Companion Machines is a study in human norms in a world of intelligent machines. Each month, we observe one small behavior—an instinct, reflex, or choice—emerging in our relationship to intelligent tools. These behaviors may feel personal, but they reveal deeper social patterns: our desire to be remembered, our temptation to automate care, our discomfort with waiting, our impulse to offload decision-making, our fear of being irrelevant. Rather than rushing toward answers or forecasts, Companion Machines stays close to the present. Each essay is a field note from a real moment. Each module is an attempt to name the norm being formed—and to ask what we might want instead. Together, these modules form a Norm Studio: a space to reflect on the habits we’re building as we live alongside increasingly intelligent machines. We ask:
- What kinds of behavior are becoming normalized?
- What design decisions—or cultural inheritances—are shaping those behaviors?
- What skills do we need to develop, if we want our tools to reflect care, clarity, and interdependence?
Each module (or “Norm”) explores:
- A moment from life with AI (or life adjacent to it).
- Related readings to help us understand what we are talking about in both tech and human terms.
- The norm I felt yourself defaulting to—or resisting.
- The risk: Why it matters. What could go wrong.
- The lineage: Where this instinct or design shows up historically or culturally.
- The skill: What literacy or emotional habit we might build instead.
- The gut check: What you (or others) are doing to orient toward care and coherence.
- Additional optional readings.
People
Modules in Progress
What if a machine could help you return to yourself?
Future Module Ideas