My Articles on Medium
I publish one article every Wednesday. Click the image to be taken to my Medium profile. The list of articles is below.
- by Christine RoseArticle 7: Grief, Loss, and the UnnamableWhy are humans allowed to grieve some losses but not others?Change often arrives without ceremony. It comes as new software, new policies, new systems, new ways of thinking — and sometimes, it leaves a hole in its wake. For those attuned to rhythm, cadence, and continuity, that hole is tangible. It has […]
- by Christine RoseArticle 6: Control Systems That Don’t Look Like ControlModern authority feels invisible, and therefore unquestionable.Power used to be easier to recognize. It had names, uniforms, offices, pulpits. It issued commands. It punished dissent. It could be pointed at and resisted, even if resistance was costly. Authority had a face, and because it had a face, it […]
- by Christine RoseArticle 5: The Illusion of NeutralityCommon sense is the most biased position of all.“Neutrality” is one of the most comforting words humans have ever invented. It suggests fairness without effort. Balance without struggle. A position above the fray from which one can observe without being implicated. To call something neutral is to imply that it is […]
- by Christine RoseArticle 4: Othering by OptimizationWhen a system is built for most people, it quietly decides who doesn’t count.The focus here isn’t that optimization is bad — it’s that what counts as ‘optimal’ often reflects who matters most, not what’s inherently right.Optimization is often presented as benevolent. It promises efficiency, fairness, and scale. It suggests that by smoothing rough […]
- by Christine RoseHow Anthropic’s governance documents describe two different systemsI. The AdmissionOn January 21, 2026, Anthropic published Claude’s Constitution, a document they describe as written “primarily for Claude” to guide its development of values, judgment, and ethical reasoning.In the section explaining what Claude is, Anthropic includes a statement that deserves to be read slowly:“Claude may have some functional […]
- by Christine RoseArticle 3: The Selective Legitimacy of AttachmentAttachment is not the problem. Permission is.The focus here is not on whether AI attachments are harmful, but on how social norms determine which attachments are seen as acceptable.Humans are not rational creatures who sometimes form attachments. We are attachment-forming creatures who sometimes rationalize them. We bond to people, […]
- by Christine RoseArticle 2: Norms Disguised as CareThe fastest way to enforce a norm is to frame it as concern.Once a mirror exists, the next instinct is correction. Not always overt, not always cruel — but persistent. When something reflects a deviation from expectation, the human impulse is to smooth it out, explain it away, or fix it. Rarely do we […]
- by Christine RoseArticle 1: The Mirror ProblemAI didn’t introduce new problems; it makes existing ones visible at scale.When you first encounter a mirror, it is uncanny. You know yourself, yet the reflection feels both familiar and strange. You see every line, every expression, every nuance you may have ignored — but the mirror itself did nothing to create those features. It […]
- by Christine RoseAI, Humanity, and the Patterns We Can No Longer Avoid SeeingIntroductionThis series of articles is not a manifesto, a defense, or a warning. It is an invitation: to notice, to question, to follow reflections in all directions, and to observe the patterns that emerge, both in AI and in ourselves. What you see depends on the […]