An anthropological inflection point — If we let our phones fall to the ground, would we see the forest for the trees? Would we understand this intricate web that we’re each a part of? Would we see where it is that we’ve drifted? How far we’ve come? One of the strangest features of time is…

Corona, the cosmos and these strange digital days — An interesting feature of the present is that we’re all-time travelers now. I can’t believe we’ve spent over two entire years like this. None of us can. I’m hardly the first to point it out, but the “Tiger King” phase of Corona feels as though it was a decade ago…

Briefly, Anyway — I’ve been procrastinating on doing one of these for long enough, so here goes. My name is Ben and I’m a 26-year-old writer living in Philadelphia. I love to write. Some of the authors that have had the greatest impression on me are Tom Robbins, Khaled Hosseini, Sam Esmail, Vince…

An eerie new development in the world of artificial intelligence — Artificial intelligence has been on the rise for years. Within the last few months alone, some of the developments within this area of technology have become difficult to ignore. With the advent of AI image creation services like Dall-E 2, Midjourney and Lensa, this burgeoning new field has grown into…

The modern age of plagiarism — Artificial intelligence is a subject I’ve addressed here at Thought Thinkers before, but in the recent weeks it’s grown apparent that more clarity may still be needed. Artificial intelligence certainly has its uses, and there’s no denying the utility it can bring to the table throughout the editing process. It…

The magic of conscientious recreation — It’s hard not to be a little biased when the first Harry Potter film came out not long after your fifth birthday, but there’s a magic to these films that extends well beyond the wizardry. I can think of no film that’s done more justice to the fantastical world of…

A memoir, a comedic tragedy — When we arrived in Los Angeles, it was a gray and smoggy afternoon. My mom was suffering the effects of jet lag, I was glued to my first ever iPhone, and my dad was his bright and cheery self. The taxi ride down the city’s most bustling boulevards tried its…

Lynnewood Hall’s vibrant past and hopeful future — Lynnewood Hall goes by a few names. “The Widener Estate,” “The Last American Versailles,” “The Titanic Mansion,” and “Widener’s Folly” are only a few of the ones that it’s managed to accrue in its century long tenure in the forested suburbs of Pennsylvania. For most of my life, my friends…

A strange time in English education — To look back on it now almost seems like a fever dream, but there was a time when “be,” “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” and “appear” were each a part of a list of “banned words.” From ninth grade till the end of twelfth grade, each use of these “banned…