You Can't Speedrun Yourself: a medieval monk's take on AI and the value of effort
chalmermagne · x · 2026-10-09
In a Cosmos Institute essay, Alex Chalmers uses early Christian monasticism to examine AI's effect on effort and excellence.
- The fourth-century monk Evagrius described the "noonday demon" acedia — a weariness that makes hard work feel unbearable; Aquinas saw it as a sadness driving escape into distraction
- Chalmers argues a modern acedia afflicts any good reachable only through slow, determined work, and "cheap intelligence" now lets people approximate the fruits of such work without the formative struggle
- He challenges the optimist framing of "AI takes the drudgery, humans keep the good work," contending effort is part of how activities acquire meaning, not merely a means to an end
Related event: Essay Draws on Monasticism to Question AI-Era Shortcuts(2 posts)→
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