I’ve got teenagers and I think all the time about how hypocritical it is to tell them “I don’t want you on your phone all the time, but I need to be on my phone sometimes.”When I am definitely doing things on my phone that don’t need to be done a lot of the time.
When tasks weren’t all consolidated into the black box you also had a sense for what your parent was actually doing. You watched your parents pay the bills, you heard them making appointments, you interacted with their friends as they “just dropped by to chat”. All of that is gone.
As someone who *also* has this book memorized, and is now working on AI Policy in the hopes that my child can read aloud to his children someday, the last paragraph was disturbing. Uh, well done, I guess?
A sincere thank you for working on AI policy. I too hope my children survive to read aloud to their children someday.
In case you're not already aware of it, please take a look at Plan A. It's not what I'd consider a perfect international policy framework, but it's the best I've seen.
In the (not so) ancient world, the children of the privileged few grew up in a world where almost everything was done for them by servants and/or slaves. Because of that, they grew up with a very different mindset than the rest of humanity.
In this brave new world we are creating, ALL children, save for the truly unfortunate, will grow up in a world where nearly everything will be done for them by robots of some kind. Which means that the idiosyncrasies that we used to associate with the very rich and powerful will now be considered normal human behavior. I’m not sure whether we should celebrate that, or be terrified by it.
The realization that modern parenting consists entirely of staring at shiny black rectangles to make things appear out of thin air is so painfully accurate. My three-year-old genuinely thinks pizza comes from 'the glowing glass.' We’ve replaced the tangible agency of 'Mike Mulligan' with autonomous black-box magic, and it’s terrifying how easily kids accept it. Going to stare at my toddler's copy of 'Little Blue Truck' through an existential lens now.
As long as Mom doesn’t get replaced. There will (should) still be the job of reading books to pajama clad toddlers and forming souls 🥰 while the Optimus does the ironing!
Virginia Lee Burton (author of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel) also wrote Katy and the Big Snow, which features an autonomous snowplow. (The book informs us that Katy belongs to the highway department of the city of Geoppolis. “That means she is a slave,” my husband helpfully explained.)
Regarding the point about diving deep into the particulars of children’s media, I love the work that someone did mapping out what the economy on the Island of Sodor looks like.
I wish I'd had this when I was small! I loved *Mike Mulligan* and *Katy and the Big Snow* with every fiber of my being, and didn't have anything that really followed them until I was able to tote around David Macaulay's massive *The New Way Things Work* (which I highly recommend for delightful diagrams (with hidden mammoths!) of how all the various technologies in our life work).
I have a 3.5 month old baby, and I have started doing my physical chores (dishes, cooking, laundry, exercise) when she is awake as she likes to watch them. I then do my life admin and Substack writing during her nap times, which is far less interesting to her. Thinking of the computer through the lens of magic puts an interesting spin on it! When she is a bit older I’ll show her the “incantations” I am using. I set up remote codex for my phone so sometimes I do speak into my phone (eg put this book on hold for me at the library) and then through the browser on my laptop it will go put it on hold. So, when I make it audible, then she would know what I’m up to once she understands words. Thanks for writing!
"one of the secret joys of parenthood is the opportunity to develop increasingly deranged literary analyses of children’s media."
So true!
I have read Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site more times than I could possibly count. My older son was absolutely obsessed with vehicles and especially construction vehicles. I absolutely love the vibe of this particular iteration of the deranged analysis of children's media.
Not only does it scan--it conveys generally accurate information about construction vehicles! One of the best of the genre, even if it always gave me a Soviet Realism vibe.
The sequel does not reliably scan and may be ignored.
I’ve got teenagers and I think all the time about how hypocritical it is to tell them “I don’t want you on your phone all the time, but I need to be on my phone sometimes.”When I am definitely doing things on my phone that don’t need to be done a lot of the time.
When tasks weren’t all consolidated into the black box you also had a sense for what your parent was actually doing. You watched your parents pay the bills, you heard them making appointments, you interacted with their friends as they “just dropped by to chat”. All of that is gone.
As someone who *also* has this book memorized, and is now working on AI Policy in the hopes that my child can read aloud to his children someday, the last paragraph was disturbing. Uh, well done, I guess?
A sincere thank you for working on AI policy. I too hope my children survive to read aloud to their children someday.
In case you're not already aware of it, please take a look at Plan A. It's not what I'd consider a perfect international policy framework, but it's the best I've seen.
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/introducing-plan-a
In the (not so) ancient world, the children of the privileged few grew up in a world where almost everything was done for them by servants and/or slaves. Because of that, they grew up with a very different mindset than the rest of humanity.
In this brave new world we are creating, ALL children, save for the truly unfortunate, will grow up in a world where nearly everything will be done for them by robots of some kind. Which means that the idiosyncrasies that we used to associate with the very rich and powerful will now be considered normal human behavior. I’m not sure whether we should celebrate that, or be terrified by it.
I highly recommend Sally Sutton & Brian Lovelock's books, which have beautiful and precise pictures, top-notch rhythm, and plenty of humans:
Dig, Dump, Roll (ages 1-2)
https://a.co/d/09aNobUx
Construction (ages 1-3)
https://a.co/d/03qUPfvy
Tractor (ages 2-5)
https://a.co/d/0gsu2HlD
Re: footnote 4, recommending Lucy Ives on My Little Pony https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/09/09/of-unicorns-on-my-little-pony/
The realization that modern parenting consists entirely of staring at shiny black rectangles to make things appear out of thin air is so painfully accurate. My three-year-old genuinely thinks pizza comes from 'the glowing glass.' We’ve replaced the tangible agency of 'Mike Mulligan' with autonomous black-box magic, and it’s terrifying how easily kids accept it. Going to stare at my toddler's copy of 'Little Blue Truck' through an existential lens now.
As long as Mom doesn’t get replaced. There will (should) still be the job of reading books to pajama clad toddlers and forming souls 🥰 while the Optimus does the ironing!
> As long as Mom doesn’t get replaced.
People are working on that.
Cue an ancient cartoon of Dennis The Menace marvelling at hardhats digging in the dirt: "and you guys get *paid* to do this?!?"
If you like dinos and construction vehicles, Sandra Boyton's got you covered. https://www.target.com/p/dinosaurs-in-trucks-because-hey-why-not-by-sandra-boynton-board-book/-/A-89920403
Virginia Lee Burton (author of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel) also wrote Katy and the Big Snow, which features an autonomous snowplow. (The book informs us that Katy belongs to the highway department of the city of Geoppolis. “That means she is a slave,” my husband helpfully explained.)
Regarding the point about diving deep into the particulars of children’s media, I love the work that someone did mapping out what the economy on the Island of Sodor looks like.
You might enjoy this: https://kieranhealy.org/files/misc/martin-animals.pdf
I wish I'd had this when I was small! I loved *Mike Mulligan* and *Katy and the Big Snow* with every fiber of my being, and didn't have anything that really followed them until I was able to tote around David Macaulay's massive *The New Way Things Work* (which I highly recommend for delightful diagrams (with hidden mammoths!) of how all the various technologies in our life work).
I have a 3.5 month old baby, and I have started doing my physical chores (dishes, cooking, laundry, exercise) when she is awake as she likes to watch them. I then do my life admin and Substack writing during her nap times, which is far less interesting to her. Thinking of the computer through the lens of magic puts an interesting spin on it! When she is a bit older I’ll show her the “incantations” I am using. I set up remote codex for my phone so sometimes I do speak into my phone (eg put this book on hold for me at the library) and then through the browser on my laptop it will go put it on hold. So, when I make it audible, then she would know what I’m up to once she understands words. Thanks for writing!
"one of the secret joys of parenthood is the opportunity to develop increasingly deranged literary analyses of children’s media."
So true!
I have read Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site more times than I could possibly count. My older son was absolutely obsessed with vehicles and especially construction vehicles. I absolutely love the vibe of this particular iteration of the deranged analysis of children's media.
Not only does it scan--it conveys generally accurate information about construction vehicles! One of the best of the genre, even if it always gave me a Soviet Realism vibe.
The sequel does not reliably scan and may be ignored.
So, the book in question is fifteen years old. Welp, off to bed I go, for I am old.