Frames of Reference

Walking in Tel Aviv with a friend who professionally knocks down interior walls and builds alternatives, designs kitchens and bathrooms and things clients expect when they redo their homes. A leveled building on our left as we walked on the right side of the street. No discussion. Mutual assumption. A building leveled in Tel Aviv for rebuilding. Municipal planning. National programs.

A bus, a taxi, a cup of coffee, walking according to a plan, like tourists. Sunshine. Conversation – the kind besties have. Personal. Very. Politics. Very personal too.

Talk about the army. Talk about the interview on a television program last night with the mother of a hostage who was killed by a soldier. The horror of the accident. The mother speaks for herself. Her husband, the father, unheard. The brother angry. The mother not angry at the soldier. But her angst grows when her questions meet unwillingness to respond – or conflicting details in retelling events by authorities vs. individuals involved.

Recalling media headlines. Different stories. Some about the same issue: is renewed war with Iran imminent or is an agreement imminent? Are we going to be safe from nuclear threat by either scenario? Did the war achieve progress on the matter? Why isn’t that widely perceived as a US interest? Because of the president leading the show?

Headlines: violence, political games, the school system, who is joining which political party, why, public health, economics, cost of living, medical care? Balancers removing checks, resetting balances. Crime.

Another article about AI. The prompt – a user-choice. But does the end-user have a choice? Or tools for discerning distorted truths? If you invest time in a prompt to get a response you need rather than investing considerably more time in developing the response you need, you’re inefficient? If AI reviews your response with an algorithm indifferent to your investment of valuable time, isn’t it sensible to invest in a prompt? Why is AI giving me identifiably incorrect answers?

Leveled building on our left as we walked on the right side of the street. Discussion in a later encounter recalled the sight, the site. Our assumption proven false. A building leveled by an Iranian missile last month. Frame of reference adjustment.

Harriet Gimpel – May 9, 2026