Nathan Oldham | Photographer

May your year be warm and bright and full of fresh air and life. #happynewyear #getoutside

Are machines becoming more human than us? I’ve been reflecting on the rise of artificial companionship—therapeutic chatbots, robotic animals that recognize and respond to emotional patterns, and AI designed to combat loneliness, particularly in aging populations. Increasingly, people turn to artificial intelligence to fill a void where human connection has either failed or feels absent. In discussing this with my wife, I wandered into my usual cynicism, suggesting that this happens because, as humans lose their humanity, AI grows more human by imitating empathy through deep learning. Are we turning to fabricated connections because real ones are less fulfilling, reliable, or available than we hoped? Are we engineering love because the real thing feels fragile—because humanity’s busyness, flaws, and distractions make us unreliable, while virtual companions are always available and, frankly, better listeners? As human connections give way to virtual environments and as empathy and connection fray, it’s unsurprising that people would turn to artificial empathy to fill the human-shaped void left in our spirits. We are complicit in this shift. We give our time to social media, our attention to commodities, and our best energy to careers that won’t remember our names. A friend recently sent me an article about a practice in Europe where pubs reserve a table for their regulars—a simple gesture of valuing consistent connection. We need more of that. More time outside. More time together, around a table. Family dinners. Friend trips. Phones in drawers. Proper boundaries with careers. More and better connection. Before we devolve into datasets and synthetic hope, we need to revisit our own deep learning—our emotional intelligence, our capacity for empathy, and our ability to truly connect.

My son gifted me a book embosser from @whisperingpages.co and it’s one of my favorite things for my library (and aligns with our goal of only buying durable goods). Also, Bird by Bird by @annelamott is a book I revisit often for guidance and inspiration in my writing, to keep from devolving into my usual doomy entropy. It’s so good. #amwriting #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity

That is a velvet sky that turns shades of midnight blue when you run your hand over it Light from home spills over the yard in streaks of amber We saw tracks from rabbits and squirrels and the dog that loves to bury her snout in the snow Oak grain flowing around knots like a rivers around islands, caught up, sparking into the night Our breath vapor thrust into being from the forge Going out, out, and up, the spirit always rising Especially during Christmastide. // Merry Christmas, friends.

Returning to the classics. #christmastide #charlesdickens #achristmascarol

Peace, inside and out, is what I want. #inspiration #christmastide #quoteoftheday

Reminder for today: You don’t owe anything to the frenetic hustling world. #annelamott #inspiration #slowdown

☕️ London Fog macarons from @charhausecookie are game-changers. Go there. Also, their house latte is excellent. Coffee is from the delightful @silkcitycoffee just down the road. #microbakery #womanowned #ctbusiness #glutenfree #connecticutlife

When life gives you…no tripods, make one! Pro tip: wrap a gorillapod on your trekking poles and stick it in the ground. #phototip #hiking #photography #videoproduction #contentcreation