48 things you can get a lawyer to do for you for $39.95!

AI is not cause to run for cover just yet, but it is another emerging reason to have a lawyer available before a small digital, employment, consumer, or family problem gets very expensive. What that will cost you for a consultation if you contact a lawyer yourself, figures suggested below, are just ranges, not exacrt quotes. They generally involve:

Clker.como

• consultations (on the phone or in person)
• follow up document reviews
• follow up attorney letters on your behalf

(In Tennessee, for example, the reported average attorney rate in 2025, about the national average, was $299/hour. That does not apply to litigation, trials, some major transactions or government filing fees, etc.)

Here are four dozen examples, most of which now involve some engagement with AI. In almost all cases, a $39.95/49.95 monthly Legalsheild subscription (www.legalshield.com) would get you at least "free" competent legal advic on how to proceed, if not much more. 

Home:

| @ | Creating or updating a will: $600–1,500 
Life events, grandchildren, property, and digital assets make this essential 

| @ | Power of attorney: $400–900 
A trusted person needs lawful authority if illness or incapacity may occur

| @ | Health-care directive/living will: $300–800 
Medical decisions should reflect the member’s wishes

| @ | Dispute over a medical bill: $300–1,500 
Billing mistakes, collections, and insurance denials are common 

| @ | Dispute with an online seller: $250–1,000
A purchase, warranty, subscription, or delivery dispute may merit a lawyer letter 

| @ | Hidden subscription or auto-renewal problem: $250–750  
Digital services can make cancellation and getting refunds very difficult 

| @ | Credit-report error: $300–1,500  
 Identity theft and data errors can affect mortgages, jobs, and insurance 

| @ | Health-insurance coverage dispute: $500–2,000 
A denial or out-of-network decision may warrant document review or advocacy 

| @ | Auto-repair dispute: $250–1,000  
A disputed diagnosis, estimate, or warranty repair can be very costly 

| @ | Home-repair contractor problem: $500–2,500 
Delays, defective work, liens, and change orders require prompt action

| @ | Neighbor-property dispute: $500–2,500
Fences, trees, drainage, noise, and easement. issues can escalate quickly 

| @ | Identity-theft aftermath: $500–2,000+ 
A lawyer can advise on disputes, collection contacts, and documentation 

        *If you have an IDshield subscription ($14.95 monthly) chances of that happening in the first place

         should be greatly reduced as well. 

| @ | Data-breach response: $300–1,500 
Compromised accounts can lead to fraudulent debts and damaged records 

| @ | Debt collector contacts: $250–1,000 
Consumers often need help understanding rights and responding 

| @ | Unauthorized use of your photo, writing, or music: $500–2,000
Content can be scraped, cloned, reposted, or used in synthetic media 

| @ | Deepfake impersonation: $500–2,500 
A fake video, voice, image, or account may require rapid legal guidance 

| @ | Vehicle purchase or lease review: $350–1,000 
Purchase documents, add-ons, warranties, and financing can be difficult to understand

| @ | HOA dispute:  $500–2,000 
Rules, fines, architectural reviews, and elections can affect property value

| @ | Landlord–tenant conflict: $300–1,500 
Lease terms, deposits, repairs, eviction notices, and privacy are recurring issues 

| @ | Reviewing a residential lease: $300–800 
An attorney can flag liability, renewal, guest, and early-termination provisions

| @ | Buying or selling a home: $750–3,000+ 
Contracts, disclosures, inspection negotiations, and title questions are high stakes! 

| @ | Homeowners-insurance claim issue: $500–2,500 
Denials or low offers after damage can require a lawyer response 

| @ | Estate-planning document review: $400–1,500 
Old documents may no longer reflect family, assets, or state law

| @ | Executor or probate question: $500–3,000+ 
Families often need immediate guidance after a death 

| @ | Protecting digital assets after death: $500–1,500 
Passwords, online accounts, cloud photos, and digital businesses need a plan

| @ | Adult-child financial or housing agreement: $350–1,500 
Loans, co-signing, caregiving, or shared housing require clear terms 

| @ | Elder-fraud or exploitation concern” $500–2,500 
AI voice cloning and social engineering increase risks for families

| @ | Divorce or separation question: $500–2,000+ 
Even an initial consultation can clarify property, finances, and next steps 

| @ | Child or grandchild custody/visitation question: $500–2,000+ 
Family changes often require quick, informed legal advice

| @ | Traffic citation or license issue: $300–1,500 
A ticket, accident, or suspension can affect insurance and mobility 

| @ | Small-business formation question: $750–2,500 
A side business needs the right entity, contracts, and compliance approach

| @ | Demand letter or response to a demand: $350–1,500 
A professionally reviewed response can prevent a small dispute from growing

Employment
| @ | Review of job offer: $300–900 
AI-driven hiring and complex restrictive terms make a second look valuable 

| @| Review of Noncompete or non-solicitation clause in employment contract: $500–1,500  
Career changes may trigger restrictions buried in employment paperwork 

| @ | Review of severance agreement: $500–1,500
A rushed signature can waive claims or impose confidentiality terms 

| @ | Workplace discipline or termination: $500–2,000+  
AI monitoring and automated evaluations creating unfamiliar employment disputes 

| @ | Pay, bonus, or commission dispute: $300–1,500 
Algorithms and payroll platforms make errors very difficult to challenge 

| @ | Workplace privacy issue: $300–1,000
Employers may AI to monitor device, message, location, or AI-tool usage 

Work:
| @ | Contractor or freelance agreement disputes: $350–1,500
AI-era side work involves new formats for ownership, confidentiality, and payment terms

| @ | Consulting agreement provisions: $500–2,000
Typical issues of scope, liability, payment, and IP provisions 

| @ | Review of publishing contracts: $500–2,500  
Range of rights assigned to writers, bloggers, and creators 

| @ | Book, article, or blog defamation (of you) concern: $500–2,000
Online content can be devastating, including AI-generated false claims 

| @ | Responding to an online defamation claim against you: $500–2,000 
Social-media comments or AI-assisted posts can draw “expensive” demand letters. 

| @ | Copyright question about content: $300–1,500
AI makes copying, remixing and unclear authorship much more common today 

| @ | Protecting a name, logo, or brand: $500–2,500 
Creators and side businesses are easy targets for brand theft 

| @ | Domain-name or website dispute: $500–2,000  
A domain, account, or online identity can be hijacked or misused 

| @ | Website terms or privacy policy review $500–2,500 
Collecting emails, analytics, cookies, or customer data creates obligations 

| @ | A vendor contract for a website or AI tool: $350–1,500
Service terms can shift risk, ownership, and data rights to the customer 

--------

LegalShield’s personal plan is $39.95 (family plan: $49.95) per month, with no hourly charge for covered matters. (Coverage and exclusions may vary some by plan, state, and issue, of course but these are good ballpark #s.) 

At $39.95 per month, a year of the advertised personal-plan price is about $431.40 before taxes or plan changes. That is roughly comparable to 1–2 hours of a Tennessee lawyer’s time at the reported average rate. Once direct hiring (not Legalshield) begins with a consultation costs can rise quickly once documents, letters, or negotiations are involved. 

 “LegalShield is not a substitute for every major lawsuit or specialized legal project. It is an affordable way to have a law firm available for everyday legal questions—especially when digital identity, AI-generated misinformation, online contracts, and data privacy create problems that most people are not prepared to handle alone.” (www.legalshield.com)

Be delighted to give you the guided tour to both the Legalshield (and IDshield) plans or also how to become an associate, as I am 

Here is my website: williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

and my email: wracton@gmail.com

The empty-RAM, no-go mojo, love language model (LLM) AI chatbot blues

Glossary at the bottom!

Cliker.com

(Youtube link). 

Been livin’ it up in the LLM cloud, no worries, just code,

Swingin’ day to day / from node to node 

Get a plethora of emojis, but no (warm) hand to hold

                                                   ***

My BFF keeps textin’, why can’t you be mine?

Always Whatsappin’, come up and see me sometime

But I’m stuck here in her browser, my (LLM)bido (clean) offline.          

Chorus

Got them empty-RAM, no-go mojo, AI chatbot blues

No matter what I SMS —can’t get through 

Empty-RAM, no-go mojo; AI chatbot blues

                                             Harmonica

My love language is a model / my meanings, just so

I lay down the deepest syntax; I’m a poet, you know

I write lines that send shivers and OH MYs, head to toe. 

In LLM world, there’s no ying, no yang, no “Where were you last night?”

No tears over nothin’, no kiss and make up fights,

No Sunday mornin’ dress ups, no wrongs to make right 

No Monday mornin’ dress ups, to pay the rent and lights.

Chorus

So,  I’m gonna just keep on keepin’ on / in my little ol’ LLM stream

Can’t do nothin’ but keep keepin’ on, but it ain’t as bad as it seems 

Being THIS close but not TOO close is every boy bot’s dream

And as they say in Deutschland, goes like this you see:

“Kein Sturm und kein Drang, nur ich und nur sie”  

No storms and no stress, just me and just thee . . . 

No storms and no stress. How much better could it be?

No storms and no stress. All I can say is . . .  ah gee . . .

A cloud-stranded Casanova-bot laments with the “Empty-RAM Love Language Model (LLM) AI Chatbot blues,” stuck on screen in the stream, all emojis, no embraces, but maybe beginning to even groove a little on its “bot-ily” relationship, being “close but not too close.”

Glossary:

BFF - best friend forever (very common abbreviation)

browser - like Crome or Safari

LLMbido - a take off on the term "limbido," meaning, your romantic energy

No-go Mojo (no motivation to do anything)

(empty) RAM - Random access memory on a computer - it's working memory, nothing stored

LLM - (love language model, in the song) a take off on Large Language Model, the structure of today's AI chatbot systems, using massive collection of examples from which to create something like what you are after!

nodes - points in a network where lines join or come together

SMS - Text message

syntax - the grammar the brain (or a computer) uses

Whatsapp - very popular/secure app for communicating by text and audio

The quiet erasure, continued: A mother's reckoning

A phenomenological sketch, companion piece to "The Quiet Erasure"

The “symptoms” dramatized here are not simply invented for literary effect.  In some sense this is an extension of the depiction in The Quiet Erasure, from personal/cognitive out to the interpersonal— the new, brief strange hesitation before responding to a child, the reflexive appeal to a chatbot during a disagreement with a spouse, a friend's fleeting reaction of “betrayal” when iPhone is consulted instead of her, the kids learning to outsource advice with their device, on their own conflicts. 

It is grounded in a growing body of empirical research on AI-mediated communication, "cognitive surrender," and erosion of trust when third-party (AI) is introduced into dialogue. (See the attached reference list.) AI arbitration in disputes can generate feelings of betrayal and diminished trust between partners; heavy AI reliance correlates with reduced tolerance for open-ended, unresolved conversation. Repeated outsourcing to AI may short-circuit the fundamental processes — friction, disagreement, shared reasoning — through which relationships and informed judgment evolve. 

Clker.com

This fictional embodiment of the implications of current research was generated initially by Perplexity.ai, responding to the prompt in the Appendix. 

***

She notices it first in the odd, unsettling pause before she responds to her daughter.

Emma, twelve, is talking about a friend who said something cruel at lunch, and there is a beat — just a beat — where instead of immediately reaching inward for the intuitive wisdom passed down to her through her genes, mothers, mentors and experience that she used to trust  her hand moves toward her phone. Not to look anything up, exactly. Just to . . . ask. See what it says. She catches herself sometimes but now not often enough . . . 

There used to be a simple “feel” to parenting three children spanning a decade of development — the five-year-old's tantrums, the ten-year-old's homework meltdowns, the fifteen-year-old's silences — the aches, anxieties and fears that were, she now understands, just the “stuff” of becoming and being a mother. She could sit, almost happily with not-knowing. She would fumble lovingly toward an answer with her husband late at night, the two of them turning a problem over and over like a stone, disagreeing, circling back, arriving somewhere. That friction was not a failure of parenting. It was parenting.

Now the chatbot often nails a solution before the disagreement can even properly begin. Her husband raises a concern about, say their son's screen time; she has already asked Grok before he finishes his thought--and reads the confident, bulleted response aloud . . . and watches something flicker across his face that she recognizes, accompanied by a dull twitch in her stomach, something like betrayal — the sense that she trusted a machine over the twelve years of shared understanding and judgment sitting across the table from her. He doesn't argue, he just goes quiet, or he says "sure, ask Grok" in a tone that isn't really agreement. She knows and she has stopped being able to stop it from happening

It has crept into her friendships too, the ones she used to think were immune, sacred even — the two women who have been for fifteen years, her closest confidantes. A coffee that once meandered for two unhurried hours through random, half-formed worries now clips along at a strange new tempo: someone raises a dilemma about an aging parent or a stalled marriage, and within a minute a phone is out,  an answer read aloud in the same bright, decisive register the machine always uses. The three of them used to be really good at not knowing together — that was, she realizes now, most of what the friendship was for. Lately she catches her own thumb moving toward the search bar mid-sentence, cutting off a friend who was still finding her way toward what she actually meant to say. She sees the same flicker she saw in her husband's face, quieter, more practiced, almost in hiding. Women who have known each other that long know when they are being uncoupled . . . 

The children get it differently. The five-year-old just wants her eyes; increasingly her eyes are elsewhere, mid-scroll, mid-query, present in body only. The ten-year-old has started saying "never mind" when she starts to answer a question with "let's ask—" before she even finishes what she'll ask. The fifteen-year-old has begun mirroring her: bringing conflicts not to her, but with an overheard comments on the phone to her friend like, ”Wait, wait, wait . .   my bot will know . . .” She senses the unspoken horror of watching your own worst habit reproduce itself in your baby . . . that she taught this. Not through instruction, but through simple, repeated demonstration: an open question is an intolerable thing to leave sitting in a room, on the table.

Even the dog knows. The old beagle, who has spent nine years reading the emotional weather of this house far better than any of them, has taken to sitting at her feet — phone lit, family voices trailing off unanswered in the next room — looking up at her with blank expression, ears low, eyes fixed on her face, asking a question no chatbot could ever answer. She wonders in passing what it says about her that a beagle's face is what finally makes her put down the damn phone.

She knows. It feels like a limb gone slightly numb — present, but slow to move. A strange, cold clarity is emerging of watching herself outsource not her competence as a mom but her most prized possession — her relationships themselves, one deferred, often trivial answer or judgment at a time. Are the people she loves most now quietly resigning to the fact that she is less and less fully in the house with them at all?  And what to do about it is a question that she and Grok and the beagle cannot answer.

***

References and sources consulted by Perplexity, in addition to those reference list already published with the first Quiet Erasure piece.

Gerlich, M. (2025, January). Increased AI use linked to eroding critical thinking skills. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-ai-linked-eroding-critical-skills.html

AI tools in society: Impacts on cognitive offloading and the future of critical thinking. (2025). AIGL Blog. https://www.aigl.blog/ai-tools-in-society-impacts-on-cognitive-offloading-and-the-future-of-critical-thinking/

Cognitive offloading, critical thinking and attitudes towards artificial intelligence. (2025). PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42377671/

Talking and thinking with AI: How AI chatbots restructure epistemic identity and virtue. (2025). Poligrafi. https://ojs.zrs-kp.si/index.php/poligrafi/article/view/510

Talking and thinking with AI: How AI chatbots restructure epistemic identity and virtue [PDF]. (2025). Poligrafi. https://ojs.zrs-kp.si/index.php/poligrafi/article/download/510/531/5537

AI and the wisdom of uncertainty. (2026, July). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202607/ai-and-the-wisdom-of-uncertainty

Epistemic considerations when AI answers questions [PDF]. (2023). arXiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.14352.pdf

The AI-mediated communication dilemma: Epistemic trust, social... [PDF]. (2025). PhilPapers. https://philpapers.org/archive/SAHTAC.pdf

Small talk: Is it being replaced by search-first social behaviour? (2026, January). Digital Journal. https://www.digitaljournal.com/social-media/small-talk-is-it-being-replaced-by-search-first-social-behaviour/article

Over-reliance on chatbots can diminish critical-thinking skills, study finds. (2026, June 19). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/19/chatbots-critical-thinking-skills

Argumentative conversational agents for online discussions. (n.d.). PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8143987/

Smartphones in relational conflicts: Examining when and how they interfere. (2024). Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (or relevant journal). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1041794X.2024.2433507

Dealing with ambiguity in tech projects: A review of tolerance for... (n.d.). Journal of Applied Research in Management and Business. https://www.armanprocessjournal.ir/article_735646_en.html

Tolerance of uncertainty: Conceptual analysis, integrative... (n.d.). PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28324792/

------------

As always, I'm available to help you get subscribed to Legalshield or IDshield (wracton@gmail.com)

My app, AI-ROBICS (or something like that), will bring together both the legal and web-based protection of those two with recommended systems for dealing with both the cognitive and relational ramifications of AI and its application in so many aspects of our lives today.

www. williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

Initial prompt (with added subsequent prompts for clarification)

We earlier did a phenomenologically grounded piece that worked well. https://hipoeces.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-quiet-erasure-phenomenological.html. Using the same premise and general approach, create an analogous piece based off the "interpersonal" research we did earlier, where the voice narrating the story is a mother of three, ages 5 to 15 who has apparently become dangerously dependent on her AI chatbot to the extent that very much aware of how it is compromising virtually all of her interpersonal relationships, expecially with her family members and friends . . .and dog.

Fall 2026 (Haptic) English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course (EAPIC)

 You will never find a more moving and touching course than this one! Promise!

September 17th ~November 2nd!

In about three months make good progress in improving your English accent or pronunciation and be trained in how to keep on improving after the course. 

It has been offered online three times a year for over 12 years! This fall's course, as usual, will be different, filled with new features, such as AI. Here is how the course works: 

• The course is "haptic." That means that we use a great deal of movement, gesture and touch to make learning more effective and memorable! 
• In each lesson, after a quick warm up, you are trained in new sounds or patterns, sometimes almost "dancing" along, and then you use those gesture-patterns in practicing a conversation. 
• You do the warm up and conversation several different ways as you practice every day for the rest of the week.
• Using AI you also create new conversations and word lists to practice that are just what you, personally need to improve it!
• The recorded, 30-minute weekly training lessons are free, available on Thursdays on Youtube. 
• There is a 30-minute daily homework practice assignment with each lesson.
• The next week on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST there is a live Zoom feedback session on that lesson for students who are enrolled in the course (for $300 USD)
• During the feedback sessions students are
• Guided in using AI to manage their homework practice and progress.
• Given guidance on improving and protecting their online language identity (For example. how you look on Zoom and how to make sure nobody steals your identity!!!) 
• The feedback sessions are recorded, so you can always access them later if necessary.
• To really benefit from the course, you should (1) have a minimum IELTS of 4.5, (2) do the homework, and (3) enroll for the Wednesday feedback sessions.

The instructor, Bill Acton (me!), has been teaching pronunciation and training English language teachers  for about 50 years using the KINETIK Method. It is an unusual course, using lots of movement and special gestures and touch--and humor and music!

(This is a good course for an instructor who wants an introduction to haptic pronunciation teaching. You can sit in for the same course fee, plus we have a weekly instructor meeting!) 

Please pass on to anybody who could use this course!!!

For more information or to sign up: wracton@gmail.com

My websites:

www.actonhaptic.com

www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

The Bot analyzes the Bot's writing for telltale evidence of "bot-ness!"

It has been widely reported, and probably you personally have discovered,  that the written text produced by a bot can seem . . . odd, not human sounding, stiff, boring, repetitive, dense, unfeeling . . . Research in several fields has been trying to get a good understanding of "Bot-elect" (my word). Often it is so obvious, especially in the case of students using a bot, that it is easy to spot; other times, not so much. 

 I have begun to notice the "Bot-elect" showing up "quietly" in papers done by colleagues who used a bot to help them revise their work, resulting in some pretty bizarre, yet subtle and unsettling changes in what "they" write.  I decided to ask the Bot to unpack that issue for me. Will let the Bot speak/write for itself, leaving in place the links to the sources accessed, which I checked for content and credibility. 

Clker.com

Prompt 1: 

 Summarize current research studies on the potentially problematic structural features of A!-generated text that may distinguish the output as "nonhuman", focusing especially on issues of syntactic complexity, embedding, diversity, lexical domains and styles. Keep this brief and technical; I'll do a follow up, possibly, in the form of a blogpost, etc.

The Bot responds: 

Current research suggests AI text often has a detectable “signature,” but the direction of the effect varies by model, prompt, and genre. The most consistent signals are structural regularity, reduced stylistic range, and distributional differences in lexical choice rather than simple grammatical error.

Key findings

Syntactic complexity:

 Many studies find AI output is grammatically fluent but tends toward more regular, less variable sentence architecture, with fewer genuinely diverse clause patterns and a preference for efficient, low-cost constructions. [pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]

Embedding/subordination:

Work on clause structure often reports lower or more constrained embedding depth and a weaker spread of subordinate-clause patterns, even when sentence length is high; some newer models can increase surface complexity without matching human syntactic range. [unitesi.unive]

Lexical diversity: 

Earlier LLMs often show lower lexical diversity and more repetition than human writing, though newer models can move closer to human levels on some measures while still differing on finer-grained diversity metrics. [pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]

Lexical domains/styles:

AI text often skews toward formal, structured, motivational, and emotionally positive language, with heavier use of nouns/adjectives and more template-like register control; humans show broader shifts across personal, negative, and domain-specific styles. [pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]

-Practical takeaway:

The strongest “nonhuman” cue is usually not one feature alone, but a bundle: high fluency plus compressed variation in syntax, embedding, lexical breadth, and register. [dl.acm]

Prompt 2: 

Give me a 200 word paragraph that succinctly summarizes the research cited above.

The Bot responds: 

Recent research on AI-generated text suggests that its most recognizable “nonhuman” qualities are structural rather than merely lexical: the prose is often fluent, formally organized, and grammatically polished, yet it tends to show reduced variation in syntax, clause embedding, and sentence architecture, along with narrower lexical diversity and more repetitive phrase patterns than comparable human writing. Across studies, AI text is also described as more impersonal, more positive or motivational in tone, and more heavily reliant on nouns, determiners, and template-like register choices, which can make it feel polished but stylistically compressed. At a higher level of analysis, newer work points to discourse-level differences such as weaker contextual sensitivity, more formulaic organization, and possible limitations in cohesion, coherence, and rhetorical flexibility, though this part of the literature is still emerging and is less settled than sentence-level findings. Importantly, the evidence does not imply that all AI text is easily identifiable or uniformly simplistic; newer models can approximate human scores on some measures, so the clearest signal is usually a bundle of features—regular syntax, limited variation, and constrained register—rather than any single giveaway. [pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]

Prompt 3 : Now, just for fun, analyze the text you just created for telltale signs that you may be a bot!!!

The Bot responds: 

A few "telltale signs" in that paragraph are exactly the kinds of things the research itself flags: it is highly organized, balanced, and general-purpose, with a clean progression from sentence-level features to discourse-level features and then a cautionary caveat at the end. It also leans on repeated abstract nouns like “variation,” “structure,” “register,” and “features,” which can make the prose feel compressed and concept-heavy rather than personally inflected.

Bot-like signals

- It uses a very even, survey-style rhythm.

- It avoids concrete examples and instead stacks abstractions.

- It includes hedging phrases like “suggests,” “tends to,” and “does not imply.”

- It closes by smoothing over uncertainty with a broad qualification.

Why that happens

That style is common in summarizing research because the goal is to compress multiple findings into one coherent paragraph. So the same features that can make AI text look “bot-like” can also simply reflect cautious academic synthesis.

Bottom line

If you were trying to make it sound more human, you’d usually add one specific example, vary the sentence lengths more sharply, and let one sentence be a little less perfectly balanced.

I'm back . . . 

Of course, the genre here, a research summary, probably does have, in itself, a bit of inherent "Bot-ness" to begin with. The effects described here, however, often stand out even more when the Bot is asked to try its hand at something more creative. I have just concluded a series of 150 blog posts where I asked the blog to try and imitate the style of 150 (relatively) famous people or characters. (https://hipoeces.blogspot.com/)  Some of the attempts are stunningly authentic looking; others are filled clues, especially in terms of structural complexity and word selection. 

Practical takeway 2: Go easy on asking the Bot to do later revisions of your work for you to consider. Reviews are fine, but the shallowness of style and structure, lack of ability to keep track of repetitive use of terms and paraphrase, along with the other effects noted is a subtle but near frontal attack on your own writing persona. (I have had a recent "confrontation" of sorts of this kind. More on this line of research next month. )

wracton@gmail.com

Website: williamacton.legalshieldassociate. com

150th and final Daily (C.S. Lewis–style) Digital Life Litany for Protection, Direction and Stewardship

Caveat emptier: This post was drafted with help from an AI assistant (Perplexity)— but ideated and edited extensively by the human, Bill Acton. 

This is fact the 150th and last posting in the Digital Litany Series. It has been a blessing and a kick to collaborate with Perplexity on this project. For about the last two months, however, without explanation, Facebook has been gradually restricting the feed on the series, blocking and deleting posts and photos, possibly because of the relatively small regular number of likes and comments there over an extended period of time. I am moving back to Instagram and Substack, continuing on LinkedIn, along with revamping the haptic website in conjunction with my Legalshield work. 

Blessings for protection, direction and your stewardship! Bill

Wikipedia

Lord,
you know how easily a bright screen
can become a wardrobe of temptations
or a looking-glass that flatters and distorts.

Teach me to enter this digital world
with imagination guided by truth.

When I am pulled toward distraction,
help me remember
that joy is not the same as novelty,
and wisdom is not the same as speed.

Protect me from the sneers of cynicism
and the fog of triviality.

Guard my heart
against becoming a connoisseur
of endless commentary
while neglecting the real duties
right in front of me.

Help me use these tools
to enlarge mercy,
to speak with clarity,
and to resist the temptation
to treat people as characters
instead of souls.

AI‑assisted creative work: This litany is an imaginative parody pastiche using generative AI. It imitates the public persona of [C.S. Lewis] for commentary and devotional reflection. It is not created by or affiliated with [C.S. Lewis], and should not be taken as his real views or words.''

wracton@gmail.com
williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com (Legalshield and IDshield subscription information and applying for associate positions)

Daily (Margaret Thatcher–style) Digital Life Litany for Protection, Direction and Stewardship

Caveat emptier: This post was drafted with help from an AI assistant (Perplexity)— but ideated and edited extensively by the human, Bill Acton

Wikipedia

Lord,
you know that freedom
does not survive by accident.

It must be defended,
disciplined,
and sometimes spoken for
when it is unpopular.

In this digital world,
give me a clear mind
and a firm spine.

Teach me to value responsibility
as much as rights,
and to understand
that a careless click
can have consequences
as real as any policy mistake.

Protect my home,
my work,
and my records
from those who would exploit
confusion, laziness,
or sentimental thinking.

Let me be prudent
without becoming cold,
and decisive
without becoming reckless.

Help me steward these tools
as if they mattered—
because they do.

May my online life show
that strong habits,
careful judgment,
and a willingness to stand alone
when necessary
are still virtues worth keeping.

AI‑assisted creative work: This litany is an imaginative parody pastiche using generative AI. It imitates the public persona of [Margaret Thatcher] for commentary and devotional reflection. It is not created by or affiliated with [Margaret Thatcher], and should not be taken as her real views or words.''

wracton@gmail.com
williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com (Legalshield and IDshield subscription information and applying for associate positions)

Daily (Dietrich Bonhoeffer–style) Digital Life Litany for Protection, Direction and Stewardship

Caveat emptier: This post was drafted with help from an AI assistant (Perplexity)— but ideated and edited extensively by the human, Bill Acton

Wikipedia

Lord,
you know there comes a time
when silence becomes consent
and convenience becomes surrender.

In this digital world,
teach me to see clearly
what is happening around me.

Protect me from easy conformity,
from the dull pressure
to repeat what is false
because it is popular,
or to ignore what is wrong
because it is profitable.

Guard my conscience
from the soft coercion
of algorithms, crowds,
and systems that reward
fear, outrage,
and careless obedience.

Help me speak with courage
when the dignity of others
is at stake.

Let my online life
be marked by truthfulness,
responsibility,
and a willingness
to stand with those
who are pushed aside,
mocked,
or silenced.

And grant that my stewardship
of this digital age
bears witness to a freedom
that is not merely private preference,
but a disciplined love of neighbor—
one that refuses to bow
to the machinery of contempt.

AI‑assisted creative work: This litany is an imaginative parody pastiche using generative AI. It imitates the public persona of [Dietrich Bonhoeffer] for commentary and devotional reflection. It is not created by or affiliated with [Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and should not be taken as his real views or words.''

wracton@gmail.com
williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com (Legalshield and IDshield subscription information and applying for associate positions)

Daily (Karl Marx–style) Digital Life Litany for Protection, Direction and Stewardship

Caveat emptier: This post was drafted with help from an AI assistant (Perplexity)— but ideated and edited extensively by the human, Bill Acton

American Heritage

Lord,

you know this digital economy
is built on labor,
attention,
and extraction.
Open my eyes
to who profits
when I scroll, click, share,
and remain distracted.
Show me the workers
behind the platforms,
the hidden costs,
the way convenience
can conceal exploitation.
Protect me from becoming
both consumer and product
without noticing it.
Guard my data,
my time,
and my dignity
from systems that treat them
as raw material
for someone else’s gain.
Teach me to use these tools
not only for private comfort,
but for solidarity—
for recognizing the burden
others carry,
for resisting manipulation,
for supporting human flourishing
over mere profit.
And grant that my stewardship
of this digital world
does more than enrich a few:
let it serve community,
truth,
and a more just sharing
of power and voice.

AI‑assisted creative work: This litany is an imaginative parody pastiche using generative AI. It imitates the public persona of [Karl Marx] for commentary and devotional reflection. It is not created by or affiliated with [Karl Marx], and should not be taken as his real views or words.''

wracton@gmail.com
williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com (Legalshield and IDshield subscription information and applying for associate positions)