AI as tool, AI in war, AI and what it means to be human.
Democracies don’t fail overnight, the descent into oligarchy and dictatorship is preceded and sustained by a whole lot of rhetorical BullSht. The bullsht has a purpose: to generate cognitive dissonance in party loyalists (“epistemic destabilization”) and to resolve that dissonance in the direction of enhanced loyalty and submission to the party’s leader. Truth doesn’t matter, … Read more
I don’t think the Left and Right political wings currently pose the same threat to the stability and freedom of civil society in many countries, but I notice a certain overlap between many of those who are drawn to either wing, in certain key attitudes, behaviors, and modes they adopt. To put it bluntly: Ever … Read more
The Rock and the Tree: An Ethical Debate of Structures and Survival Tree: “I am a living, breathing organism, composed of countless cells that work together in harmony. My vascular system transports water and nutrients, my leaves absorb sunlight to create energy through photosynthesis, and my roots stabilize the soil. My very existence supports countless … Read more
In case you too were wondering… “Quantum states can be mapped to a spectrum model, depending on the context and the way the quantum system is described. In quantum mechanics, the state of a system is represented by a vector in a Hilbert space, and measurable quantities (observables) are represented by operators acting on this … Read more
The afternoon light poured through the window like the universe’s shrug—a lukewarm reminder that existence was still ongoing. A ginger cat, who had once declared himself the ruler of a forgotten kingdom in a dream, lay sprawled across two humans. The humans, wrapped in layers of blankets and millennial ennui, were half-asleep but fully awake … Read more
The Horizontal Society: Lessons for an Ashkenazi Audience R. José Faur’s The Horizontal Society offers a profound exploration of Jewish philosophy and law, emphasizing the unique structure of Judaism as an egalitarian and covenantal society. For an Ashkenazi audience, this perspective is both thought-provoking and instructive. By drawing from the Sepharadi tradition and contrasting it … Read more
Based on R. José Faur’s analysis in The Horizontal Society, his work has significant theoretical and practical implications for the study and practice of the Mishne Tora, positioning it as the definitive guide to Talmudic law. These implications can be grouped into the following categories: Theoretical Implications 1. Restoring the Centrality of Law in Jewish … Read more
The Horizontal Society by R. José Faur: An Analysis of Context, Thesis, Structure, Themes, and Implications R. José Faur’s The Horizontal Society is a profound and nuanced exploration of Jewish philosophy, law, and identity. Published in 2010 as part of the “Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah” series, this work draws on Faur’s Sephardic/Maimonidean intellectual heritage … Read more
The intersection of Rambam’s Guide for the Perplexed with modern science and postmodernism, especially through the lens of R. José Faur’s Homo Mysticus, opens up a range of surprising and impactful insights. Below, we outline how each of the Guide’s three sections might contribute to a mindset that critiques and engages with these paradigms: Part … Read more
I bet Rambam would’ve named his cat Hakim. === Given Rambam’s Judeo-Arabic background and the language in which he wrote many of his works, it is highly likely he would give his cat a Judeo-Arabic name. He might name the cat ‘Aql (عقل, meaning “intellect” or “reason”), aligning with his philosophical emphasis on the primacy … Read more