The Mirror Isn't the Monster: We Keep Redrawing the Line Between Humans and Machines
kevrussell · x · 2026-09-25
In a Substack essay, Kevin Russell argues that every time machines master something — clocks with time, steam engines with muscle, Deep Blue with chess — humans retreat by redefining the remaining territory as the "truly human" part. Tracing humanity's origin to the first stone tool 3 million years ago and language's history of drawing dehumanizing lines, he contends AI is the new mirror: instead of stepping back again ("now the sand talks back"), we should define ourselves through what we build.
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