Of one thing you can be certain: Walker in the Suburb posts are completely human-written. No AI here. No LLM either, an abbreviation I knew only as a master of laws degree until I recently learned that it also stands for large language model.

Not that I needed convincing, but a recent Washington Post op-ed makes a good case for writing without bot assistance — in fact, for writing without any technological help at all, including the keyboard I’m using to compose this post. A study at MIT shows the benefit of putting pen to paper, of writing by hand.

When I was learning to write, there was no other way. It was the stubby pencil on wide-ruled paper, a dotted line showing us where to line up our ascenders and descenders. I still grasp a pen the way I did those pencils, more ham-fisted than I would like but still workable after all these years.

How fortunate I was to have learned the old-fashioned way, my children too, though they lacked a bit in the penmanship department. But still, they were well ahead of AI. My grandchildren are not so lucky.

I can still remember the pit in my stomach when I opened a blue book in college, knowing that I had 90 minutes to write a cogent essay about English history from 1066 to 1603. To assemble the evidence, summarize my thoughts, and prove my points. Somehow I did it. We all did, and apparently our synapses were humming with all the electrical activity such efforts generated.

Brains are quieter these days, just like neighborhoods. I do what I can. Now it’s time to write in my journal … by hand.

(A fragment of Homer’s Iliad, handwritten on papyrus, approximately 4th century A.D.)