The tale of Microsoft’s rise to power always struck me as absurd. Bill Gates’ mother being in a position of influence to install her own son as a gatekeeper for the the young personal computing industry, sabotaging the opposition, and nobody noticed even the conflict of interest, and she somehow knew in advance how critically important computers would become, is very implausible. Either she had future-knowledge, or enjoyed one heck of a coincidence.
You know, slight dogleg but I’ve always wondered about the lack of literacy in the Christian world before the printing press. The Jews had the same technical limitations of that time, but figured out a way for people to read the Bible more often it seems.
More on point I’ve often thought, maybe it’s fanciful, that AI would be the form of CS Lewis’ “materialist magician”. A program complex enough that we could deceive ourselves into thinking it’s sentient, but actually just a vessel for a demon.
The lack of literacy was why the Bible ordered the public reading of Scripture. Most people couldn't read it for themselves, so those who could, would read it out loud for their audience. It wasn't even preaching, it was literally just reading the Bible. The readers began keeping a schedule of what they read in order to be sure they regularly read it all, and that is what became the liturgy.
Memorization was also a big thing. We today would scarcely believe what those serfs were capable of retaining. It is thought that the Bible's Ezra was able to recite the entire Mosaic law from memory, letter-perfect. Even outside Christian settings, oral traditions have proven to be surprisingly reliable. I was raised in a church sufficiently conservative to practice Bible memorization during Sunday School, back in the 80s. A lost art nowadays, but Christians were so big on Bible memorization until so recently, that there's a story about it in Mark Twain's book Tom Sawyer.
Most ancient people didn't even value literacy because books were rare and expensive. A literate commoner would have nothing to read! Would you today, take flying lessons? Probably not, because if you can't afford an airplane then why bother.
It is thought that a well made codex of John's Gospel would have cost about the equivalent of $1,000. It definitely was expensive. I have never heard the one about Ezra before, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. People do stuff like that all the time. I met someone once who memorized the entire New Testament. I haven't done it. I wish I had memorized more...
You know, slight dogleg but I’ve always wondered about the lack of literacy in the Christian world before the printing press. The Jews had the same technical limitations of that time, but figured out a way for people to read the Bible more often it seems.
More on point I’ve often thought, maybe it’s fanciful, that AI would be the form of CS Lewis’ “materialist magician”. A program complex enough that we could deceive ourselves into thinking it’s sentient, but actually just a vessel for a demon.
The lack of literacy was why the Bible ordered the public reading of Scripture. Most people couldn't read it for themselves, so those who could, would read it out loud for their audience. It wasn't even preaching, it was literally just reading the Bible. The readers began keeping a schedule of what they read in order to be sure they regularly read it all, and that is what became the liturgy.
Memorization was also a big thing. We today would scarcely believe what those serfs were capable of retaining. It is thought that the Bible's Ezra was able to recite the entire Mosaic law from memory, letter-perfect. Even outside Christian settings, oral traditions have proven to be surprisingly reliable. I was raised in a church sufficiently conservative to practice Bible memorization during Sunday School, back in the 80s. A lost art nowadays, but Christians were so big on Bible memorization until so recently, that there's a story about it in Mark Twain's book Tom Sawyer.
Most ancient people didn't even value literacy because books were rare and expensive. A literate commoner would have nothing to read! Would you today, take flying lessons? Probably not, because if you can't afford an airplane then why bother.
It is thought that a well made codex of John's Gospel would have cost about the equivalent of $1,000. It definitely was expensive. I have never heard the one about Ezra before, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. People do stuff like that all the time. I met someone once who memorized the entire New Testament. I haven't done it. I wish I had memorized more...
Jews were even more illiterate. Jews were raised from their ghettos by Fredrick king of Germany in the 1700s and educated.