Eric Turkington
est. 2026 · Amherst, MA
Essays
Longer-form writing. New pieces come out when they're ready, not on a schedule.
The constellation
Essays orbit the concepts they share. Hover to trace a thread; click an essay to read it.
- Jun 2026
The Dry Well
Consumer health AI bottoms out where the context runs dry. The platforms that hold the full record are the only ones that can safely guide the journey.
- May 2026
The Hippocratic Oath AI Needs
You can't 'do no harm' if you can't grasp — or won't admit — what you don't know. AI is not ashamed, and it does not know what it does not know.
- May 2026
Lost on the Token-Room Floor
AI is so capable at being a translation layer, which is why we largely don't value what it produces. Can it be the seed of the thought, and not just its conveyor belt?
- Apr 2026
What Work Was Doing for Us
Everyone is arguing about AI and jobs. A deeper question intrigues me more: what was work doing for us that the paycheck wasn't?
- Apr 2026
The Scaffolding Deficit
While we're rightly worried about cognitive degradation from ever-smarter AI, is there a bull-case for humans to grow more intelligent alongside it?
- Mar 2026
The New YOLO
What radical uncertainty asks of us, and why flinching away is the real cost.
- Feb 2026
Agentic Entropy
Agent-mediated communication promises efficiency, but quietly strips away the human friction that produces actual understanding.
- Nov 2025
This AI Voice Assistant Is Helping Surgeons Save Time, Money, and Lives
Operating theatres account for 35-40% of hospital costs. One minute of OT time can run $100-$200. Voice AI is turning those micro-moments into measurable gains.
- Aug 2025
The Power of Voice in the OR: Bridging High Tech, Human Realities
Despite advancements in technology, even top hospitals lack reliable data on what happens inside the OR. Voice technology offers a way to change that — if it can meet clinicians where they are.
- Aug 2021
Beyond Bourdain: The Ethics & Economics of Voice Synthesis Technology
Voice cloning technology has arrived. It's powerful, inexpensive, and doesn't require much training data. The question is not if it will be used, but how.
- Jul 2021
The Self-Service Conundrum: Is 'Easier Said Than Done' Attainable?
In 2021, I can ask a speaker to order nearly any product I want and have it delivered in under two hours. In that very same world, I can spend six-plus hours on a single telephone call to my bank. How can both of these realities co-exist?
- Oct 2019
What Happens When 'Generation Voice' Grows Up?
When my two-year-old daughter sees me casually speak with inanimate objects, she's not impressed. It's perfectly normal to her. What happens when Generation Voice comes of age?
- Sep 2018
The Coming Era of Assistant-Centered Design
Advancements in robotics and AI have surfaced the notion of 'robot-centered design' — but perhaps even more important is re-imagining our digital universe for use by our AI-enabled assistants.
- Jun 2018
Should My Phone Have a Surgeon General's Warning?
Our current ability to advance our technological capabilities far outpaces our collective desire to understand the implications. Because when it comes to product design, knowledge is far more easily acquired than wisdom.
Nothing under this topic yet.