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From: scott@scirtp.UUCP (Scott Crenshaw)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Deus ex machina
Message-ID: <401@scirtp.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Sep-85 20:46:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: scirtp.401
Posted: Thu Sep  5 20:46:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Sep-85 13:24:11 EDT
References: <109@decvax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: SCI Systems, Research Triangle Park, NC
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Xref: watmath net.religion.jewish:2413 net.sf-lovers:9947

>     "Are all of your computers Jewish?"
>     "It depends on how sophisticated they are,"  explained [Dr.
>   Goldstein's daughter] Shoshanna, bringing a covered tray from the
>   kitchen.  "Sooner or later, the computer runs up against the concepts
>   of morality, an dsince our concepts are codified the Talmud, we
>   insert a memory of it.  From that point on, all of our computers
>   have behaved in a perfectly moral fashion.
>     "Sometimes, when working on a complex problem, the logic can be
>   a little obtuse, but the computer always has a rational explanation
>   -- in terms of the Talmud."
> 
> How (theologiclly) realistic is this?

	Very unrealistic. There are many (many) reasons why; I'll focus on
two of them.
	Jews are people -- there is no way anything else can be a Jew. For a
gentile to become a Jew is possible; when that takes place the gentile aquires
certain (spiritual) attributes possessed by all Jews. But for an inatimate
to become Jewish -- ridiculous.
	The Talmud requires two types of understanding: a logical, consistent
understanding and one involving love (avodas Hash-m), fear (yiras shomayim) and
other purely human attributes. A computer could never simulate this.
	It is interesting to note that the Israeli rabbinate has placed
much of the Responsa on a computer database, allowing research time to be
shortened. There are many problems with this chief among which is that the
research process is a crucial part of the educational process for those making
halakic decisions which must not be lost. Also, suppose the computer goes
down ?  It must be stressed that the computer in know way takes part in any
decisions ; it is merely and alternative place to store the responsa, instead 
of books.
	I believe that the text of the Talmud has been transfered to disk,
but I don't know for what purpose. 
	Also, there have been a number of statistical analyses performed on
the Torah using computer-based statistical pakages. The results are very
interesting. For instance, in the first two books, every nth letter (I don't
remember what n is) spells 'Torah' , in the last two books, every nth letter
(same n) spells 'Torah' backwards (i.e., if read from back-to-front) and 
in the middle book, every nth letter spells the Name of G-d.  There were 
literally hundreds of similar sequences found. I don't have the information
handy , but if anyone would like more info, send me some e-mail and I'll
look up the place the findings were published.
-- 
	   Scott Crenshaw		{akgua,decvax}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp
	   SCI Systems , Inc. 		Research Triangle Park, NC 

The views represented may or may not be those of my employer.