The World and Everything in It: October 24, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. I'm Vernita Shepherdson. I've been blessed to be a labor and delivery nurse for 35 years. I work six months of the year in beautiful downtown Denver, Colorado and six months of the year in lovely Saint Mary's, Georgia. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!  A growing number of states is passing Right to Repair laws. What do they fix, and is it worth the cost?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also, generative AI programs promise big-time productivity,  but will the bots take our jobs? And, how churches are welcoming Christians with disabilities.

AUDIO: Stepping forward in love is a million times more important than not doing that and being fearful.

And WORLD Opinions Commentator Bethel McGrew says a recent murder in New York City illustrates the dignity of every human life.

BROWN: It’s Tuesday, October 24th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: House speaker » At the Capitol, Republicans are expected to vote this morning on another nominee for Speaker of the House.

That’s after the party’s last two nominees failed to corral enough votes overall and dropped out.

Recently-ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says enough is enough.

MCCARTHY: I just know this is not a time to play games. This is embarrassing for the Republican party. It’s embarrassing for the nation, and we need to look at one another and solve the problem.

Republicans gathered behind closed doors last night to hear from eight more candidates for the job.

The House has been without a speaker for three weeks grinding business in the chamber to a halt.

Israel » The Pentagon has flown U.S. military advisors to Israel to help Israeli commanders prepare for a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller:

MILLER: We have been engaging on a number of levels. The Pentagon has been engaging in military to military channels about what their operations might look like.

The United States has advised Israel to delay the ground assault to allow more time to negotiate the release of hostages taken by Hamas, including some Americans. But it was unclear how much longer Israel would wait.

Among those US military advisers is an urban combat specialist who will help Israeli commanders figure out how to minimize civilian deaths.

But Miller said it’s extremely challenging, because Hamas intentionally puts people in harm’s way.

MILLER: Hamas continues to put legitimate military targets inside civilian infrastructure and use the civilians of Gaza as human shields.

He said Israeli forces, before launching strikes on residential buildings routinely warn civilians to give them time to evacuate.

Israel/Aid » White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre says the people of Gaza are also victims of Hamas. And: 

PIERRE: President Biden has made it a top priority to ensure that the Palestinian people receive urgently needed humanitarian aid.

United Nations spokesman Stéphane Dujarric says at least 20 truckloads of humanitarian supplies rolled into Gaza from Egypt on Monday. But officials say much more is needed.

And Dujarric said the situation at hospitals in the Gaza strip is dire.

DUJARRIC: The Shiffa hospital in Gaza, the largest in the strip, is currently treating some 5000 patients, significantly over its normal capacity of 700.

The UN and humanitarian groups are trying to get fuel for generators and other supplies to hospitals without Hamas militants seizing them.

Drone attack on U.S. troops » U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the United States is not turning a blind eye to Iran’s role in the chaos as the primary backer of Hamas.

And in Syria Iran-backed militias are claiming responsibility for a drone attack against U.S. troops at a base in the country’s southeast.

KIRBY: And we're deeply concerned about the potential for any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead. At the direction of President Biden, the Secretary of Defense has ordered the military to take steps to prepare for this, to ensure that we're postured appropriately.

The latest attack follows several recent drone strikes by the same group on bases that house U-S troops in Iraq and Syria.

No U.S. troops were seriously hurt in any of those attacks.

U.S. warns it will defend Philippines » The United States is renewing a warning to Beijing, that it's prepared to defend the Philippines after an incident between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: In a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Manilla, the United States said we “stand with our Philippine allies in the face of” China’s “dangerous and unlawful actions.”

And the State Department emphasized America’s commitment to defend the Philippines under a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

Chinese ships over the weekend blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels damaging a Coast Guard ship and another boat.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called an emergency meeting with top military and security officials to discuss the latest hostilities.

The Philippines and other neighbors of China have pushed back against Beijing’s claims that it owns virtually the entire South China Sea.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

UAW » Nearly 7,000 more auto workers have walked off the job at a Chrysler plant in Michigan, expanding the weekslong strike to some 40,000 workers.

The United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said Detroit’s big-3 automakers have improved their offers, but not enough.

FAIN: The bottom line is we’ve got cards left to play, and they’ve got money left to spend.

Ford, Stellantis, and GM have made some concessions on pay, but they say some of the union’s demands are impossible to meet.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: The future of right-to-repair legislation. Plus, disabilities in the church.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 24th day of October, 2023.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up on The World and Everything in It: Mr. Fix-it.

In the age of YouTube, just about everyone is a Mr. or Ms. Fix-it. But not every technical product on the market has a manual and parts available for owners to make their own repairs.

EICHER: That’s where a movement called Right to Repair comes in… they’re lobbying for states to require companies to make it easier for customers and third-party players to repair their products.

Just a few weeks ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed one of these right-to-repair laws, making California the fifth state to pass this kind of legislation in the last decade.

BROWN: Are these laws really necessary, or could they have unexpected consequences for our economy? WORLD’s Mary Muncy brings us the story.

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: Afton Darnell and her brother run a 60-acre farm in North Carolina. You might remember her from last week’s story on agriculture technology. Well, one big problem with some of that new tech is trying to fix it.

DARNELL: These sensors go out on these tractors, come to find out, it was an issue with a computer. And it became like, we couldn't even use this tractor that we're having to pay all this money for because you couldn't tolerate being on it because it would scream.

The Darnells like to fix things themselves. But since it was a problem with the computer, they needed someone from the tractor’s manufacturer, Deutz-Fahr, to come fix it.

DARNELL: It's under warranty but you still have to pay the service fee for them to come out.

And that takes precious time. And as the adage goes, time costs money too. If it had been their other, older tractor, they could have fixed it themselves.

DARNELL: We have to be careful about being able to get this stuff fixed. With these really fancy tractors you can't push start them. It's a different world with them. So that's why we're so scared of technology.

And it’s not just farmers that feel this way. People in all sorts of businesses across the country have found that they either don’t have the parts and manuals to fix something…or they can’t get into the computer without the manufacturer's code.

So far, California, New York, Minnesota, and Colorado have passed laws to address this problem. All modeled after a 2012 Massachusetts law.

LIZ CHAMBERLAIN: This was the first right to repair legislation in the world, as far as I know.

Liz Chamberlain is the director of sustainability at iFixit, a company that supplies guides for fixing just about everything from toasters to cell phones to tractors.

CHAMBERLAIN: The basic idea was that it would require manufacturers to provide parts, tools, documentation, to independent repair shops, and it would it would create this, you know, this level playing field.

But as technology gets more sophisticated, Chamberlain says parts and manuals aren’t enough, so she’s working on right-to-repair laws concerning software.

CHAMBERLAIN: Manufacturers will let you complete a repair in the sense of like, you can, you know, find a part and install it. But then in order to activate the part  you have to complete some sort of software pairing process.

In most cases, it’s also against federal copyright law to break the locks on computers like the one in Darnell’s tractor. Manufacturers argue that it hurt could their business if people are able to access any source code behind the locks.

In 2021, the Library of Congress renewed an exception to break these locks in motorized land vehicles for the purposes of “diagnosis, repair, or modification.”

But they could remove that exception or change it when they review it again in 2024.

Alex Reinauer is a research fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He says most people would rather buy something new than fix something old, so requiring manufacturers to make their products fixable and provide parts will hurt innovation and the economy without helping consumers.

REINAUER: I think it's going to impose a lot of compliance costs on manufacturers, it's ultimately going to, to up the costs for all users and really only possibly only benefit a very small minority of users.

Reinauer is also concerned it could hurt the durability of products by forcing manufacturers to change the materials or techniques they use to make them.

But some people think both sides of the argument go too far.

Irene Calboli is a professor of law at Texas A&M University. She’s originally from Italy where there are right-to-repair laws. Calboli says that, unlike in Europe, there are currently grey areas in U.S. right-to-repair laws.

IRENE CALBOLI: If I'm a repair shop, and I'm sued, I can win or I can lose, and very much it's going to depend on the facts and how sympathetic the court will be.

Manufacturers also argue that doing a repair wrong could cause the product to work improperly and harm someone… and they don’t want to be liable.

CALBOLI: Companies should be shielded from liability. And that's, that's fair.

Calboli believes that right-to-repair laws that get through the legislative process shouldn’t totally satisfy either side of the debate. Manufacturers need protections to foster innovation, but people should be able to repair their stuff if they want to.

Afton Darnell says she understands that companies need to protect their profits on new products, but she still needs to get their equipment fixed quickly.

DARNELL: It definitely made it so that we were having to use one tractor all the time, and it was really hard on that tractor and people don't realize he can be rough on your equipment out here in the weather. So it just—it's just a domino effect.

After a month, they got the part to fix their tractor. But the whole experience made them even more wary of newer equipment. So for now, they’ll keep fixing their old stuff for as long as they can.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: the disruption of artificial intelligence.

The meteoric launch of generative AI in the last few years has some people worried about job security.

Tech companies like OpenAI praise artificial intelligence as a tool to boost productivity.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: But generative AI has also raised questions about what it contributes to the workplace and what it takes away.

In March, a Goldman Sachs report predicted that AI could disrupt over 300 million jobs around the globe within the next decade.

EICHER: WORLD intern Emma Perley has been asking around to find out whether generative AI is likely to be as disruptive as some fear.

EMMA PERLEY, REPORTER: ChatGPT will you take my job?

CHATGPT: No, I don't want to take anyone's job. I'm just a computer program created to assist and provide information. While AI and automation can change the job landscape in some industries, my role is not to replace humans but to support and complement human abilities.

ChatGPT didn’t answer my question of whether it would take my job. Instead it claims it’s just a tool, and it is. But what dangers come with using it? Right now, AI can program software, write Harvard essays in legalese, and solve difficult problems on its own. Essentially, it sounds like a human and has skills that rival a white-collar businessman.

But most experts agree that people make a mistake when they compare artificial intelligence to actual human minds. AI has singular objectives, meaning it fulfills demands the only way it knows how, and without considering other options. And it doesn’t have common sense.

Some, such as Kirsten Lum, currently work alongside artificial intelligence and see it as a springboard for increased productivity and efficiency. Lum is a chief product officer at a data company called Storytellers.ai. She’s spent almost a decade in analytics, and Storytellers specializes in gathering data and predicting outcomes through AI. And one of her main criticisms is that AI is still prone to mistakes.

KIRSTEN LUM: I think the misconception is that this technology is like plug and play, it's just going to sweep through various organizations, and it's all going to be AI. But it's actually very difficult to make these systems work in a way that's reliable enough.

Generative AI can experience “model collapse,” which is when it gleans information from other AI models rather than human content. The result is a kind of “synthetic” data which lacks original sources.

And while the internet is more of a delivery-based system, AI thrives in content creation. However, just as the internet inevitably caused people’s jobs to change, so will artificial intelligence. Audio here from HubSpot Marketing.

HUBSPOT: Now AI is freeing up marketers and a lot of other business folks to focus on decisions at the strategy level. It’s also giving marketers access to previously untapped information, which can help you deliver more targeted and smarter messaging.

AI is already making sweeping inroads in generated marketing content. And it may simply be the next technological stepping stone, treading the same path the internet once did.

LUM: I think there is a reality that AI is likely to be incorporated in a very large variety of jobs. And where I see that technology's trajectory, I don't see it as being a job replacer.

Lum is optimistic that AI won’t cause much disruption as it integrates into the workplace.

LUM: So that’s my hope is that AI may move fast, but where it's moving fast, it's creating opportunity where it's shifting opportunity away from, you know, say large groups of humans, and then, two, that where it will actually eliminate jobs, it'll be slow enough to where people can change their careers rather than be displaced.

One example of this is self-driving cars. Car manufacturers such as Tesla have been working for years to fully automate cars which can navigate safely on the road while driverless. Though these “robocars” are still several years away from being fully operational, Lum says there’s opportunity to switch careers in the meantime.

Lum is one of the many AI supporters who thinks people can rest easy… as she believes AI won’t take most people’s jobs. While it might affect HOW they do their job in the future, it’s certainly not smart enough or reliable enough to replace real people…at least for now.

JOUSTRA: Hi, my name is Rob Joustra, and I’m a professor of politics, International Studies at Redeemer University.

Located in Canada, Joustra has worked in academics for 20 years and regularly leads faculty development workshops. He says a common concern in recent meetings is professors who fear their jobs are at stake in the face of AI development.

JOUSTRA: Artificial intelligence is going to take over everything, it's going to transform the marketplace, it's going to put us all out of work in 10 years.

Joustra feels like that reaction is a little overblown, but says it’s nothing new.

JOUSTRA: It was such a perfect encapsulation to me of the sort of general hysteria that surrounded the encounter of AI in academia.

He’s had to adapt to a lot of technological change over the years. And it’s usually been a good thing.

JOUSTRA: Our research methods, if I can put it that way, are constantly being regenerated and changed. So the idea that large language models would push us on how research is done, I mean, that's just another Tuesday in academia, our research methods are always changing.

Joustra encourages what he calls “Christian curiosity.”

JOUSTRA: We don't need to be afraid. We don't need to be alarmist, we look to the revelation of the true things, which is, of course, the truth that Jesus is Lord, right? That even large language models do not somehow escape his grasp. But we also appreciate the ingenuity and the marvelous ways in which human beings can make something in this world.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Perley.

NICK EICHER, HOST: A farmer in Northern France was walking in a field of flowers with his longtime girlfriend when he popped the question, would you like to see my friend’s drone?

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: What?!

Yeah, not what you’d expect. Until you consider what the drone was flying over.

So she took a look at the screen and watched as the drone moved into position, revealing a message cut into a field.

BUREAU: J’ai vu un message et c’était noté “Veux-tu m’épouser?”

It’s love, friends! Love.

The message read: “Will you marry me?” in letters 600 feet across that took the farmer about a year to create using just a tractor and brush cutters.

Her response?

BUREAU: Et bien entendu, j’ai dit oui.

BROWN: I don’t know much French, but I think she said yes!”

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 24th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: disabilities and the church.

In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul says the church is like a body made up of many parts…and none of the parts can say that other members are unnecessary. He then says, “On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”

EICHER: If that means Christians with disabilities are indispensable to the body of Christ, what are churches doing to ensure that they are part of the gathering each week?

BROWN:  WORLD intern Aidan Johnston recently visited two churches to find out.

MUSIC: [Brad Mann on piano for worship]

AIDAN JOHNSTON, REPORTER: Every Wednesday night, Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky hosts a time of corporate prayer and worship. Tonight, Brad Mann is helping lead worship on piano. He’s playing from memory, eyes forward, not looking at the keys or music. But most services, Mann is in the pews with the rest of the congregation, following along in his bulletin—except his bulletin is in Braille.

MANN: With the lyrics included in these bulletins that helps me to actually participate in worship with the rest of my brothers and sisters.

Every week, volunteers put together the Braille bulletin for Mann and two other blind members at Clifton Baptist. They make the bulletin with a Braille embosser.

SOUND: [Braille embosser]

It looks like a hybrid of a sewing machine and a typewriter. Hidden from view, a thin metal rod punches rapid-fire into the paper, making shallow divots. The volunteers always make an extra copy, just in case another Braille reader wanders in. Ethan Holsteen, the deacon of special assistance, is in charge of the operation.

HOLSTEEN: The first thing that I would say is, serve the people that you have. If you have folks with disabilities in your, in your church, I would, first things first, you know, make sure that they're being served well.

Holsteen has seen firsthand the struggle that a disability can cause a family. While working at a summer camp one year, he got close to a family that had two boys with disabilities.

HOLSTEEN: And I was working with them and then talking with the mom after one day of working. And, and she said that sometimes she just sits at home and cries and wondering, does anyone care that I'm even here doing this. And that just broke my heart. And I was like, okay, the church has something to say about that. And we have something to do about that.

MUSIC: [STARS Choir sings Come Thou Long Expected Jesus]

Two hundred miles to the north, in Wheaton, Illinois, the disabilities program at College Church is running its weekly choir practice. It started a small disabilities ministry in 1965 to help teach the gospel to one member of the community with a disability. Today, it serves about 120 people. Julie Clemens is the director of the program.

CLEMENS: We call our individuals in our ministry STARS, which stands for Seeking To Always Reflect the Savior.

The STARS program is specifically for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It has about 150 volunteers. They run several Sunday school classes, a monthly game night, and weekly choir practices. Tonight, the choir is preparing for its Christmas play.

CHOIR MEMBER: This baby will be the king who will reign forever. He will make everything right.

Laura Tebbe first heard the STARS choir lead worship over a decade ago.

TEBBE: And I remember, like, just being so blown away, and just surprised, I've never experienced something like this. And again, it's this idea of celebrating people that maybe most of the world wouldn't celebrate.

Back then, Tebbe didn’t know just how involved she and her husband would become with the STARS ministry. After their son Caleb was born, he was diagnosed with autism. Today, at age 11, Caleb is largely nonverbal. Tebbe treasures the times he does talk.

TEBBE: He's like, the most loving kid in the whole world. Like he is very physically affectionate.

Still, caring for a special needs child can be difficult.

TEBBE: And most of life feels like we don't fit because our we don't. Like life is not outside, is not made for people like us.

Part of that is the constant vigilance it takes to watch Caleb. He can get into trouble when his parents aren’t watching.

TEBBE: We have at least 25 toys somewhere in our sewer system, because he has discovered the toilet. And he loves flushing things.

It can be exhausting.

So one goal of the ministry is to create a place of respite for parents. Caleb goes to a STARS Sunday School while his parents go to the service. He hears the same lesson twice in a row. At first, Tebbe thought Caleb would get bored with the repetition.

TEBBE: And actually, we find that it's just, they love the repeat. The repetition is a calming aspect of like, oh, I can, I you know, you're in control. And like, I know what to anticipate when so much of the world doesn't make sense to me.

Many Christians want to make the church a place of belonging for those with special needs. Back at Clifton Baptist, Ethan Holsteen says it doesn’t take much to get started.

HOLSTEEN: Stepping forward in love is a million times more important than not doing that and being fearful.

Julie Clemens has similar advice.

CLEMENS: I would say start with Hello, and introduce yourself. I think you need to be comfortable with silence. It may take them a few minutes to respond to you. But smile, and be friendly and you will probably meet somebody who's friendly back.

For the Tebbe’s, that friendly environment has made a huge difference.

TEBBE: And it's just like, it's such a like, wonderful environment of people just like, again, that idea of like enjoying people that are different instead of having to everything to be so like, straight laced.

For WORLD, I’m Aidan Johnston, reporting from Louisville, Kentucky and Wheaton, Illinois.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, a recent murder case in New York City. It’s a tough topic, but WORLD Opinions commentator Bethel McGrew points us to a foundational principle that’s easily overlooked. The sanctity of every human life.

BETHEL MCGREW, COMMENTATOR: It used to be that a man could get stabbed to death on the street, and nobody would know about it except his family or friends. But in the age of social media, those days feel like a distant dream. 

Earlier this month, the savage murder of political activist Ryan Carson became viral clickbait fodder, as the surveillance footage of his death made the rounds on X, formerly known as Twitter. The footage shows him sitting on a bench with his girlfriend, when a young black man in a hoodie walks past them. As the couple get up and walk in his direction, the man suddenly begins shouting incoherently, then turns around and makes an aggressive approach. Within seconds, Carson is collapsed on the pavement with a fatal chest wound. (Suspect Brian Dowling has been arrested and is currently being held without bail.)

The way Carson tried to confront his attacker came in for cruel mockery. Instead of either fleeing or disarming the young man, Carson naively keeps telling him to “chill.” Many on the right were quick to see his murder as a brutally fitting reward for his left-wing activism, propping up Antifa and pushing for softer crime policies.

Not everyone joined in the mob. Conservative writer Nate Hochman condemned the schadenfreude and praised Carson for at least trying to protect his girlfriend. But sympathy and nuance were thin on the ground among those for whom Carson was the “right” sort of victim. Of course, this vice cuts across the political spectrum. Earlier this year, we saw left-wing social media mocking the death of the “rich white men” on the Titan submarine. On the left and the right alike, no death is too cruel to be converted into a celebratory meme. In fact, the crueler the death, the more memes it seems to generate.

Meanwhile some self-styled “conservatives,” like political pundit Gina Bontempo, have proposed that compassion is wasted on our political enemies. In a long post on X, Bontempo pointed out that both Carson and his girlfriend promoted abortion on demand, sided with violent criminals against cops, and wanted to hound conservatives out of the public square. They wouldn’t show conservatives mercy. So why should we conservatives “back down” and “give ground” by showing them mercy now?

Of course, Bontempo’s whole post is a strawman argument. It’s not “backing down” or “giving ground” to suggest that it’s actually normal to feel upset when we see a man, any man, get murdered in real time. This is not incompatible with opposing evil or foolish policies. Even if Carson’s activism indirectly helped create the conditions for crimes like his own murder, that doesn’t make the crime just. 

All of this should go without saying, but apparently, it still needs to be said. And in an increasingly secular age—on left and right alike—it will fall to Christians to say it. Not because we’re seeking approval from our political opponents, but because we are human. And so are they. 

I’m Bethel McGrew.

NICK EICHER: Tomorrow: President Biden is trying to bundle defense aid for Israel and security for the Border with a much bigger package for Ukraine.

What are the specifics, and can it get past Congress? We’ll talk about it on Washington Wednesday. And, we’ll meet a man who is redeeming his wrongful imprisonment by helping others stay out of prison.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight declares the Lord. —Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24.

Go now in grace and peace.

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