Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

Charles van Heck

  • Promises and Perils

    We need to bear in mind that the human mind, not Artificial Intelligence, is the most powerful instrument in the classroom. While a young person’s mind holds the most promise, it faces the most peril in today’s educational environment. Continue reading

  • Our Carnival Night in Strawberry Fields

    AI is desensitizing us and trivializing our lives. We are hooked on undeletable apps from Google AI, Meta AI, among others. Our telephones, televisions, vehicles and computers connect to an empty void of addiction. We become lost in an endless… Continue reading

  • Toxicity

    Wildfires are a harbinger of political, societal, and economic instability due to climate change. The crisis we face is a moral and ethical one that calls for international cooperation and a resolute will to develop and apply those solutions. Continue reading

  • When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: A Firefighter’s Perspective

    Statistical data from the National Interagency Fire Center reports that between January 1 and July 15 of this year, 3,633,827 acres have been consumed by 39,520 fires in the United States. Continue reading

  • Moving Along

    Self-pruning is an aspect of life. Continue reading

  • Kierkegaard, OTHER/RATHER

    Ours is an age of envy, distrust, and the rhetoric of a revolutionary impulse that creates an abstraction of our humanity. Continue reading

  • Freedom and Passing of the Candlelight

    Are our crises any different from those contended with by the generations of the American Revolution and Civil War eras? They, too, grappled with divisive moral issues. The Declaration of Independence, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and his Emancipation Proclamation testify to… Continue reading

  • Oppenheimer and the Ethical Dilemma We Face

    From an economic perspective, speculation in AI is limiting our investment in other sectors of the economy: energy infrastructure, housing, strategic value networks, logistics, and business innovation.  Too many land, water, and energy resources are being diverted for the construction… Continue reading

  • The Interior Wound and National Values

    There is an interview with Eddie S. Glaude Jr. that I keep thinking about. The interview, conducted by Geoff Bennett, aired on 15 June on PBS News Hour. Glaude is the author of the book America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows… Continue reading

  • Reading and the Mastication of Words

    There are books that, like fast food, we gobble up to satisfy our appetite. Other books are snack food to be nibbled on to gratify a craving, And then, there are those books that are served like a three course… Continue reading