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Human, Angel, or Machine: The Challenge of Consciousness

I.             Introduction The confrontation between Jacob and an unidentified being in Genesis raises fundamental questions about the nature of consciousness, identity, and the boundaries between different orders of being. This encounter gains new relevance as we approach an era where artificial intelligence may become indistinguishable from human intelligence. Building on our previous analysis of angels as metaphors for information processing systems found in “The Binary Universe II: Angels as Microprocessors,” “Binary Universe III: Two Camps of Angels,” “The Ontological Ambiguity of Messengers: From Angels to AI,” and “Wrestling with AI: From Divine Dreams to Digital Reality,” this essay examines a deeper ontological ambiguity: the challenge of distinguishing between human and non-human intelligences. II.          The Biblical Paradigm The Torah presents two distinct instances of ontological ambiguity regarding angels. The first appears in the term [...]

The Ontological Ambiguity of Messengers: From Angels to AI

This post continues the discussion we began in “Bereshit: The Binary Universe I” and continued in “The Binary Universe II: Angels as Microprocessors” and “Binary Universe III: Two Camps of Angels.” Introduction The beginning of the Torah portion of Vayishlach presents us with an intriguing linguistic and philosophical puzzle when Jacob sends מַלְאָכִים (malakhim) to his brother Esau. The deliberate ambiguity in the term מַלְאָךְ (malakh)—which can denote either human or divine messengers—provides a unique lens through which to examine questions of consciousness, agency, and identity that have become increasingly relevant in our age of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics. The Biblical Context In the beginning of the Torah portion of Vayishlach, Jacob sends messengers (angels, according to Rashi) to his brother Esau: Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, to [...]

My Name Is G‑d, and I Am Pleased to Make Your Acquaintance

In the beginning, G‑d created the heaven and the earth...[1] (Genesis 1:1)   Classical biblical commentators have given the first words of the Torah many different translations and have interpreted them to have many different meanings. That said, one simple aspect has received little attention—that G‑d is introducing Himself to us. If we take poetic license and change the order of the words, the first phrase in the Torah could be loosely translated as: “[My name is] G‑d—[Who], in the beginning, created the heaven and the earth.” G‑d is introducing Himself to us as the Creator of everything—heaven (i.e., the spiritual) and earth (i.e., the material). This interpretation of the first verse in the Torah may be helpful for the following reason. In truth, G‑d is entirely unknowable. The Creator of everything, including [...]

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