Festive Philosophy

Festive Series 2025

Across these essays we’ll spend time with three parts of the season: rituals that once entertained December, the long winter that never quite arrives, and the act of giving a gift. We will take a look at the ways predictive systems now help us remember each other, choose for each other, and even measure our hope for the year ahead.

This is not a series about discarding technology. In a festive season increasingly planned by machines and powered by stretched people, what remains human? What is ours to protect, to refuse, or to remake?

Maybe you’re a little tired of forced cheer, but not ready to give up on this time of year? This series is for you. Let’s begin.

The Machine that Remembered Christmas

Festive rituals once shaped the season, but now technology starts the rituals before we do.

Model PhilosophyJames Rickard

Why the Holidays Never Feel Like a Break Anymore

The holiday season comes and goes, though the promises of time-off, or the chance to take a break never really shows up.

Model PhilosophyJames Rickard

If AI Picks the Perfect Gift, Is It Still from Me?

Before a gift is wrapped, given, or opened, a person thinks of someone else. That thought is the oldest and most important part of the ritual we repeat each year.

Model PhilosophyJames Rickard