What do people owe each other when machines stand in between?

Behind every argument about AI sits a question about people; how they learn, work, confess and stand together. These essays take up that question, from classrooms in China to the purple-collar worker to the idea of collective individualism.

17pieces

29299words of analysis

5to start with

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17 pieces, in the order they were written

Each dot is one piece, placed on its publication date. The path below walks through the ones to read first.

1 of 5 · The Pacific Divide · Jul 8, 2025

Class Dismissed

How China Won the AI Education War

Read on The Pacific Divide

2 of 5 · The Pacific Divide · May 27, 2026

Collective Individualism

There is a room in every Catholic church that exists for no other purpose than to make honesty possible

Read on The Pacific Divide

3 of 5 · The Pacific Divide · Jun 11, 2026

The Purple Collar

Six engineers at Fort Meade, thirty-one million workers in China, and the job America refuses to name.

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4 of 5 · Investigation · Sep 16, 2026

The Practice Room

How the model is trained, and what the school does to it

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5 of 5 · Horasis · 2025–2026

The Oldest Deal

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Everything on this question

Sep 16, 2026The Practice RoomHow the model is trained, and what the school does to itInvestigation

Jun 11, 2026The Purple CollarSubscribersSix engineers at Fort Meade, thirty-one million workers in China, and the job America refuses to name.The Pacific Divide

Jun 2, 2026Collective Individualism and the Future of Human KnowledgeSubscribersWhat Chinese AI Philosophers have already answered and what the Western debate has never even asked.The Pacific Divide

May 27, 2026Collective IndividualismSubscribersThere is a room in every Catholic church that exists for no other purpose than to make honesty possibleThe Pacific Divide

Apr 24, 2026The Cost of ContemptSubscribersThe Pacific Divide

Apr 22, 2026关系理性 and the Alignment Problem: What China's Philosophers See That America's Can'tSubscribersA philosopher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences argues that aligning AI to human values may produce the danger alignment claims to prevent. The American AI safety community has not responded.The Pacific Divide

Jan 6, 2026Common GroundSubscribersThe Pacific Divide

Oct 21, 2025While America Debates Whether AI Is Cheating, China Trains a Generation to Use ItSubscribersThe Pacific Divide

Aug 22, 2025The 95% Problem: Why Recent American AI Pessimism Isn't Crossing the PacificSubscribersA single number reveals two incompatible philosophies of technological changeThe Pacific Divide

Jul 8, 2025Class DismissedSubscribersHow China Won the AI Education WarThe Pacific Divide

May 23, 2025Why ASL-3 Signals We're Closer to AGIHow Anthropic's Security Measures Reveal the Economic Transition Already UnderwayThe Pacific Divide

2023Democratizing Data ScienceHow hyper-local AI drives sustainability, TEDxBostonTalk

July 2026Surplus Without StreetsWhy the agricultural revolution, not the industrial one, is the lens for what AI does to institutionsDavos Club Magazine

2025–2026The Bridge and the GateHorasis

2025–2026The Confessional and the MachineHorasis

2025–2026The Oldest DealHorasis

2025–2026The Rise of the Purple Collar WorkerHorasis