I’m watching the movie Her whilst doing some work on the couch. Watching it in 2026, when it feels more science-fact than science-fiction, I’m struck by Theodore’s occupation: writing deeply human letters for the Beautiful Handwritten Letters company. You could fall either side of this argument today, but I feel like that part is going to work out, too. I think we’re going to value human writing even more than we did.
It might not always feel that way today, but it’s hard to take a good look at something when your nose is pressed right up against it. I think that when we manage to take a collective step back, we’ll remember that human experience is wonderful, and that writing is still one of the best ways to capture that experience. One of the best ways to share it with others. I’m just not convinced that we’ll want to read hallucinated novels.
It’s probably obvious that I think this technology is wonderful in many ways. I refuse, however, to pick a side, because there aren’t sides to pick. Life is weird, and messy and fuzzy at the edges. We’ll find the things that this technology is best at, I think, and we’ll continue to be enamored with one another. With the things that others do. The lives that they have. The people they are. The beautiful handwritten letters they write.