably. In my -neck of the woods a particular breed of especially fat-tired, awfully fast, -never-actually-seen-it-pedaled e-bike has been surging in popularity, and -functionally has turned into a way to get away with driving a small motorcycle -on the bike and walking paths- a weird netherworld device that mostly just -serve to muck things up. It's less old people being enabled and dads towing a -pack of kids through nature and more almost being run over by disaffected -teenagers. - -I dunno- the longer this hype cycle goes on the more that chatbots really just -seem like a bad tool, regardless of their technical sophistication. More -amputation than augmentation. They do too much if you are trying to improve -yourself (synthesized homework text is one of their major markets) and do too -little if you have actual work to do (not enough knobs to turn for creatives -trying to express themselves, and fake law citations will never do). Just like -with the metaverse and crypto and all the rest, the giant pool of money is -doing its best to drive uptake through sheer noise with a product that might -just be kind of bad in a durable way, or at least kind of niche (given how much -coding is boilerplate in something besides your native language, sure, maybe -the boilerplate generator is a nice thing to have). - -Your thoughts reminded me of a good Nicholas Carr essay on good and bad tools -that's been rolling around my head of late- on the off chance you haven't read -it yet, you might enjoy it: [91]https://www.newcartographies.com/p/ -the-love-that-lays-the-swale-in-rows - -Expand full comment -Reply -Share -[92]4 more comments... -TopLatestDiscussions - -No posts - -Ready for more? - -[108][ ] -Subscribe -© 2025 Josh Brake -[110]Privacy ∙ [111]Terms ∙ [112]Collection notice -[113] Start writing[114]Get the app -[115]Substack is the home for great culture -This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please [116]turn on JavaScript -or unblock scripts - -References: - -[1] https://joshbrake.substack.com/ -[2] https://joshbrake.substack.com/ -[7] https://substack.com/@joshbrake -[8] https://substack.com/@joshbrake -[9] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind/comments -[10] javascript:void(0) -[23] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t_AT!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fda5c221b-40ed-44ae-bb42-5e9417997ada_1024x768.jpeg -[24] https://www.aventon.com/products/abound-ebike?variant=42319517515971 -[25] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!V_-V!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9286909-abcf-49d5-9396-76c21c7ca5b9_1024x768.jpeg -[26] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/a-bicycle-for-the-mind -[28] https://amzn.to/448Ndm3 -[32] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I3Pv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdb3be922-4cab-4ed9-b0a8-e9191d248814_2001x2001.png -[33] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E2lY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb08d97d3-f35d-4db4-8588-3a7614af4f36_1601x1600.png -[34] https://journal.praxislabs.org/we-dont-need-superpowers-we-need-instruments-860459cfc165 -[35] https://andy-crouch.com/ -[36] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/the-innovation-bargain -[49] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind/comments -[51] https://open.substack.com/users/179794473-cosmos-institute?utm_source=mentions -[52] https://open.substack.com/users/866604-brendan-mccord?utm_source=mentions -[53] https://cosmosinstitute.substack.com/p/ai-vs-the-self-directed-career?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web -[67] https://amzn.to/3FhqzhO -[68] https://amzn.to/4mnZt9z -[72] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AKII!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06d89460-fec1-4724-9d7b-d5b7e25b84cd_1024x768.jpeg -[73] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind/comments -[74] javascript:void(0) -[81] https://substack.com/profile/21520494-colin?utm_source=comment -[82] https://substack.com/profile/21520494-colin?utm_source=substack-feed-item -[83] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind/comment/152585767 -[86] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/04/britains-e-bike-boom-desperation-delivery-drivers-and-unthinkable-danger -[87] https://substack.com/profile/7174172-kalen?utm_source=comment -[88] https://substack.com/profile/7174172-kalen?utm_source=substack-feed-item -[89] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind/comment/124514975 -[91] https://www.newcartographies.com/p/the-love-that-lays-the-swale-in-rows -[92] https://joshbrake.substack.com/p/an-e-bike-for-the-mind/comments -[110] https://substack.com/privacy -[111] https://substack.com/tos -[112] https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected -[113] https://substack.com/signup?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=footer -[114] https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect?utm_campaign=app-marketing&utm_content=web-footer-button -[115] https://substack.com/ -[116] https://enable-javascript.com/