VIRGINIA POSTREL: In the Land of AI and Bamboo Forks.

You know you are in a different world when you go to the (one person, non-gendered) bathroom at Anthropic. Next to the sink, there is a lavish display of items you might need, just in case. I am old enough to be impressed by bathrooms with free tampons instead of machines that may or may not work, may or may not be filled, and will definitely require exact change. Anthropic has tampons and pads, as is now the norm. It also has razors and shaving cream. It has little lint rollers and tiny deodorants so adorable I swiped one. It has toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, dental floss, and dental picks. The toothpaste is Tom’s and the toothbrushes are, according to their brown paper packaging, made of bamboo.

For a place that prides itself on tolerating—and making billions from—the peculiarities of the “neurodiverse,” San Francisco is remarkably determined to make you stick bamboo in your mouth. Uncoated wood hitting my teeth makes my skin crawl. It is an involuntary response and horrible—a reaction that is not unique to me.1 I spent my days in San Francisco slurping yogurt off bamboo spoons and trying to get lettuce off bamboo forks without letting the bamboo hit my teeth. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

San Francisco’s rage for bamboo cutlery seems to be a result of a 2019 ordinance combined with local mores. It’s a signal that the city is culturally removed from normal life. This is a place that worships the “natural” (hence the Tom’s) while exploring new frontiers in artifice. It is a very specific cultural bubble. Cultural bubbles aren’t bad per se, but you need to be aware that you’re living in one.

Read the whole thing. As James Lileks once wrote, “You realize: no one in a dystopia probably thinks they’re living in a dystopia.”