PlayStation 5 Prices, Girls’ Flag Football, and Why AI Researchers Are Smoking Cigs

PlayStation 5 consoles cost more than they ever have, girls-only flag football leagues are taking root nationwide, and the surprising reason tech employees are taking up smoking. But first: 

Song of the Week: “Boston” by Stella Lefty 

“Boston” has been on the Billboard Hot 100 for 27 weeks, but the jury is still out on the artist behind it. Stella Lefty gave a songwriting credit to Noah Kahan after listeners noticed that “Boston” had a similar melody to his song, “Stick Season.” (It does not help that Lefty covered “Stick Season” a lot on her TikTok.) Lefty—born Lefkofsky—told Vanity Fair that she “wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan” when she wrote the song, but that didn’t stop the discourse. One reviewer said that Lefty’s debut LP, Long Way Home—which has multiple plagiarism claims—is “full of songs that sound like other songs with no new story to tell.” For the lyrics, click here; for a lyric video, click here.

And now for our three conversations..

1. Grand Theft Console

What it is: Even though a new PlayStation 5 Pro is supposed to sell for $900, they’re difficult to find in stock; hence GameStop currently selling the console, used, for $1329. 

Why it’s more than it seems: While you might expect demand for gaming consoles to surge as the holidays and the category six hurricane that is Grand Theft Auto VI both loom on the horizon, demand is actually cratering. Despite gaming traditionally being more resistant to economic woes, AI devouring all available computing parts has proven to be industry kryptonite.  Gone are the days when consoles got cheaper as time passed after their release (the PS2 hit $129 at one point). Instead, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have all raised hardware prices. That’s the 10,000-foot view; on the ground, this means for younger gamers who simply want a shiny new console to play games, it’s going to require more and more lawnmowing gigs and babysitting jobs, and for parents wanting to create a memorable Christmas, well, it might be the only box under the tree.

Continue the conversation: How much do you think a video game console is worth? 

2. Female Flag Football

What it is: Girls’ flag football is the fastest-growing high school sport in the US. The NFL is now pushing for all 50 states to invest in the sport. 

Why it’s sweeping the nation: As concerns around tackle football injuries grow, youth participation in the sport has decreased. Enter: flag football, which is like regular football, minus the tackling. The appeal for parents? Flag football is safer and requires less equipment. The best way to produce future fans is participation in youth sports, so it makes sense why the NFL has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into youth leagues. And it seems to be paying off, according to Bloomberg. Over 41 states now offer girls high school flag football programs, and 25 states have officially sanctioned championships at the high school level. Now there’s a path for girls to play in college on NCAA D1 women’s flag football teams. The sport will make its Olympic debut for men and women in the 2028 LA games, which could boost popularity even further. 

Continue the conversation: What do you think about flag football?

3. Thank You For Smoking

What it is: In an interview with CBS News, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said that many AI researchers have taken up smoking as a way to signal their faith that AI will cure cancer. 

Why it seems desperate: Two months ago, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged that between public frustration with data centers, AI models training on copyrighted work, and threats it could pose to the workforce, AI has developed a pretty negative public perception. He suggested that the way out of this would be for AI to “actually cure cancer.” Fast forward to today, and some researchers seem to be betting their health on that outcome. Now, the epistle of James repeatedly made the case that if someone really believes in something, there will be actions to demonstrate that belief. (“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead”). And while smoking cigarettes to demonstrate faith in AI’s ability to cure cancer is pretty clearly not the kind of thing James was talking about, it still creates an opportunity to explore the nature of faith. 

Let’s translate this one further…

In an essay called “The Truth in Jesus,” the late novelist and poet George MacDonald wrote that, “…to hold a thing with the intellect is not to believe it. A man’s real belief is that which he lives by.” Absurdly, these researchers could be said to be living by their beliefs in AI—by taking up smoking. 

Again, the faith these men and women are “living by” is not faith in Jesus and His ability to heal—it is faith in AI and its ability to heal, or at least find the key ingredients to healing. And yet, there are several useful points of comparison and contrast here: 

1. If we really believe in something, there should be actions that represent that belief. 
2. Believing in something does not necessarily make that thing true. 
3. There are harmful ways of expressing belief in a good thing. 

Starting with #3, the parallel to these researchers’ nicotine habit might be the obscure practice of snake-handling, which involves deliberately grabbing venomous snakes as a sign of trust in God. Drawing on Mark 16:17-18 for supposed support, participants in these rituals purposefully put themselves in harm’s way as a sign of their faith in God’s ability to protect. (Axis does not condone the handling of venomous snakes and recommends reading Scripture in context.)

Regarding point #2, some argue that putting faith in something is more likely to make that thing true, because believers will work to make it true. This is sometimes offered as an explanation for why manifesting “works.” But this is not the biblical idea of faith, which involves putting faith in spiritual realities that are true despite anything we think or do. As the late Dr. Tim Keller once wrote, “It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.” 

Now, to be fair to Shyam Sankar, he wasn’t bringing up the Silicon Valley nicotine habit as a point of pride. He was mocking it. He called it a form of “mass psychosis” and “social delusion.” And yet going back to #1, if there’s one thing Christians can learn from this, it’s that true faith involves putting ourselves on the line. As the late John Wimber was fond of saying, “Faith is spelled R-I-S-K.” What would it look like to take more risks for what we believe in? 

Here are three questions to help you continue the conversation with your teens: 

Parenting together,

Evan Barber and the Axis Team

In Other News…

1. The first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, featuring Led Zeppelin and multi-colored, psychedelic visuals, is available for all to see (and have divided opinions about).
2. Have you heard “Higher” by Creed more in the past two years than you ever did in the 2000s? Apparently Instagram was suggesting the song too much. We’ll let you decide whether this was a genuine software bug or an intentional Creed psyop.
3. Dressmaker, a video game about, well, making dresses, is the talk of the (internet) town this week. Even if consoles are getting more expensive, wholesome indie “cozy games” that run on your pre-COVID laptop will never die.
4. Speaking of wholesome, “bloomscrolling,” an awkwardly named counterpoint to doomscrolling, is catching on. The goal is to fill your feed with “uplifting, calming, or inspiring content.” Will this make you feel better than doomscrolling? Probably. Would it be better to just go experience those things in person? Also probably.
5. Mike Flanagan’s television adaptation of Carrie has dominated Prime Video’s streaming charts this week. It’s a modern take on the twisted coming-of-age story and doesn’t pull its punches with language and intense depictions of bullying.

PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!