AI is here to stay. Enemies will now use it for cyber and kinetic warfare. Staying out of the AI race will only put you in a dangerous position, going forward.

It's fitting. Tolkien intentionally made LotR a deeply Christian story: you have to choose between good and bad, and never give up hope. The magic and folklore are just embellishments for storytelling.

(Somebody else rightfully wrote that Frank Herbert's Dune is the opposite: everything is full of intrigues, no hope, nothing good to choose)

I know we’ve talked about this, but I just can’t cope with calling the Pope Leo the White.