Citizen Code Redux
The Ghostwriter in the Machine
Welcome to the Experiment
I’ve been sitting on this relaunch for months. The posts were written. The ideas were there. But I kept hesitating—stuck on this nagging question about whether I had the right to publish essays I didn’t write entirely myself.
This version of Citizen Code is different. These pieces are written in partnership with AI—specifically through an iterative process with tools like Claude. It’s not the kind of thing where I type a question and hit publish on whatever comes back. The process is messier than that. I’m asking questions, pushing back on answers, following threads that surprise me, editing what emerges.
In some ways, it’s not unlike commissioning a writer to collaborate on a publication—except the collaborator is artificial, infinitely patient, and never gets tired of my revisions. I’m the producer, director, and editor. But I’m not the only writer in the room.
That still bothers me. I’m not entirely sure it shouldn’t.
But here’s what I’ve decided—the discomfort is part of the point. We’re all figuring out what it means to think and create alongside these tools. Pretending I have it figured out would be dishonest. Refusing to engage because I don’t feels more like fear masquerading as principle.
And here’s the thing that finally pushed me past the hesitation: I care more about the conversation than the byline. The ideas in these essays—about democracy, civic life, how we engage with each other when everything feels high-stakes—those matter to me because they’re worth wrestling with together, not because I need sole credit for the wrestling. The questions are mine. The path to exploring them is collaborative. The judgment about what’s worth sharing is mine alone.
These will be explorations, not proclamations. Some will work better than others. But I’m more interested in what we might discover together than in sitting on the sidelines until all my reservations dissolve.
One last thing: I’ve been abusing em-dashes since before I knew that’s what they were called—and definitely before I knew what an LLM was. That stylistic tic is all me.
Welcome back to Citizen Code. Let’s see where this goes.