34 results for “pursuit”
AstraZeneca’s cancer pursuits get a showcase at ESMO
Andrew covers the biopharma industry, scientific research, and public health across the continent. You can reach Andrew confidentially…
#EuropeSays #Britain #Europe #EU #AstraZeneca #Cancer #drugdevelopment #Pharmaceuticals #STAT+
https://www.europesays.com/britain/151206/
NFL Insider Confirms ‘Aggressive’ Bears Have Begun Pursuit of Khalil Mack Trade
As Chicago Bears fans dream of a potential Khalil Mack reunion, it appears the team is has already…
#NFL #LosAngelesChargers #LosAngeles #Chargers #Football
https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/1037568/
NFL Insider Confirms ‘Aggressive’ Bears Have Begun Pursuit of Khalil Mack Trade https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/1037568/ #Chargers #Football #LosAngeles #LosAngelesChargers #LosAngeles #LosAngelesChargers #NFL
NFL Insider Confirms ‘Aggressive’ Bears Have Begun Pursuit of Khalil Mack Trade https://www.rawchili.com/5134189/ #NFL
Bears Hounding Chargers in Trade Pursuit of OLB Khalil Mack https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/1037157/ #Bears #Chicago #ChicagoBears #ChicagoBears #Football #NFL
Statement issued as teenage boy dies in horror crash after police pursuit
Perth teen charged after alleged 40-minute high-speed police pursuit across northern suburbs
A teenager is facing a string of serious charges after allegedly leading police on a wild 40-minute pursuit…
#Australia #Perth #crime #news #wanews
https://www.europesays.com/australia/128468/
https://www.europesays.com/ch/149646/ The pursuit of precision in timekeeping #Article #BeatHistory #Multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #Society #Swiss #Switzerland #Technology(general)
Why would anyone run 170 kilometres? My answer might surprise you
Simon’s pursuit of dopamine led to drug and alcohol addiction. Then he found another extreme way of chasing it.
I used to spend my weekends on cocaine. Now I spend them running ultramarathons
Simon’s pursuit of dopamine led to drug and alcohol addiction. Then he found another extreme way of chasing it.
https://www.europesays.com/britain/151206/ AstraZeneca’s cancer pursuits get a showcase at ESMO #AstraZeneca #Cancer #DrugDevelopment #Pharmaceuticals #STAT+
🏒🥅 🏆 🇨🇦 What I noticed, watching the Habs last year: relentless pursuit of the puck in the O-zone. Result: offensive possession, leading to goals. The series against the Hurricanes underlined how important this to winning.
“Out of necessity, Phillip Danault, Zack Bolduc and Alexandre Texier emerged as a serious possession line, one that controlled play in the offensive zone, created chances, took care of the puck and made responsible decisions. It has become a line that, in many ways, defines how the Canadiens would like to play collectively.”
Autism, Masking, and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Complicated Cost of Hiding Who You Are
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/not-that-different/202610/autism-masking-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness
Psychology Today examines masking among autistic individuals - the strategy of suppressing neurodivergent traits in social settings - and the complicated relationship many have with a practice that bo
#wellness #mental-health #autism
Jewish Currents shows how Mike Rogers is trying to use racism to scare Jewish & black voters with one progressive calling this “a strategy of racial arson designed to fuel suspicion and hate within the Democratic coalition.”
https://jewishcurrents.org/in-michigan-mike-rogers-is-stoking-jewish-fear-in-pursuit-of-a-senate-seat?fbclid=Iwb21leAVJne1jbGNrBUmcvGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YFc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeaaJCCTPH8PxhoJYGUQ97fKjVjHSsgHZubhmAzwh_kCiqJVCGyn_SNZbfYMA_aem_shfPuiAnGAg33J-SVRZ49Q
Psychology Today examines masking among autistic individuals - the strategy of suppressing neurodivergent traits in social settings - and the complicated relationship many have with a practice that bo #wellness #mental-health #autism
Posted into FLIPBOARD EXCHANGE FEED 🗞️ @flipboard-exchange-feed-Econopass
Chapter 4.3: Artifact
الفصل الرابع: قطعة أثرية
These pendants were created many hundreds of years ago, commissioned by two women who were friends and lived together in the Middle East.
Their inspiration was Hypatia of Alexandria, the famous female philosopher.
Following her example, the two friends devoted their lives to the pursuit of wisdom.
Their home became a gathering place and a refuge for women seeking spiritual purity, who were dissatisfied with ordinary worldly life.
From generation to generation, the pendants were passed on to the most deserving women of this community.
All of them had died long ago, and the jewelry was discovered in an abandoned building and handed over to a London antique dealer.
This gold is pure. By touching it, you will not be defiled, but will gain strength and enlightenment.
----
#fantasy #writing #literature #microfiction #microfic #IAmWriting #romance
في عالم أي كتاب سيكون العيش فيه أسوأ ما يمكن؟
substance addiction , which is the most common type, and includes dependence on chemical substances that change mood and thinking, such as drugs like hashish, heroin, and cocaine, or drinking and using alcohol.
Addiction in the lives of young people
Addiction is the continuous practice of a certain activity and the psychological and physical inability to stop practicing this activity, which leads to obsession or what is called the compulsive pursuit of the possibility of accessing something specific, such as using a certain substance or drug like illegal drugs or chemical drugs, or through practicing a certain activity or habit on a daily and continuous basis until the person’s life becomes dependent on this habit, and he is unable to leave it despite the fact that it causes many physical, psychological and health problems and damages.
Islam has taken care to preserve the five essentials of man: religion, intellect, honor, wealth, and life. The addict, in any form, destroys these five things through his addiction. He has violated religion when he disobeyed his Lord, destroyed his intellect when he covered it with the vices he drank, and wasted the wealth that God bestowed upon him on things that do not benefit but rather harm. As for honor and life: how much honor has been lost! And how many lives have been taken because of alcohol addiction and other things! God Almighty said regarding the preservation of these necessities: “ O Prophet, when believing women come to you, pledging allegiance to you that they will not associate anything with God, nor steal, nor commit adultery, nor kill their children, nor bring forth false accusations which they fabricate between their hands and feet, nor disobey you in what is right – then accept their pledge and ask forgiveness for them from God. Indeed, God is Forgiving and Merciful .” [Al-Mumtahanah: 12]
In this great verse, the five necessities are mentioned: the preservation of religion, as God Almighty says: “ They shall not associate anything with God ,” the preservation of life, as God Almighty says: “ They shall not kill their children , ” the preservation of lineage, as God Almighty says: “ They shall not commit adultery ,” the preservation of wealth, as God Almighty says: “ They shall not steal ,” and the preservation of intellect, because whoever does this has a sound and correct intellect, and whoever does the opposite has a corrupt and wicked intellect.
Al-Ghazali, may God have mercy on him, said in his book (Al-Mustasfa): “The purpose of the Sharia for creation is five: to preserve for them their religion, their lives, their minds, their offspring, and their wealth. Everything that includes preserving these five principles is a benefit, and everything that deprives these principles is a harm, and repelling it is a benefit.”
Addiction can be broadly divided into two types:
The first: substance addiction , which is the most common type, and includes dependence on chemical substances that change mood and thinking, such as drugs like hashish, heroin, and cocaine, or drinking and using alcohol.
Second: Behavioral addiction; which is dependence on certain behaviors or activities, such as: internet and electronic games addiction, gambling addiction, shopping addiction, or work addiction.
The heritage of ancient civilizations contains many traces that indicate human knowledge of addiction, especially alcohol and narcotics. Traces have been found in the form of inscriptions on temple walls, writings on Egyptian papyrus, or oral legends passed down through generations about the use of alcohol and narcotics.
Islam has forbidden the drinking of alcohol because of the great harm it causes to the individual and society, such as hindering people from remembering God and from prayer, and disrupting people’s interests, and in order to protect society from the harm and crimes that may be committed by an alcoholic. Such as murder, theft, and assaulting people. God Almighty said in Surah Al-Ma’idah: { O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone altars [to other than God], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful .} [Al-Ma’idah: 90]. And God Almighty said in the same Surah: { Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of God and from prayer. So will you not be afflicted with sin?} You will be stopped . [Al-Ma’idah: 91]
Okay, I promised some bashing, but in the end, I think I'm going to have a more nuanced opinion.
Jonah Goldberg — Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy
Disclaimer: I don't know how this book ended up in my reading list, and I didn't know anything about it or the author. It wasn't hard to figure out soon after I've started reading, though. Still, some parts of it were quite interesting, particularly concerning the history of the USA, and for someone like me with near-zero knowledge of US politics, it certainly filled some gaps. But at times it's really tiresome, especially when the author straight insults the reader in case they disagree with him. Also note that I'm obviously biased here, so I may be misrepresenting.
The premise is roughly this: the human nature is inherently tribal. We haven't lived in a civilized society long enough to evolve out of it, and it takes hard work to suppress this nature. The birth of capitalism brought unprecedented progress and wealth to humankind: even the poorest people today have a higher standard of living than the rich of the past. Furthermore, combined with the unique American conditions, it gave birth to a true democracy, based on the principles of (economic) liberty and equality. And the pursuit of profits is key to tolerance. Of course, you may point out that it took quite a while before this "equality" actually lead to abolition of slavery and emancipation of women, but these things take time.
However, people haven't been appreciating this "Miracle". They have been reframing the U.S. past as a "system of oppression, exploitation, and white privilege". The progressives have been diminishing the role of traditional institutions, growing an administrative apparatus that's outside democratic vote and balances, and pursuing "identity politics". All this leads to return of tribal instincts, distrust of democracy, and growth of populism, and eventually the victory of Donald Trump whose goals do not really align with the principles of the Republican party.
So far for my summary. At least some of the points do make sense, even if I don't agree with the conclusions. Certainly the book can help picturing the political situation from the perspective of a conservative. But you can also see a lot of bias and selectivity.
There's a lot of praise of capitalism, but the only negative side briefly mentioned is that its "creative destruction" can unsettle communities. You hear about universities discriminating against "Asians, Jews, and whites" on the principle of diversity. Fortunately, the author decides to spare us from "all of the controversies over transgender bathrooms, bakers being
forced to make cakes for same-sex weddings, forcing the Marines to accept women, and the like". There's quite a list of how the administration grew under Democrats, but the periods of Republican governance are silently skipped.
Is it worth reading? Well, if you can stand it, then I suppose it's got some value. Perhaps I'm becoming more conservative after all.
The Rise of AI: Is There Hope for Mankind?
Extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence fuel dreams of ease on one hand, and nightmares of catastrophe on the other. Will AI supplant human decision-making? Will humanity even survive?
The Rise of AI: Is There Hope for Mankind?
by Steven Britt
ince the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, the world has been captivated by advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). As these systems become more humanlike in their output, everyone—from leading experts in the field to presidents and pundits alike—is feeling the accelerated pace of technology and wondering where we are headed.
In 2023, Elon Musk warned, “AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production . . . It has the potential of civilization destruction” (emphasis added throughout).
Is there reason to fear AI? Is it possible that AI will soon achieve human-level or even superhuman intelligence? And, if so, is there hope for mankind to survive the creation and implementation of such a powerful technology?
When machines learn to think
While the AI we see today is impressive, many experts believe we are only a few years away from artificial general intelligence (AGI)—systems with the humanlike ability to solve entirely new problems by innovation, experimentation and learning.
Since the inception of the machine age, computer software has only been able to accomplish rigid, preprogrammed instructions within strict boundaries. However, AI is now able, without a single line of new code, to perform a multitude of tasks on request. In minutes, it can make a better diagnosis than your doctor, out-argue a lawyer, translate a speech into another language, negotiate a contract and write a poem about it all in Shakespearian style.
The current reality was nearly unthinkable to the average person just three years ago when ChatGPT debuted. At the time of this writing, AI models are already able to score above average on IQ tests and ace graduate-level exams across multiple disciplines.
Despite these impressive achievements, these systems fall short of AGI.
Intelligence, much like consciousness, is difficult to actually define, and there is no widely accepted definition of exactly what constitutes AGI. Current AI systems perform well on tests because they have likely seen the information before—a distinguishing feature of AGI would be the humanlike ability to solve entirely new challenges, learning and adapting as it goes.
While today’s AI tools can already outperform most human beings on a wide variety of written and verbal tests, a true AGI system would be a world-changing breakthrough. The reason is simple: Machine intelligence can be scaled just by hooking up more processors. One could easily create entire teams of AGIs working together on complex problems from different angles just as people would—researching, experimenting, publishing findings and reasoning. They would never sleep, never take a break, and would operate at superhuman speed.
The first and most obvious task on the agenda, in the minds of many, would be to set this AGI to work unlocking the secrets of building even higher intelligence—redesigning and improving itself until it has completely surpassed human beings, a level known as artificial superintelligence (ASI).
Much thought has gone into the consequences of AGI or ASI becoming a reality, and the imagined outcomes fall into four different possible endings to the story:
1. The A.I. utopia. Guided by careful design and moral wisdom, AGI works tirelessly to end disease, to design and build clean energy grids, and to free humanity to pursue creativity. Work becomes optional, poverty fades and everyone lives happily ever after.
2. The hostile machine. Like the plot of numerous action movies, a rogue AI decides it would be better off without mankind and moves to destroy us.
3. The paperclip maximizer problem. Philosopher Nick Bostrom warned in 2004 that even a neutral AGI can be lethal if it’s simply given the wrong goal. In this scenario, the AGI is set over a factory and told to make as many paperclips as possible. It soon begins converting forests, oceans and eventually human beings into raw materials for more paperclips—inadvertently destroying mankind in a blind pursuit of a poorly defined goal!
4. Human mischief—supercharged. The most likely and earliest danger is abuse of this rapidly changing technology for evil. Just as mid-20th-century physics gave way to nuclear bombs with terrible destructive power, nations or criminals could weaponize and unleash AGI for cyberwarfare, bioweapons and more.
Notice that only one of these outcomes doesn’t end with the destruction of mankind! But will the technologies really advance to such extremes?
2025: The year of AI agents
By the end of 2024, tech leaders were already calling 2025 “the year of AI agents,” signaling a fundamental change in how AI would be used.
Until recently, AI tools like ChatGPT could only generate text and ideas—they could not take real-world action outside of giving a response to a user’s input. AI agents change that completely.
The key difference between a chatbot and an AI agent is that an agent can interface with other software tools, even without being explicitly told to do so, to accomplish a task on its own. The earliest step toward AI agents was adding simple web-search features, allowing AI to perform its own Internet searches, scanning through dozens of different websites to answer detailed queries with up-to-date information.
Significantly, on July 17, 2025, Open-AI released Agent Mode in ChatGPT, imbued with the ability to fully use the Internet through a web browser. For example, you can give Agent Mode the dates of an upcoming trip, your budget and some interests, and it can research the area, plan a full, day-by-day itinerary and book your hotel and tickets for you!
The massive financial bet on AI
If investment is a measure of expectation, the world’s richest companies and governments all clearly believe that AGI—or something similarly world-changing—is coming soon.
In January 2025, OpenAI announced construction of Project Stargate, a $500 billion datacenter requiring over five gigawatts of power—more than twice the output of Hoover Dam. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s supercomputing center, dubbed Colossus, has cost $4 billion so far and draws 150 megawatts from the grid, with plans to spend $25 billion to quadruple its capacity to nearly 1 gigawatt.
And the spending doesn’t stop at hardware. In one of the most aggressive talent recruiting wars in history, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has offered elite AI researchers compensation packages worth $300 million per person over four years—sometimes more than $100 million in the first year!
In all this, key chipmaker Nvidia skyrocketed to become the world’s most valuable company in history, topping $4.5 trillion in value.
This “compute race” resembles the nuclear arms buildup of the Cold War, but with one striking difference—the pace. Nuclear weapons development spanned decades; ChatGPT was released just three years ago.
Russian President Vladimir Putin famously said in 2017, “Whoever becomes the leader in AI will become the ruler of the world.” That prediction accurately summed up the fervor for powerful AI systems that has ignited these historic investments.
Biblical perspective: Is AGI really possible?
The fact is, machines cannot replicate the God-given, spiritual nature of human beings. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God “has put eternity in their hearts.” People are not just biological processors of data. It is the human spirit from our Creator that gives us human understanding (Job 32:8; 1 Corinthians 2:11). And He designed us to live in a loving relationship with Him!
Genesis 2:7 states that “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” AI systems, made of silicon circuits and transistors, are mere dust of the ground.
However, the Bible gives grave warnings about human ingenuity. At the Tower of Babel, God said that, because the people were working together with the same mindset and language, “Nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them” (Genesis 11:6).
The spread of global technology has helped to remove the language barrier God introduced at Babel. And today’s engineers, corporations and governments are working with one mind and one goal—to create machine intelligence that can learn and perform nearly any task as well as, or better than, human beings.
Gary Kasparov, the renowned chess grandmaster who famously lost to IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer in 1997—a feat once considered impossible for a machine—stated, “Saying that Deep Blue doesn’t really think is like saying an airplane doesn’t really fly because it doesn’t flap its wings.”
In other words, in the eyes of the world the difference between intelligence and capability will be considered irrelevant—as what matters is what AI can do.
Just as the builders at Babel, humanity is coming against limits that once seemed unreachable.
The real dangers start before AGI arrives
Science fiction loves the trope of self-aware AI turning against its creators. Despite the dazzling leaps of AI agents or how human the newest AI models may seem in their writing, they are not at all a step toward true humanlike intelligence.
However, the most immediate dangers of AI do not require any form of consciousness or sentience to amplify evil in the world.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Recall the problem of “fake news” in recent years. Hundreds of provocative, but untrue, headlines deceived many. AI will be used to produce more convincing content faster than ever, including not only text but fraudulent images and videos that are increasingly difficult to discern.
Likewise, bad actors across the board augment their abilities with AI already—from hackers holding companies hostage with ransomware to phishing scams duping people for their bank information. Very soon, AI agents will make it possible to outsource these evil deeds completely, enabling a single person to deploy as many simultaneous attacks as their computing resources can support.
The scale of the threat grows when considering geopolitical motives. State-sponsored cyber attacks from China against critical U.S. systems are now routine, and their human hackers are probably already equipped with AI assistants at their side. It’s not a stretch to imagine the Chinese government commissioning an army of AI cyberwarfare agents that autonomously seek out vulnerabilities in critical American systems and infiltrate them for espionage and/or disruption.
Internet-based attacks can have real, deadly consequences, but the dangers of AI do not stop there. An Encyclopedia Britannica essay titled “Killer Robots: The Future of War?” postulates that “the first revolution in warfare was the invention of gunpowder. The second was the invention of nuclear weapons. And this [AI-powered autonomous robots] will be the third” (Toby Walsh, Britannica.com, originally published 2018). As it rightly observes, “The weakest link in a drone is the radio link back to base.” Now it can keep going on its own.
Coinciding with developments in AI, drone technology and humanoid robotics have undergone rapid advances in recent years. Flying drones are already redefining the principles of modern warfare through the Russia-Ukraine war, where cheap remote-piloted drones carrying explosives have neutralized multimillion-dollar tanks, dramatically altering battlefield dynamics. Replacing remote drone pilots with AI is an all-but-certain escalation that will soon make these platforms capable of greater destruction and on a much larger scale.
On the robotics front, Boston Dynamics in the U.S. and Unitree Robotics in China are routinely demoing new humanlike and doglike robots—powered by AI systems—that learn via neural networks to not only walk, but run, jump, climb, dance and do backflips. In the near future, governments may be manufacturing vast armies of AI-powered autonomous robot soldiers.
Consider also the problem of AGI or ASI falling into the hands of volatile dictators, and the stakes become even higher. On June 22, 2025, U.S. stealth bombers destroyed three Iranian nuclear facilities, derailing Iran’s uranium enrichment ambitions for years to come. Replace the thought of “uranium enrichment” with “AI computer clusters” and the same logic may apply in the near future—nations launching preemptive strikes to prevent rivals from reaching AI supremacy.
Will humanity survive the AI explosion?
Jesus Christ warned that in the end times the world would be plagued by “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6). AI is poised to be both fuel and the spark for that fire.
While AI marches forward at breakneck speed, the “AI utopia” scenario does not seem at all likely. Human nature, as history has shown many times over, dictates that AI will be used as a tool for both good and evil. The abilities of these systems in the near future leave us with very bleak prospects.
Will mankind survive? Jesus said that things will get so bad that “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [alive] . . .” (Matthew 24:22). In other words, the Bible confirms that the doom-and-gloom scenarios are indeed the logical, predictable outcome of man’s efforts!
Our greatest problems—war, greed, corruption—are not technical but spiritual in nature. AI cannot solve them. Rather, it will amplify them.
And yet, there is hope! Jesus continued, “. . . but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” In the absence of a loving Creator, the collective sins of mankind would be our undoing—but God, out of mercy and love for His people, will intervene before AI or any other threat would destroy mankind.
Until the return of Jesus Christ, the world we live in will become increasingly dangerous and unpredictable. Paul warned that “in the last days perilous times will come” (2 Timothy 3:1). AI advances are worsening many spiritual dangers. Social media will become more addictive and more toxic. Advertising will become more enticing than ever, fueling hedonism. Deceptive AI content will soon make it nearly impossible to tell truth from reality. All these problems and more are at our doorstep!
What should we do as AI races ahead? Stay spiritually awake, testing every claim against God’s Word, and remember that the only true hope for the world is the coming Kingdom of God.
Our world is charging toward a future it cannot control—but, thankfully, that future is securely in the hands of God the Father and Jesus Christ. For our sake, man’s self-destructive course will be cut short, and God’s Kingdom will bring the peace that no human-devised AI could ever deliver!
****
LOLGB+
#agi #AI #artificialIntelligence #chatgpt #technology
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought… Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.”*…
Jacques-Louis David, The Tennis Court Oath, 1790-4 (source)Stephen Colbert once observed that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” And indeed, liberalism— the political/moral philosophy rooted in individual liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law– has been a major ideology through modern times… and, of course, the major ideology animating the founding of the United States.
But as Easten European states turn to authoritarians, Western European nations wrestle with the rise of nationalist far-right parties, and the U.S. is “steered” by MAGA using Project 2025‘s “map,” there’s a concern that liberalism’s days may be past.
Persuasion is running a series of essays on “Liberal Virtues and Values.”
The series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, will make the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms.
The latest installment is from Martin Gurri, who argues that Liberalism needs a new foundation (and that how we handle AI will matter fundamentally)…
That liberal democracy is in a state of terminal decline I take to be beyond dispute. Like Alice in the rabbit hole, those of us who dwell in democratic societies suffer from a nauseating sense of falling without ever landing on solid ground. The usual suspects blamed for this tumble—populism, inequality, the economy—are mere surface symptoms of an internal breakdown. We have arrived at the conclusion of a world-historical cycle. Liberal democracy is the procedural embodiment of Enlightenment ideology—and after two centuries of dominance, that ideology has lost all purchase and stands utterly exhausted.
Radical alternatives confront us. Either we reorient our system to post-Enlightenment principles or we risk staggering into the nihilist’s paradise I have called the Endarkenment.
Enlightenment philosophers placed their faith in reason and science. These are purely critical disciplines: liberal propagandists wielded criticism like a scalpel to dissect conservative laggards and utopian revolutionaries alike. Once triumphant at the “end of history,” liberal democracy turned the knife on itself—a process of self-criticism and self-doubt that has shredded its own ideals to ribbons.
The positive values inherited from the Enlightenment—equality, individualism, compassion—were always parasitic on Christianity. But Christianity, like all religions, has no place in a universe ruled by reason and science. Nietzsche long ago brought us the troubling news: the Christian God is dead. Oblivious to the implications of this calamity, liberal democracy kept marching like a cartoon character over the edge of the abyss, until the laws of moral gravity asserted themselves. So began the Great Fall.
Criticism is a force for progress so long as there are blatant irrationalities, like slavery or Jim Crow discrimination, to overcome. But under the hammer of Enlightenment ideals, modern society has been flattened, centralized, and rationalized. Deprived of obvious superstitions to debunk and totalitarian rivals to defeat, liberal democracy has been revealed in all its internal contradictions.
One such contradiction, I contend, pits the cherished principle of equality against the chosen few who actually practice reason and science: let’s call this the problem of the elites.
A second contradiction finds freedom of the press and of opinion arrayed against the need to protect objective truth: call it the problem of information.
Finally, freedom of worship and the life of the spirit collide head-on with the materialist criticism favored by Enlightenment ideology: the problem of meaning.
Each of these contradictions could prove fatal to the democratic project, but none is insoluble, and the search for solutions offers an opportunity for renewal. While there are no guarantees, we could emerge from the crisis with a better understanding of the reach and limits of equality, a more transparent information sphere, and even, it may be, a rich infusion of the transcendental into everyday life…
[Gurri unpacks each of those contradictions…]
… So what is to be done?
The first, obvious step is to move the question to the center of our shared conversations. The most capacious thinkers of the age should contemplate first principles and ultimate goals with at least as much intensity as they invest in Donald Trump or the latest economic report. There’s nothing artificial about this. Science and reason are necessary for modernity. Meaning and moral aspiration are necessary for humanity. A balance must be struck that preserves the one and gives full weight to the other.
Materialism, we must understand, is a valuable perspective for science but not a realistic appraisal of the human condition. Scientists work as if on a geometric point, abstracted from nature and indifferent to its dispositions. In reality, however, we come from nature, we are of nature, and we are far from indifferent to our place in it. Our intuitions are internal to the system: humanity’s spiritual quest is, in every sense, nature reflecting on itself. One such intuition is agency—the belief that, at the crossroads, I am free to go right or left, and I alone make the choice. Another is faith in causation. These stances are irrational, or rather pre-rational, but without them liberal democracy as well as science itself would be impossible.
In the end, materialism is self-defeating. To say, “I choose to be a materialist” is to fall into an absurd fallacy. Either our bodies, which consist of matter, obey unchanging laws, or the mind, transcending matter, is capable of choice. There can be no middle ground.
Politics, in a metaphysical age, will resume its traditional place as a secondary activity—a means to an end. This will leave liberal democracy vulnerable to false prophets who are willing to trample on individual rights in pursuit of some apocalyptic scheme. The interesting question is whether the post-truth condition will make the peril greater or lesser. On the one hand, the lack of universal firewalls might make it easier for a fanatic to flood the system. Yet post-truth itself, I believe, is the strongest kind of firewall. In our fractured, eternally contested environment, the progress of any totalizing doctrine will be painfully slow. The quest for meaning and the struggle over frames of reference are, in the end, really one and the same.
We have inherited a rich and evocative spiritual vocabulary, but it belongs to a worldview thousands of years old. “King of kings,” to cite just one example, should sound archaic in a democratic age. Can we awaken the scientific world to the spirit? Is it possible to sanctify our largely instrumental relations? This shouldn’t entail a belief in fairies and goblins, or even necessarily in religion. Any good empiricist will admit that the richest human lives are lived symbolically. Can we climb the symbolic ladder to the mountaintop, where meaning and modern humanity come harmoniously together—anchoring, it may be, a loftier understanding of equality and social life, and of the sanctity of truth?
We won’t know until we try. Pessimism, let me suggest, is unwarranted. History moves in mysterious ways. We may be due for a second coming of historian Karl Jaspers’ “Axial Age”: preachers and philosophers who conceived a drastically updated transcendental vision, with the rational and the sacred, truth and meaning, reconciled with political freedom.
For 200 years, we placed society under the sway of universal principles. That’s gone with the wind. We have entered an era of radical contingency, in which even truth is indeterminate. The natural tendency is to retreat to the certainties of the past—but there’s no going back. If we hope to preserve the gains from Enlightenment society, and resolve its many contradictions, we’ll have to do so within a new and wildly unstable conceptual framework.
With the spell of the Enlightenment broken, liberal democracy will have to redefine what “created equal” means. This process could end in a rigid caste system, with the institutions in the hands of self-selected mandarins who wield the power of the state to impose their “solutions.” Preferably, and more likely given the thrust of the new technology, we’ll see a flattening of the institutions and the continued trampling by the public into the sacred spaces of politics and communication.
Equality, however understood, will be forged in the will of the citizenry rather than granted by a benevolent God. That will make it contingent like everything else, and so liable to variation and in constant need of defense. And if perfect equality is an impossible dream, eternal inequality requires impossible discipline. The current elite class, already under enormous pressure, may lose its cohesion and melt into the impermanence of the age, divided among the various schools and sects and frames of reference.
The structure of information will follow the definition of equality. The commanding heights will be control over AI. If AI development and deployment is a closed game, the elites could set themselves up as intermediaries in the oracle of an omniscient divinity. If AI is a competitive product, the public will gain the upper hand. In that case, we can expect a flowering of eccentric applications, the individualization of commerce and industry, and the final overthrow of the expert class. The information sphere will remain the mirror to our passions, divisions, and metaphysical longings. Freedom of speech, no longer “endowed by our Creator,” will become the battleground on which the question of equality is ultimately settled.
Here I finally reveal myself in my true colors. I’m an analyst. My task is to describe reality, and that’s what this essay is about. But I also lead an active life inside the world that I’m describing—and I have preferences. I see equality as a factor of opportunity, law, and human dignity, not of perfect outcomes. I think truth emerges from examining a subject from a large number of perspectives, even those that may seem disturbing or false. I hope that my story—as a person, a father, a grandfather—connects to other stories in the past and will connect to more in the future, in a pattern that is not entirely devoid of meaning. And I believe fervently in liberal democracy, because—born in Cuba—I have tasted the alternative.
The breakdown of Enlightenment ideology is only the latest challenge liberal democracy has faced in my lifetime. I’m not entitled, as an analyst, to downplay the perils ahead, but I’m allowed, as an American, to have faith that they will once again be overcome…
Eminently worth reading in full: “The Search for a Post-Enlightenment Democracy”
###
As we renew, we might send free-thinking birthday greetings to Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (or as he’s usually called, Benjamin Constant); he was born on this date in 1767. A French political thinker, activist, and writer on political theory and religion (whose work influenced, among many others, Sir Isaiah Berlin), Constant was a committed republican from 1795, backing the coup d’état of 18 Fructidor in1797, and the following one on 18 Brumaire, in 1799. He became the leader of the Liberal opposition in 1800, during the Consulate. Constant fell out with Napoleon, and had to flee (first to Switzerland, then to Saxony). Nonetheless, after his return to France, Constant sided with the Emperor during the Hundred Days, drafting the Charter of 1815. He became politically active again during the Bourbon Restoration and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1818 (where he remained until his death in 1830). As the head of the Liberal opposition, known as Indépendants, Constant was one of the most notable orators in the Chamber, especially in his role as a proponent of the parliamentary system.
Portrait of Constant by Hercule de Roche, c. 1820 (source) #authoritarianism #BenjaminConstant #culture #democracy #Elites #Enlightenment #FrenchHistory #history #illiberalism #information #liberalism #MartinGurri #meaning #moralPhilosophy #Napoleon #philosophy #politicalPhilosophy #religion
OL #Lyonnes surclasse l'OM et poursuit son sans-faute en Première Ligue
#OLLOM #Marseille
(L'Équipe : https://olplus.fr/WDqWz)
USC football rumors: Trojans brass would ‘welcome’ Lincoln Riley pursuing Baylor job https://www.rawchili.com/5133905/ #CFBRumors #Football #LincolnRiley #ncaa #NcaaFootball #NCAAF #USCFootball
2 World Series Players the Rockies Should Consider Pursuing in Free Agency https://www.rawchili.com/mlb/837727/ #Baseball #colorado #ColoradoRockies #ColoradoRockies #MLB #rockies
https://www.europesays.com/ch-fr/365290/ L’hécatombe se poursuit à Genève, battu par Zurich #Ajoie #animation #Bienne #Delémont #FranchesMontagnes #fréquence #Jura #JuraBernois #LaChauxDeFonds #Moutier #Neuchâtel #Neuveville #Payerne #Porrentruy #publicité #radio #rédaction #RFJ #RJB #RTN #Suisse #Tavannes #VallonDeStImier #Yverdon #Zurich
https://www.europesays.com/uk/1274991/ Russia is escalating its confrontation with the West in orbit. Its satellites are pursuing spacecraft from companies helping Ukraine — and Starlink has been put on notice. — Meduza #Russia #бестселлер #видео #война #доллар #интервью #информация #исследование #компания #краткийпересказ #нефть #новости #опрос #политика #президент #приговор #расследование #реакция #репортаж #сепаратисты #средства #тест #украина #фото #цены #экономика
https://www.europesays.com/conflicts/51988/ Russia is escalating its confrontation with the West in orbit. Its satellites are pursuing spacecraft from companies helping Ukraine — and Starlink has been put on notice. — Meduza #Ukraine #UkraineMilitary #бестселлер #видео #война #доллар #интервью #информация #исследование #компания #краткийпересказ #нефть #новости #опрос #политика #президент #приговор #расследование #реакция #репортаж #сепаратисты #средства #тест #украина #фото #цены #экономика
https://www.europesays.com/3332500/ Russia is escalating its confrontation with the West in orbit. Its satellites are pursuing spacecraft from companies helping Ukraine — and Starlink has been put on notice. — Meduza #Russia #бестселлер #видео #война #доллар #интервью #информация #исследование #компания #краткийпересказ #нефть #новости #опрос #политика #президент #приговор #расследование #реакция #репортаж #сепаратисты #средства #тест #украина #фото #цены #экономика
https://www.europesays.com/fr/?p=1263562 Hockey sur glace. D1 : Nantes poursuit sa belle série contre Morzine #actu #Actualités #EU #europe #FR #France #Nantes #News #PaysDeLaLoire #RépubliqueFrançaise
https://www.europesays.com/fr/1262093/ « C’est un miracle qu’il n’y ait pas eu de mort ou de blessé grave » : prison ferme après une course-poursuite à 200 km/h entre Baraqueville et Luc-la-Primaube #actu #Actualités #Aveyron #EU #europe #EuropeanUnion #FR #France #Justice #luclaprimaube #News #RépubliqueFrançaise #UE #UnionEuropéenne
https://www.europesays.com/fr/1262020/ Nancy. De la Star Academy à un travail alimentaire : loin des projecteurs, Louis Montémont poursuit son rêve de musique #actu #Actualités #ÉditionNancyEtAgglomération #EU #europe #FilInfo #FR #France #GrandEst #MeurtheEtMoselle #musique #Nancy #News #RégionLorraine #RépubliqueFrançaise #SélectionDeLaRédaction #TelevisionMedias #Vidéo