Hussein Hallak

That's kind of awesome.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

AI can generate the language of fear without feeling fear. It can describe panic without a racing heart. It can write about grief without a weight in the chest.

But it does not get an adrenaline rush. It does not have a life that can be injured, deprived, or ended.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

Humans are propelled by stakes, the sense that something matters because something can be lost.

We are pressed forward by the knowledge that time runs out.

We are shaped by fear and care and pain and longing, and these are bodily experiences with consequences.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

A machine can be trained on the narratives that describe those states. But training on descriptions is not the same thing as living inside a nervous system.

When a human creates, they are negotiating the gap between what the mind wants and what the body can carry.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

But the lived human condition is not a capability profile, it cannot be captured in a spreadsheet. We are shaped by mortality, pain, longing, attachment, the fear of losing what we love and the pressure of time running out.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

People miss this when they reduce intelligence to computation. More parameters, more data, more compute can build systems that get better at pattern recognition, coordination, and language.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

In imagination, we can have it all. In embodiment, we cannot. So we invent, make tools, write stories, build rockets, forge laws, develop medicine, and produce art.

We create because our mind keeps reaching past the body’s boundary.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

In imagination, we can have it all. In embodiment, we cannot. So we invent, make tools, write stories, build rockets, forge laws, develop medicine, and produce art.

The Cost of Creativity AI Can’t Pay We keep having the wrong argument about artificial intelligence.

We go to sleep and can picture anything. We can be anything. Build entire worlds in our minds. We fly, find perfect love, become immortal.

Then we wake up and run into gravity, fatigue, injury, and time.

Human beings are not only language machines. We are physical beings trapped inside limits, and those limits create drive.

husseinhallak.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...

Thank you

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

Five pillars must be true at all times: Purpose, Access, Boundaries, Oversight, Stop.

We either choose to be the authors of our lives, or we live inside someone else’s draft.

Read the full piece: husseinhallak.substack.com/p/human-first

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

AI is fire. Like fire, we can’t just set it and forget it. We must start with safety first: containment, training, regular inspections, red lines, and real liability.

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

At that point, governance has already failed, because the system has found its favorite escape hatch: “the model decided.”

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

You can watch this play out in real institutions, in real time. Then a mistake lands, and harm appears. A supervisor shrugs. A vendor cites “proprietary.” A lawyer points to the fine print. The harm stays, and ownership disappears.

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

But terms are consent, accountability, limits, auditability, and the right to shut it down.

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

The posture becomes resignation. All that’s left is to accept the trajectory, submit to it, and stop asking the questions that would force terms onto the table.

Human First The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

Putting technology at the center of gravity and pushing humans out of the frame, turns the tool into the main character and leaves the rest of us as scenery.

The dominant story about AI is told like a weather report: it’s coming, it’s inevitable, it will accelerate, take over work, reshape society and government, and the only smart move is to adapt.

husseinhallak.substack.com/p/human-first

Keep fighting ✊

Journalist Don Lemon is charged with federal civil rights crimes in anti-ICE church protest The Department of Homeland Security says journalist Don Lemon has been charged with federal civil rights crimes in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a...

Wow! So quick to charge a journalist with civil rights crimes, but dragged their feet on even investigating civil rights violation against ICE for murdering Alex Pretti.
apnews.com/article/don-...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Lyric Video)

Streets Of Minneapolis - Bruce Springsteen

Official Lyric Video

youtu.be/GDaPdpwA4Iw?...

The Fog: Living Inside an Attention Extraction Economy

The fog isn’t your fault. Attention is extracted, focus is fragmented, and presence becomes rare. Refuse blame. Carve space. Redesign work. #focus

Glad you do. Thank you 🙏

Power Is Permission Most people think power is what you have: money, followers, a platform, a title.

You can build power that runs on fear and spectacle, or you can build power that runs on trust and truth. Quiet power. Real power. Power that lasts.

husseinhallak.substack.com/p/power-is-p...

Power Is Permission Most people think power is what you have: money, followers, a platform, a title.

When power becomes personal, feedback breaks. Bad news becomes dangerous to deliver. Reality gets filtered. Strip away the personalities and power systems fail for a boring reason: error correction fails.

Power Is Permission Most people think power is what you have: money, followers, a platform, a title.

Institutions are slow. But slow is delayed force. The jokes turn into “concerns.” Leaks start. Executives quietly leave. Contracts get rewritten. Recruiting gets harder. Lawsuits multiply.

Power Is Permission Most people think power is what you have: money, followers, a platform, a title.

Reporting triggers hearings. Hearings trigger investigations. Investigations trigger lawsuits. Lawsuits create discovery. Discovery produces new reporting. Boards get nervous. Risk committees reprice exposure. Insurers rewrite coverage. Partners insert exit clauses.

Power Is Permission Most people think power is what you have: money, followers, a platform, a title.

Enemy density is when you pick fights with groups that can actually stop you, then give them a reason to coordinate.

Power Is Permission Most people think power is what you have: money, followers, a platform, a title.

The first trap: confusing loud loyalty with durable legitimacy. Loyalty can defend you online. Legitimacy keeps your financing stable, your insurance intact, your partners close, your regulators calm, and your talent pipeline open.