Books
Finished David Biale’s popular biography of Gershom Scholem, Gershom Scholem: Master of the Kabbalah. A great read, covering with nuance Scholemn’s journey from assimilated German Jew to arguably the greatest scholar of Judaism in the modern era. There’s many things about Scholem and his era I find fascinating. His complex and deep friendship with Walter Benjamin, his fraught relationships with many other major figures on the European left (Arendt was a friend and then a bit of an enemy, Adorno was a long time correspondent), his idiosyncratic Zionism and, most of all, his position that Sabbateanism was a central event in Jewish history. Definitely recommend this one for the curious reader. Full review eventually forthcoming.
Speaking of Sabbateanism, still working my way through Scholem’s magnum opus. Still tough going, but rewarding. It’s gonna take awhile.
We’ll look back at this month as a turning point in folk’s understanding of the power of AI. In the wake of the release of GPT-4, there’s been a lot of fascinating coverage. I particularly enjoyed:
Podcasts:
Hard Fork’s holy shit WTF podcast released last Friday does a good job of catching folks up on what is going on right now. (The alarming story of GPT lying to a taskrabbit person about not being a robot is further discussed in this white paper from Open AI)
Ezra Klein’s short essay pod on his thoughts on AI and his conversation with Kelsey Piper are both worthwhile.
Dwarkesh’s interview with Nat Friedman is all over the place (ancient scrolls! management strategies!) but ends with a thoughtful discussion on the future of AI.
Articles / Papers / other:
Just today, Microsoft researchers released a paper wherein they argue there’s at least a glimmer of sentience in GPT.
Bill Gates* published an essay on the importance of AI and where it’s going.
The Financial Times broke the news that most food you think of as Italian is of very recent vintage and being weaponized by the far right.
Finally, for awhile now, my kids and I have been obsessed with the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel where perennially positive Luke and his three kids go on various adventures. A great way to get your kids excited about the outdoors, especially as warmer temps finally reach the East Coast.
What about you? What are you reading?
*One can both loath Gates personally and think there is some value in reading what he says.