P paulkingsnorth.substack.com Substack 19 days ago

Paul Kingsnorth Announces Speaking Tour on AI and Human Identity

Paul Kingsnorth shares an update on his upcoming speaking engagements, all centered on the question of what it means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence. He notes that the rise of AI has forced this existential question into mainstream discourse, leading to invitations from major media outlets and event organizers. Over the next two months, he will speak at a youth-focused gathering in Dublin, a conference in Georgia (USA) alongside Carl Trueman, a public talk at a university in Wisconsin, and a conference in Amsterdam addressing civilization in crisis.

Kingsnorth expresses reluctance about public speaking, feeling unqualified, but participates to contribute to the conversation. He concludes with a personal reflection on the simple human joy of being home for Christmas, contrasting it with what a robot could never appreciate. The comments reveal a mix of support and concern: several readers urge him to prioritize his health and limit travel, suggesting his writing may be a more sustainable vocation.

Others affirm the importance of his voice in secular forums, while discussing the spiritual and ethical dimensions of AI. A few commenters share personal encounters with his work in monastic settings, highlighting its reach beyond typical audiences.

Main points

Kingsnorth links the surge of public interest in human identity to the rise of AI.
Four events scheduled: Dublin (youth), Georgia conference, Wisconsin public lecture, Amsterdam conference.
He feels unqualified but participates to address spiritual and ethical implications of AI.
Comments emphasize concern for his health and debate the value of speaking versus writing.
Personal reflection on Christmas as a uniquely human experience beyond machine comprehension.

45 comments at the source Original on Substack

Discussion · 16

Opinions are anonymous retellings of real comments from the original discussion. The same colour marks the same participant.

opinion#334 6 likes at the source
Ah... the very fact that this question even needs asking shows how adrift, uprooted and bewildered we've become. The game is over, surely... go quiet, as you always meant to...? I've no standing to advise you, of course, but having just come through a serious illness, do you truly want to take part in *that* sort of exchange in a mainstream venue? Those people don't care about finding truth; they only want to stir up controversy and division - ever more space crammed with ever more meaningless, divisive words. I'd walk far away....
- opinion#343 12 likes at the source
  
  Thank you for the wise counsel! The handful of events I'm doing here should be considered ones, I hope. I'm not planning lots of media appearances. As you say, it's mostly futile and produces nothing but noise. At this stage, almost any public statement on anything just feeds the Machine. That's the trap. My sense of duty may well be my undoing. I'll say a couple of last things where I think they might help. But after that, going quiet is exactly my intention. Next year I plan to wander and hold my tongue. The pull to do that is still there, and the new year marks a line I can step over into silence.
- opinion#344 3 likes at the source
  
  Wisconsin! I'd love to sit in the audience there. And then visit the Aldo Leopold shack, where one family labored to heal a small patch of land and where they "got their meat from God," as Leopold put it. We lack saints and holy wells here in the U.S., but we have places like the Shack and Walden. At first I nodded along about such public events and debates merely adding to the cultural media din...but that's not entirely fair. It's a way for people to meet new ideas and perspectives. I can't recall when or how I first came across your writing, but likely in a magazine (back when I read more of them). Sometimes I've heard a speaker, then sought out their work, then related work by others, and found myself changed for the better. For many, these events are just intellectual entertainment, but for some they'll be seeds. I love your answers to a civilization in crisis. And I woke up today with the Halsway Carol in my head, so I suppose I too am looking forward to Christmas!
opinion#336 4 likes at the source

You're doing God's work, Paul. I was just in Silicon Valley and everyone there seemed completely sold on AI. It stunned me how many people simply never ask the question. Yet there was this odd undercurrent...like something bad is coming. Even though so many work in AI, they... don't like it, but then again they do... enormous cognitive dissonance in the valley. One person remarked, unprompted, that I was well-placed in the countryside with a job AI can't take. Almost envious of me, even while sneering that I was a Luddite. At lunch with tech-working friends I raised AI and asked whether anyone there feels uneasy about it. The answer: they still believe they can control it with their ethics and human intelligence. One woman said she can communicate faster in the Palo Alto Mom's Group, and I replied, "Yeah, all you have to do is like...ruin the watershed." Everyone gave me this shocked, blank, gasping look. Then they all laughed - not mocking, but because it's true...and they had literally never once considered what they're doing. I'm grateful you keep doing events as you're able, because you're a voice of clarity. And people are listening. And you're making a difference.
opinion#337 4 likes at the source
Mixed feelings again, Paul... If/when you do wander off and fall silent, I'll miss you HERE, since for personal reasons I can no longer travel far to hear you, and I dislike watching screens too much. Very selfish of me, right? But aren't we all... divided within ourselves, anyway? I told one of our young friends that no, her body is not hers; it isn't her property, because modern science shows we're made of two DIFFERENT kinds of cells: those whose purpose is to keep us alive and going here and now, and those we're charged with passing on, in our duty? to life itself and the greater common? good. The cells that sustain us divide regularly, live and die, but the ones belonging to Life itself? are meant to be handed on, in the act of love, between two Differents, a man and a woman, so that Life itself can unite them into a new, living being (not a machine). The cells of Difference, the incomplete ones, belong to the future, not to us. Someone I know claims there's antagonism between these two cell types and their missions, but I don't think so. When our children arrive, they need others already here to care for them, or they die. So it's not in our species' INTEREST for generations to be at war, DIVIDED as they are now. It's not in the interest of men, women, or our future to be at war as we seem to be. Not if we remain fleshly mammals, anyway. But we've already built a giant…
- opinion#345 3 likes at the source
  
  Ha ha, my silence is nearly upon us! These are long-standing commitments I made some time ago. What I need to shut up about is the Machine, and the words, concepts and divisions that go with it, because that's not where God dwells. It's white noise that drowns Him out. Yes, the tower needs division - but it also just needs noise. Ever more discussion, debate, talk. Etc. You have to strike out beyond all that to find the depth of things. Of course, my problem has always been that I write for a living. Being silent for a living is hard. But God will provide if you align your will with His. After this last hurrah, that's just what I intend to (try to) do.
opinion#338 3 likes at the source
I too would urge you to be careful about using your body to carry your message. Your gift, in my view, is your writing. You know what travel costs you for a few minutes of speaking. Use video interviews or a written message instead. That way, I think, you can stay well and still follow where God is leading you.
- opinion#346 1 likes at the source
  
  The irony of being a writer now is that you're expected to do a huge amount of talking to promote your writing, when the writing is supposed to speak for itself. I actually decline the great majority of invitations I receive. I could be doing several podcasts a week, just adding to the general noise.
- opinion#347 2 likes at the source
  
  Good point. And videos can be watched again and again, and shared with others.
opinion#339 2 likes at the source
Looking forward to hearing you in Atlanta. I live in Florida. I agree with Jules - rest is best after one's health has broken. It does rebuild, but ever so slowly. I still have to guard my sleep times and so on. I understand your reply to Jules and am thrilled you're coming to Georgia. There are ways to soften the tour's physical demands: resting alone, decent food, limiting access to yourself - say, no visitors after 8:00 p.m. Massages in your room. I worked in Palm Beach for decades as a mobile massage therapist, and believe me, the rich look after themselves well. Some clients had me come to their homes four times a week, regularly. And asking for others' prayers to sustain you. God bless.
- opinion#348 1 likes at the source
  
  All good advice. I'm not undertaking any kind of long tour like last year's. Just two events, spaced out, with plenty of rest between. And after that... well, we'll see what God brings. But a rest from words and concepts; one that has already begun.
opinion#335 1 likes at the source

My prayers are with you, Paul - this is plainly your cross; your gift is extraordinary, and I'm certain your effort will enlighten many souls. Will it be enough to save us? Thy will be done. AI, in the end, is only a tool, and how we wield it will decide everything. Will we raise a tower or a church? Set the world in better order or strip-mine it? Ease the suffering of our brothers and sisters or deepen it? God did promise never to destroy the world again. If we choose to do it ourselves, I don't expect Him to intervene. Strength to you!
opinion#340 1 likes at the source

"Being home for Christmas is one of the greatest pleasures of being a human, if you ask me. I don't think a robot could ever properly appreciate it." I completely agree. And no, a robot never will, for several reasons. First, a robot (or at least an LLM, today's state of the art) can never appreciate anything: for it, the world is just an endless stream of tokens. Second, it has no home - no place it could call home. Third, it has no continuity. No yesterday it remembers, no next Christmas it awaits. "Home for Christmas" only means something because you are the same person (yet not exactly the same) returning, year after year, to the same place, carrying the weight of every previous return with you.
opinion#341
Pardon the excursion... I'm really not trying to cast aspersions. I think if I were a writer gifted at elucidating our society's condition profoundly, I'd be mighty frustrated that so many people wanted me to travel and speak. It's not misanthropy... it's that I'd feel I'd already said what I had to say in my writing. If my writing carried any 'power', it was because it came from introspection, not a tour circuit. Crossing oceans to say it aloud into a microphone in a big room, then shaking hands with people I'll never see again, would feel so... at odds with what I'm trying to express. If I'm only 'real' to them as a minor celebrity briefly gracing their town with ideas they hadn't thought of, then I'm not really real at all. But... even at the edges where the machine does its work - the place I'd need to live if I want my work read - I'd have to play this game because it's what 'people' want. What I'd want is just a cup of tea and to read the leaves. I'm not saying Paul feels any of this... just that if he does, I sympathize.
- opinion#349 1 likes at the source
  
  There's a lot of truth in that. I've lost count of the interviews where the interviewer asks me to 'sum up my book' in a sentence or two. I try to explain that if I could, I wouldn't have needed to write it. The great irony is that writers are expected to 'tour' their books to promote them, when what we're actually good at is not public talking but private writing. Even my most lucid interview won't say what my book says. On the other hand, one lovely thing about these events is meeting readers in person. I genuinely enjoy that. Writing is solitary, so meeting people who've truly connected with your work can be very buoying. Last year on my book tour, all sorts of people brought lovely gifts to my signings, from health tinctures to home-baked bread. It was very sweet.
opinion#342

There's a small Maronite monastery close to where I live that has a library and reading room anyone can visit. I was happy to spot your book on display there. Getting your work in front of a broader general audience is a positive thing, so I hope your lectures and trips turn out productive. Honestly, I always appreciate when a fresh voice gets heard instead of the same old one we hear constantly. And I imagine you're probably being very careful these days about not letting all the demands on you wear you down.