# Essays

> Why machines cite what they cite, and notes from the editor's chair.

https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/

![A low pile of loose blank plates seen from slightly above, the far end dissolving into wash and the leading edge of the topmost sheet drawn in wine. The record accumulates, newest sheet on top.](https://isaacmarcuson.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/blog-stack.webp)

Why machines cite what they cite, and notes from the editor's chair.

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- [![The Machine Is Made of Language](https://isaacmarcuson.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/how-to-learn-ai-below-the-window.webp)](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/how-to-learn-ai/) [The editor's chair](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/category/editors-chair/) ## [The Machine Is Made of Language](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/how-to-learn-ai/) August 23, 2026 A framework for learning AI that is a thousand years old: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The documented failures of AI adoption sort into missing arts.

- --- [![If You Hate AI, Learn It](https://isaacmarcuson.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/if-you-hate-ai-learn-it-og.png)](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/if-you-hate-ai-learn-it/) [The editor's chair](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/category/editors-chair/) ## [If You Hate AI, Learn It](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/if-you-hate-ai-learn-it/) August 15, 2026 You already live inside deployed AI. Refusing the tools only decides who holds them.
- --- [![Named Entities: Nothing Gets to Name Itself](https://isaacmarcuson.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/entity-authority-og.png)](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/entity-authority/) [Machine citation](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/category/machine-citation/) ## [Named Entities: Nothing Gets to Name Itself](https://isaacmarcuson.com/blog/entity-authority/) July 19, 2026 You can call yourself anything; you cannot set your own weight. A law about authority, traced from Delphi through Google's patents: nothing enters the graph, or the world, on its own declaration. Things get named.