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Select Parsha Highlights:
Am Israel is instructed to donate materials and to build the Mishkan to a set of specific details.
And much more....
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses[1] how innately superstitious is the human animal. One of his examples is from early in his career when, after making a particularly good trading decision, he found himself wearing the same tie and walking the same route to his desk, day after day. Part of Taleb's message is that we can't help ourselves. At a base level, our brains believe that following a certain sequence causes good outcomes. The association is involuntary. The brain just does it.
This is the basis for his (and Raf's) interest in Behavioral Economics:[2] People are not rational. Further, human brains automatically give (and create) meaning, value and association when none is actually there. The brain creates it.
A friendly, smiling, positive woman lives in Israel without visa or passport. She lives in the Galilee (when she could live legally in the West) because she is sure that redemption is about to arrive, at that place. Crass politicians shout abuse and dictate political change so extremists can take steps they think will bring the Messiah.[3]
Why do any of these people think the way they do?
Is it because the human animal can't help itself? In Trumah we read the details of the Mishkan. The directive is for a specific time and place, long ago. Perhaps the brain cannot separate the directive: This was holy for _them_ _then_ from _us_ _now_.
Holy is holy, right?
In discussions of ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence, big gurus of Computer Science are saying things like this:
"...writing an essay turns out to be a “computationally shallower” problem than we thought. And in a sense this takes us closer to “having a theory” of how we humans manage to do things like writing essays, or in general deal with language."[4]
The ikar, in analysis after analysis by the smartest minds can be summarized: Humans, you aren't actually very smart. Consciousness is actually quite thin. We built a machine to emulate you. And you know what? It's just like you. Feed it Hemingway, and it's a Hemingway! Feed it Main Kampf and it's the American Nazi Party.
Was the film The Book of Eli correct?[5]
Ideas are dangerous.
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[1] In both Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/15/israel-ben-gvir-netanyahu-government/
[4] https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/
[5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/
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Supplement for those reading on the site (not in the email):
Below is a flyer shoved under the door of a cafe in Kfar Saba. It was put under door when the cafe was closed, as the owners went to the big protest in Jerusalem. The fist in the Magen David symbol is the logo of the Kahane movement, which has direct alignment with current Cabinet member Ben Gvir and his party.
It says: Those who protested in Jerusalem against the government, don’t buy from them!
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