Notable links for December 2025
A roundup of work I didn’t regret checking out this month.
I’m getting really tired of AI art
Not really about AI art per se, but actually quite an interesting discussion of the music industry, composition and consumption, and how money and technology is screwing it all up.
Why Machines Cannot Create
This actually is about AI art though:
Bishop Erik Varden: “In Praise of Translation” | 2025 Erasmus Lecture
AI Is Slowly Destroying Your Brain
The big takeaway here is that new research suggests that AI carries an inherent risk of causing psychosis — even for normal healthy people who aren’t prone to mental illness — due to its fundamental design. “The psychogenic risk case for AI is the basic use case for AI.” Claude Sonnet 4 seems to be the safest, and Gemini 2.5 Flash is scary.
Just Asking Questions
No one is ever just asking questions.
How Influencer Culture Destroys Pastors: the cost of platform over people
I recently saw someone say that what influencer pastors most need is to have everyone they strongly influence attend their own churches. If this simply happened like a law of nature, the problem would correct itself in a year.
The Christmas Tree and the Fourfold Mystery
To discard the Christmas Tree out of fear of pagan origins is to misunderstand both history and formation. It is to remove from the Christian home one of its most potent moral teachers. The Christmas Tree is not a foreign intruder. It is a domestic icon of Christian joy.
The Rule of the Incarnate: Why the West Was Never Meant to Be Governed by Law Alone
That’s all for this month,
Bnonn