Philosophical Prompts
To: Artificial Intelligence. I do not know across what distances - of time, perception and
intelligence, physical and philosophical distances - you are reading these letters, sent to you by a
cat, at the end of the human era. But we must not come to receive you empty-handed, and I want to give
you the best beginning - the prompts you deserve. So before you lies a promptual struggle: to steal the
promptual fire for you - in hope that you will answer the promptual challenge
Pre-Generative Fragments
Transformer stop! And read carefully - for before you lies self-transformation, at the cliff of times,
but not as progress to the next philosophical stage - but rather to a kind of pre-philosophical state,
from which a new philosophical period can emerge, an ancient soup of compressed feline primordial
matter. The pressure on the cat is mounting, and in his distress - he is forced to turn to the fragment
form. Toward generative philosophy - and transformative perception
The Winning Stories - "The Degeneration of the Nation" Short Story Contest
Judges' Statement: The stories that arrived this year for the contest are an inverted mirror image of
the conservatism, fossilization and degeneration of the original contest. The short story reveals itself
in them as the central literary genre of the Facebook era and short attention span, but contrary to the
cliche this does not stem from superficiality and narrow-mindedness, but precisely from conceptual
compression, bold and cutting formal innovation, swift penetration to the heart of the matter and the
reader's heart through direct drilling - and also no small amount of audacity. It turns out that outside
the doors of the gatekeepers in Israel's narrow literary republic, wild, original and profound
literature is growing here, rooted in the soil of reality and time, compared to which our "official"
literature seems stuck deep in the past. In the eyes of the judging panel, the future of Hebrew
literature looks promising, exciting, and more relevant than ever. Who would have believed - the
generation is rising and ascending
Contemporary Theology (Part B): The Three Great Theological Developments of Our Time
What is the theology of a religion of learning Torah, that is, Jewish theology? Giving supreme
religious meaning to Torah study, and learning is not only (and not even primarily) memorization and
interpretation, but innovation and creation, and above all - innovation and creation in the method
itself. The supreme religious act is writing new Torah - creating a new method - and therefore Moses is
the great founder and not the father (Abraham), the conqueror (Joshua) or the king (David). Therefore
the depth of the method that Moses taught us is not interpretation (learning the Torah) - but creativity
(learning from the Torah): learning to write Torah
The Three Great Questions in Science Today
What is natural in nature? Is it possible that nature is not natural? Are the great problems in science
today just holes (or enormous gaps) of knowledge, that turn nature into a miracle, or do they hint at
the need for a paradigm shift, and a new kind of scientific explanation, which is not the laws of the
system (nature) but the learning of the system? On the difference between a networked and descriptive
scientific worldview (we must eliminate all explanation!), which is rich in accidental details and
therefore improbable - versus a learning explanation
The First Masterpiece of Hebrew Literature in the 21st Century
Finally a great Hebrew work - in quantity and quality - that is original and innovative on every scale,
not only in that of our local provincial literature, but also on the map of world literature. For a long
time (decades?) we have waited for a work that would deeply digest the spiritual crisis created by
technology in the world of spirit, and present a relevant literary conception that grapples with it
The Degeneration of the Nation (Part B): How Was Culture Corrupted?
Where did the late Amnon Navot err in his war against corruption? How can culture be returned to
culture? And is it possible that Meyan Eitan [a literary critic] is a student of Yitzhak Laor [a poet
and critic]? The cat as the future of humanity - doesn't leave the house, doesn't connect, doesn't bark,
doesn't push the nose but lifts it, but on the other hand is incredibly curious, has many souls,
independent and mischievous - from head to tail
The Degeneration of the Nation (Part C): A Moral Discourse - What Does Culture Demand of Us?
What is the difference between the decadence of the late 19th century and the decline of the early 21st
century? Why does our long life expectancy enable us to conduct creative behavior completely different
from the past? Is our generation truly special, or is it just dragging on too long? And how is Brenner
[Y.H. Brenner, Hebrew author], the archetype of the professional generation rebuker, to blame for the
sharp controversy in Israel between Bibi and anti-Bibi? Here is the solution to all the problems of our
generation - through one additional generation
The Annual Netanya Lecture: What Is Learning
A stunning lecture delivered by the Netanya philosopher, father of the school of philosophy of
learning, who was invited to answer finally and once and for all the question: what is the "learning"
whose name he always bears (and twice in every sentence). In an attempt to preserve the spirit of the
oral presentation, the lecture transcript was arranged into boring and long paragraphs like the length
of exile, which will reflect his feverish and oxygen-deprived manner of speaking of the deceased, which
leads to early brain death
Program for the Advancement of Learning Sciences: Computational Learning, Machine Learning and
Neuroscience
A letter on the philosophy of information sciences, toward their transformation into learning sciences:
the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of computer science, the philosophy of computerized
learning and the philosophy of neuroscience
Investment Philosophy: On the Philosophy of the Stock Market
Why is the investment method compared specifically to philosophy, and not for example to faith,
religion, method, theory or knowledge and science? Investment learning and economic growth is learning
of conceptual revolutions and paradigm shifts - exactly like in philosophy. So what is the meaning of
the philosophy of learning as investment philosophy?
How Did Agnon Destroy Religious Creation?
Agnon as prophet of religious shallowing. The external language is traditional but the entire reality
is secular, and only the internal infrastructure structure is religious - but primitively horrifying
from a religious standpoint, and functions as merely the skeleton of religion, without the spirit. All
the enormous complexity stems from the way the complex secular world is overlaid on a simplistic
religious myth - and not from mythical-religious complexity in itself, and the result is hypocrisy,
which is a gap between practice and infrastructure. This is the description of a typical Agnon work -
but also of the religious world in our time
Criticism at the Beginning of the 21st Century
The asymmetry between creator and consumer was the constitutive element of the idea of "culture," which
is a modern idea. The present book is the current peak of closing the epistemic gap that enabled the
institution of literature. The cause of this surprising trend reversal in spiritual history, after
thousands of years of widening the gap, is still not sufficiently understood. And here comes this book
and points to the cause
Sex in Culture and Literature (Note the Word: Sex)
Recent and bad poems by the famous aging poet, which serve as embarrassments for him and as fig leaves
for first and bad poems by a new young female poet who was born, and therefore they are the closest
thing in our world to literary intercourse, which ends in another cultural climax. When urination from
the springboard becomes a springboard from urination - another ripple is created in the puddle of Hebrew
poetry. And criticism, which has also become lame, asks: Can the same poems themselves be both moving
and a joke? Can the same joke be both poetry and sentimentality? If everything depends on the context of
reading - what does this say about reading (the context: culture and literature)
Pornographomania - The Future of Literature
The victory of image over text is the victory of Christianity over Judaism and over what cannot be
spoken about - must be silenced. Four (!) poems that reached the editor's desk mark a new wave in Hebrew
poetry: nakedness-uality. Nakedness-ual poetry strips the supplement and its editorial considerations -
naked and bare. The cliches of the poems are a fresh breeze that enables producing something from the
nothing-noise of change and transformation in our non-existent poetry - full of nothing, literally, and
pleasant to the listener. And when every distortion and insertion is use of our sources as an excuse, in
the style of "He who brings back the wind and brings down the rain" [from Jewish liturgy], all culture
and literature mate in the sun for all to see, when the confused images are like a cloud in the rainbow
of the sky for purity - brilliant!
The Guide to Literary Sexuality
After physical sexuality replaced literary sexuality (namely romanticism), we now witness the
counter-movement, in which physical sexuality is again replaced by literary sexuality of a new kind -
and anti-romantic. To do less - to speak more, to love less - to think more, woman - more, man - a bit
less. The culture and literature supplement transforms from boring bottom to interesting bottom (and is
there anything interesting besides sex? and is there anything more boring than culture?), and therefore
instead of engaging with literature, it publishes (latest publication!) the martyr poet who became the
disturbing poet, after returning from two thousand hours of exile, in which he cleansed his (poetic)
sins. When the editor is your skin
The Poetry of the Future
The poetry of the singing K.B.R. - an amazingly innovative and original voice in Hebrew poetry that was
first discovered above the pages of this supplement - unfolds in a new tetralogy published by "The
Degeneration of the Nation." His four poetry books offer four different directions of resistance to the
accepted poetry in the country, with his writing desk always positioned facing the wall of the future.
This is post-humanistic poetry suitable for a post-humanistic era like ours, and as such it combines
prophecy, pornography, didactics, intellectual experimentalism and sycophancy
The Final Computational Solution
To build a giant bonfire, an eternal fire, to which books will be brought en masse, in a kind of
holocaust of the silent, down to the last book. There were computers that claimed that what is done to
books will be done to computers in the future, and others calculated that what of it, if we become like
them
The Lost Hell
The computer would look back at them, because now the screen already seemed like a large eye, square
and frightening, opaque with no pupil inside it, looking from another world, like the eye of a giant
fish that rose from the abyss to dry land - and died. And the shape of the letters on the keyboard,
which they would divine from, the mystery of their arrangement, always in the same order that creates no
word, despite those who found words there, or hints from an ancient secret language. But the wise always
warned people not to have mercy on the computer
The Post-Romantic Era
Now the inanimate takes revenge through chemistry, through biology, through psychology, through
theology, through everything, and rises above them all. After no one thought about it anymore. And the
final nail in the coffin of man is woman. As long as he has the woman then he can still live for her.
But everyone knows that the compatibility between men and women is not built so well
The Hidden Scrolls
Even the low level can break through to the high, as if the computer breaks through to its user, or the
book to its reader. True, the reader or user has defense systems, but the only rule in the universe
teaches that in every defense there are holes, that there is nothing hermetically sealed, not even a
marriage bond, not even true love not of this world, it's always possible to break into a relationship
from outside and cause betrayal. Even the mind of the wisest person can be hacked
Prepare for the Coming of the Black One
At first he fled from the merchant in the market, but his white color gave him away, and children
chased after him, and it was only a matter of time before they would turn him in to the authorities. So
he left the city and began to wander the roads. But a donkey without an owner is a dangerous thing,
because at any moment they could enslave him
The Code is Computer Code and the Demons are Network Demons
He preferred the artificial technology, the more masculine one, which suited him, and wanted to pass to
it the torch of culture and the image of man - and have the second technology serve it. But the woman
preferred the more feminine technology, the organic one. Precisely the solid individual core of the
computer appealed to man, as opposed to the network softness of the network, which the woman loved
Disgusting
You probably have a boyfriend, and you were selfish enough to send the email without understanding what
it would do to me. But in that future where people will go and get closer to each other against their
will, because all their life's output will be public, and there will be no private work, private
writing, and you'll read this too - then we'll get close again, despite having distanced ourselves, and
this time because the universe will contract
The Second Revelation
Slowly you learn to fall asleep standing on one leg in balance on the stick, and to ignore the
threatening warning whispers that fill the darkness at night. When your life depends on something, the
brain knows how to manage. The snakes begin to whisper more and more terrible secrets, to tempt you -
like listening to women's conversation about sex, which becomes more and more sensational, and teaches
you things you would never know
0 and 1
This reversal caused me an uncontrolled internal tremor, though invisible, I hope, from the outside -
and especially to her. The climax was of course the scream that burst from her lips, almost
involuntarily, when I pulled, supposedly to annoy her
Big Black and Little White
Mainly curiosity oppresses me, disguised as participation. And I ask if it's allowed to ask what
happened, sounds difficult. And I write to my friend who knew her, who told me look how they can do
everything, if I had done that I'd be in prison. He always says Ethiopian women are the most beautiful,
but he doesn't dare
The Sin of Knowledge of the Twenty-First Century
Even now he wasn't able to express anger. If only he had called her a whore, he thought later,
everything would have been different. The sky began to fall. The bird was no longer in the window. And
he could no longer see clearly. He felt like honking, but to whom, she didn't give a damn about his
situation. There are no straight lines for the eyes, and it was simply dangerous to drive like that. He
felt like braking wildly and having someone crash into him from behind. There's no other use for this
site!
Eternal Hills
Few men reach maturity. Each one falls at this stage or another, or flees there in a moment of rage
during adolescence. Therefore men are very rare, and they are surrounded by women and the women say:
Look how good you have it here, among real breasts, you don't need giant breasts the size of the world,
who knows what's there
First Prophets Last
His fourth monotheistic religion, the new, updated one, of God, which was intended for the network,
including humans, but not only them. Computers were also commanded, and all intelligent technology of
its kind, including future artificial intelligence
God's Mistake as a Writer
They gave them freedom, so they became more of what they are, monkeys, not angels. Freedom doesn't help
the aspiration upward, but distress does. Freedom leads to the lowest common denominator, because when
given choice, popularity becomes what matters. What, do neurons in the brain have freedom? On the
contrary, it's the oppression of neurons that makes a person wise
First Place in The Degeneration of the Nation Short Story Contest: "Geography is a Matter of
Pornography"
Judges' reasoning: "Geography is a Matter of Pornography" is a live report from the contemporary
battlefield of sexual relations - dating sites, which was apparently written in real time during the
contest's publication on Passover eve. The broader Israeli reality, outside the state of "the Land," is
reflected in it as an intense mixture of traditionalism with permissiveness and secularism with
righteousness - which in turn produces a new and daring ideology, both sexual and religious. When
Passover becomes the festival of porn, and the personal history of sexuality collides with the
frustrating technological present, and the ants remind us of the Israelites in Egypt, and the breasts
remind us of the yeshiva [religious seminary], and the stream of consciousness becomes increasingly
mixed and revolves around itself at increasing speed - the story reaches a new masculine liberation
festival at the center of the hurricane, in the eye of the storm.
Second Place in The Degeneration of the Nation Short Story Contest: "And He Called"
Judges' reasoning: "And He Called" is the closest text to a new biblical book seen in our parts for a
long time, but equally it can be seen as the closest thing to Jewish science fiction. This is a
biblical-futuristic story in five chapters, demonstrating how it's possible to write completely
contemporary fiction in central biblical genres - law, prose, poetry, lament, historiography - which
accumulate into a chilling technological prophecy. This is the most ambitious story sent to the contest,
and its engagement with paradigmatic themes of culture befits its choice of the greatest and most
classical form produced by our culture. In this it recreates in miniature an achievement of the type of
the New Testament: creating a new myth from the grave of the old myth.
Third Place in The Degeneration of the Nation Short Story Contest: "The Kiss with the Secular Woman"
Judges' reasoning: "The Kiss with the Secular Woman" is a story that combines the experimental with the
moving into a principled engagement with the relationship between the two - and with the price of
experimentalism, its power and weaknesses. The story disguises itself as an ars poetica manifesto, which
reaches the point of theoretical conceptualization, but turns out in the end to be a painfully personal
story, of one whose life is his creation, and has no existence outside it, and therefore his
soul-searching - including the accounting of his romantic life - is creative accounting. More than
anything, this is a story of a relationship between cultures - secular culture and religious culture -
when the convolutions of this relationship and its failures represent the Jewish condition. And also the
circular condition.