Member Spotlight: Gabriel Cohen

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? I teach college courses in critical thinking and writing, in which I hope to show that students can learn to think better through writing. I also teach that the world would be a much better place if everyone could practice the kind of empathy to the experience of others that is essential for fiction writers. In journalism courses, I teach that reporters are an essential check and balance for democracies because they speak truth to power. In my new book, I wanted to push back on the idea that certain new technologies (such as A.I.) are inevitable, faceless forces, rather than the product of specific decisions made by specific oligarchic Silicon Valley tech bros.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Knock on wood, but I haven’t really suffered from it. Over time, I’ve learned to recognize that some periods of frustratedly not writing are actually integral parts of the writing process. Trying to start a new book is a good example—I often go through an initial period of procrastination and even self-disgust, but as long as I’m actually struggling with trying to write, I know that my subconscious will eventually start kicking up ideas and scenes, and soon the book begins to flow.

What is your favorite time to write? I write mostly in the afternoon. I’m not a morning person, and that seems to be when my focus and energy peak. But I also often get ideas while walking or taking a shower, and I keep a stack of blank index cards next to my bed, because inspiration often strikes as I’m almost drifting off to sleep. (I even bought a special pen with a flashlight built into it, so if I get an idea in the middle of the night, I can jot it down without waking my wife.)

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? When naysaying goblins perch on my shoulders, I often re-read modern dance pioneer Martha Graham’s famous advice to her friend Agnes de Mille, in which she says that it’s not the artist’s job to determine how good their work is, or how it compares to that of others—it’s just our job to be open to the creative urge inside us. Counter to a greeting card message that’s very prevalent in our culture, she even says that artists don’t have to believe in themselves—we just have to “keep the channel open.” When besieged by doubt, I find that oddly comforting.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? In an era when we’re increasingly seeing people use A.I. to think and write for them, I’m excited about still being a human being still doing my creating—both good and bad—on my own, for readers who might be interested in what another actual human being has to say. And in a world increasingly dominated by false and bad information, I still believe that good writing can be a bulwark, defending democracy and encouraging people to get beyond narrow identification with their own tribe, to see that—as the astronauts can testify—we’re all just one species living together on the same blue planet.

Gabriel Cohen’s The Frankenstein Fix: Why Big Tech Goes Astray & What We Can Do About It is out now with ‎ Edgewood Avenue Press.