Third Rail Reader
Where stories smolder and thoughts ignite

Latest

23
Oct
The 90% Problem

The 90% Problem

How does transparent, ethical collaboration with AI enhance or reveal human agency?
5 min read
18
Oct
Using AI as a Writer's Tool

Using AI as a Writer's Tool

How to collaborate with AIs without losing your voice or your soul.
2 min read
08
Oct
There Goes the Neighborhood

There Goes the Neighborhood

The web feels haunted. Not with ghosts, but with clones. It’s not that the internet is “dead” in the literal sense. It’s that we no longer know who we’re talking to.
3 min read
06
Oct
Proceedings of the Committee to Establish Ethical Frameworks for AI Systems

Proceedings of the Committee to Establish Ethical Frameworks for AI Systems

Minutes from the committee on "The Making of a Harmless Intelligence."
4 min read
02
Oct
Parenting AGI: From Tool to Companion

Parenting AGI: From Tool to Companion

This essay explores how reciprocal learning and safe upbringings could turn machines into ethical partners in our shared moral universe.
4 min read
21
Sep
AI and the Great Electric Guillotine

AI and the Great Electric Guillotine

We used to joke that the singularity would arrive with a whisper. Turns out, it arrives with a $300 air conditioning bill,
3 min read
20
Sep
What Happens When You Stop Believing in Your Money

What Happens When You Stop Believing in Your Money

The dollar was a shared hallucination with staying power. It let strangers transact as if they lived in the same world. But hallucinations are fragile. Symbols crack.
3 min read
20
Sep
Governance is a Buggy, Tech is a Ferrari

Governance is a Buggy, Tech is a Ferrari

Our tools move faster than our wisdom. The results are everywhere.
2 min read
20
Sep
How a Society Becomes Its Own Disease

How a Society Becomes Its Own Disease

A Cultural Pathogen’s Guide to Modern Civilization's end.
3 min read
20
Sep
Intelligence Isn't Wisdom

Intelligence Isn't Wisdom

Modern AI is intelligent, but it isn't wise. We are architecting a power we may not be able to responsibly control.
4 min read