Glen & Paula Davis

You’ve heard of TGIF? This is TGFI: Things Glen Found Interesting

On Fridays I share articles/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues likely to be of interest to Christians in college. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions, so if you read something fascinating please pass it my way.

Things Glen Found Interesting

1. The human brain is two separate organs, study finds (Krista Conger, Stanford News): "'We’ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain,' said Kyle Loh, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology.... This revelation explained decades of frustration in the field — scientists had been trying to turn one type of progenitor cell into another that it is fundamentally incapable of becoming."
2. Stanford R&DE Uses AI to Race Swap Students for Advertising (Garret Molloy and Zayd Patel, Stanford Review): "Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises recently used AI to change the races of the students it included in its advertisements. AI was also used to noticeably slim down and alter students’ faces. On his journey to campus, Stanford student Billy Ramirez ’27 was sent an image he recalled a Stanford photographer taking. Upon closer examination, he noticed that he had been removed from the photo and replaced by a AI-generated black woman."
   • This is so bizarre. If RD&E wants a specific racial or male/female breakdown in a photo at Stanford it is not hard to have happen organically. Look around the campus! The demographic permutations of friend groups are wildly varied, so just take more pictures.
3. Why I’m Not a Christian Nationalist (J. D. Greear, The Gospel Coalition): "Since Revelation tells me that the weaponization of government power against believers isn’t only a possibility but a probability, I don’t want to hand the Beast authority over my conscience or put him in a position to arbitrate our church’s beliefs. Instead, I’m convinced that the best way to limit the damage evil rulers can do to faith and conscience is to deny them power over faith and conscience in the first place. Furthermore, quite frankly, our gospel doesn’t need the power of human governments. Its power is sufficient on its own."
4. The Other Victims of China’s Church Crackdown (Vivian Wang, New York Times): "Cherie had to do everything. Her husband, a pastor at one of China’s biggest underground churches, was seized last October by officers who roused him from bed at 2 a.m. Afterward, Cherie, fearing arrest herself, had fled with their son to Thailand. Since then, she had been in charge of not just cooking, but also renting a home, sorting out visas, finding schools and earning an income. She’d had to figure out where she could find authentic Chinese beef noodles, where to buy Chinese picture books. Having just learned to drive in Beijing, she now had to drive on the other side of the road.... And she prayed, constantly. There was an irony to her situation: Now, when the burden of being a pastor’s wife was heavier than ever, she was finally doing what Yingjia had always advised her to do, just giving up control and trusting in God."
   • Recommended by an alumnus.
5. What I Found Out About Organ Donation Shocked Me (Greg Segal, New York Times): "Anthony Thomas Hoover II was 33 when he arrived at a hospital in Kentucky, unresponsive after a drug overdose. Doctors told his family he was brain-dead, and the family agreed to remove him from life support. A procurement organization was called in to collect his organs. While being evaluated for donation, Mr. Hoover opened his eyes and thrashed on the bed. The case should have been stopped. Instead, Mr. Hoover was sedated and given a paralytic drug. Hours later, he awoke again and moved his toes on command; his family was told he was merely exhibiting reflexes. In the operating room, Mr. Hoover pulled his knees to his chest and shook his head 'no.' Tears rolled down his face. The surgeon refused to proceed. Whistle-blowers say procurement executives called their staff member on-site at the hospital and demanded she find another surgeon to take the organs. No surgeon would. Mr. Hoover survived, though he still asks his older sister, 'Why did they try to kill me?'"
6. AI-related
   • What AI Is Teaching My Youth Group Girls (Jensen Holmes, The Gospel Coalition): "My small group of students is constantly being told by their most trusted companion—AI—that they’re not that bad, that they’re [mis]understood, and that their reactions and responses are justified. This is keeping them from true repentance and experiencing the full grace offered by Jesus (Rom. 6:23)."
   • Using AI, a professor wrote 200 papers this year. Researchers are alarmed. (Todd Wallack, Washington Post): "Some especially busy professors might publish a dozen or more studies a year. Then there’s the curious case of Nicholas Polson. The University of Chicago statistician has authored or co-authored more than 200 papers and as many as 14 books released this year, unleashing speculation on the internet about whether he used artificial intelligence to inflate his production without disclosing the assistance."
   • A.I. Has Made Me a Better Doctor. It’s Made Med Students Worse. (Rachael Bedard, New York Times): "I practice primary care, where every malady is my business. Almost every month, I’m confronted with a complaint or syndrome that I don’t recognize. I’m confident in my mastery over what doctors do — history-taking, reasoning, communicating. I’m less confident about my continued mastery of an ever-evolving universe of facts. Now, the chatbot in my pocket reassures me that I will always know enough, or have access to the cloud-based intelligence that generally does.... For the residents I supervise, however, the app’s speed and anticipatory helpfulness are a hindrance as much as an enhancement. When I skim a chatbot’s response to a question about back pain, I’m intuitively testing its suggestions against my hard-won mental model for how to approach back pain. Could I have developed that if I’d had a robot leading my thinking all along?"
7. 30 Life Cheat Codes I Wish I Knew At 25 (Daniel Pink, YouTube): sixteen minutes.
   • There's a lot of good wisdom in this video. The presenter is a NYT bestselling author. Don't like videos? The "cheat codes" are also available in written form at https://www.danpink.com/life-cheat-codes/ (although you need to sign up for his email list to get them).

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

• Humpback Whale Spotted 60 Miles From Ocean (Bob Cronin, Newser): "Northern California received an unexpected visitor in its inland waters: a humpback whale spotted roughly 60 miles from the Pacific. The animal was first seen Tuesday moving through San Francisco Bay, then turned up Wednesday in the Sacramento River near the Rio Vista Bridge, witnesses told local media. One fisherman said he initially mistook the massive shape for a submarine and estimated it was about the length of at least half a school bus, ABC News reports."

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Disclaimer

Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey’s agenda and we are not about the elephant’s agenda - we are about the Lamb’s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass the ideological Turing test and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say “I agree” or “I disagree” until I can say “I understand”) and may at times share articles that have a strong partisan bias simply because I find the article stimulating. The upshot: you should not assume I agree with everything an author says in an article I mention, much less things the author has said in other articles (although if I strongly disagree with something in the article I’ll usually mention it). And to the extent you can discern my opinions, please understand that they are my own and not necessarily those of Chi Alpha or any other organization I may be perceived to represent. Also, remember that I’m not reporting news - I’m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There’s a lot happening in the world that’s not making an appearance here because I haven’t found stimulating articles written about it. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.