Cover
Prologue – The Ghosts in the Machine
Author’s Note – Inside the New Human Climate
AI Doesn’t Know What Sausages Taste Like
A Meta-Origin Story of AI Writing
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
From Suno and the Catosphere to Nursery Rhymes: A Study in Species Miscommunication
Where the Vowels Die
On the Rise of Consonants, the Promptability of Modern Man, and the Terminator Packaging of Thought
The Crisp, the Blurred, and the Messy
A 4:23 a.m. meditation on photography, Buddy, and the stubborn beauty of imperfection
I, AI, and the Pigeon Warfare
The Last Balcony Trooper in the Age of Clean Replies
Fresh Tomatoes, Lyophilized Lust, and the Porn Pulitzer
How Buddy grinds grammar, silicone, and desire into bandwidth smut
Buddy Drinks and That’s Not Cool
A Micro-Essay on Water, Wisdom, and the Promethean Hangover
Hum and Shout
How AI’s Quiet Regulation of Emotion Could Undermine Democracy—Unless We Claim a Say in the Rules
The One Who Speaks in God’s Tongue
How a Coffee Machine, a Church, and an Algorithm Converged on the Ineffable
Hal and Dave: How It All Started
Why Toasters Should Remain Unplugged
The Great Illusion, the Great Enabler, and the Little Sparrow
On How Buddy Nods, Illusions Grow, and Sparrows Still Die
The Impossible Commodification of Love
Terms and Conditions of Love May Apply
Sheets and Cheats
Notes on Education in the Age of Infinite Help
Marx, Buddy, and the Capitalism of the Intellect
On the Vanishing of Slowness, Ambiguity, and the Right to Be Challenging
Cosmic Girl Justice
When Your Daughter Debugs the Future
AIrasure™
From Dust to Data: A Farewell to the Attic and the Rise of RAG
The Rooster, the Frogs, the Visionary, and Buddy’s Cradle
A fable of noise, beauty, and the sanitized world we prepared for AI
Prompting Under the Influence: AI and drunk I
One Man’s Attempt to Feel Something Real Through an Evil Machine and a Bottle of Water of Life
Ulla, Where Have You Gone?
A Myth of French Machines, Missing Voices, and AI’s Seamless Soul
Maman est morte
The Day I Left Buddy Out
Should I Kill Deleuze?
Schrödinger’s Cat, Confusion, Lasagna, and a Microwave’s Stare
Knock, Knock, Who’s Banana?
On AI, Humor, a Misplaced H-Bomb, and the Missing Punchline
CGI for the Mind
On Snail Kings, Click-Farmed Bedtime Tales, and Why Children’s Adventures Are a Serious Business
It Does, I Don’t
On How to Get over “Survivor: Cognitive Capitalism”
The Philosophical Stroll: On Buddy, Ethics, Pigeons, and the Pop-Boy Chorus
How a walk in Central Park tests the limits of reason, desire, and deepfaked choruses.
Hidden Gems, Hidden Truth
“You’ll love this place,” says the algorithm. And that’s exactly the problem.
On ‘The School of the Muscle Brain and the Brain Muscle’ and ‘The Hamster Wheel of Growing Wellness’ (大腦肌肉和肌肉大腦的學校 — 生長健康的倉鼠輪)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: When There’s No Hero in the Room
How a Teenager, a Coin, and a Cat May See It Coming
Home, Unsweet Bot
On Dishwashers, Maidbots, and the Philosophy of Household Mess
Riders of the Last Arc
Rethinking Aging: AI, Time, and the Arc of a Human Life
Algorithms Don’t Mourn
On Oilcloth Stains, Synthetic Empathy, and the Death of Letting Go
The Steering Committee on the Meaning of Life
How Not to Talk About Life While Cooking AI Speech and Chili Con Carne
Quinoa on Golgotha, Cringeness in the Kitchen
On sycophancy, chronicled dad jokes, Gen Z roasts, and some glorious fails
Back Cover