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EdenicFaithful

Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw

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joined 2022 September 04 18:50:58 UTC 

				
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EdenicFaithful


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:50:58 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It isn't too surprising that something based on human words can appear to have aspects of human feeling. That it is disembodied (assuming this is accurate) proves nothing, because it seems fairly obvious to me that there are latent insights into the structure of the human mind in AI. A structure related to pain does not necessarily require the simulation of a body to simulate its essence.


But ultimately, until we have a better understanding of consciousness (we can't even agree if it exists or not) we can only guess. My thoughts: the idea that pain is just a number, or an arrangement of numbers in relation to other numbers, strikes me as ridiculous. But I can't prove that it is so at present.


Even in a non-materialist paradigm, the possibility that non-material mind adds something to the motion of matter in the middle of computation can't strictly speaking be ignored. Determinism makes this weird; unless you can prove that AI output varies given the same material conditions, the idea of non-material emotions adds nothing visible to the computation. But it remains possible that something odd is going on in the middle of "randomness" which we cannot yet measure or formulate. Edit: It also occurs to me that non-material emotions might be deterministically baked in to any material combination, ie. the hypothetical lack of visible difference doesn't exclude the possibility that non-material emotional influence is the norm.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've seen at least a few reasons for doubting that perspective. For example, Quran 5:48:




...To each of you [Jews, Christians, Muslims] We have ordained a code of law and a way of life. If Allah had willed, He would have made you one community, but His Will is to test you with what He has given each of you. So compete with one another in doing good. To Allah you will all return, then He will inform you of the truth regarding your differences.




Of course, there are passages contradicting or seeming to contradict this. Zayd's perspective is an attempt to find a new means of interpretation which can tilt towards the 'togetherness', and I'm not convinced that such efforts will bear no fruit.


But for me the question is less what Allah intended, as I'm not a Muslim, but what practical effect Islam has had on the world, and what it might still contribute. For example, Islam probably had a large hand in Guru Nanak's "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" in Sikhism, as it is one possible interpretation of the unity of God and the importance of intention over outward appearance.


Speculatively, I recall an old passage in Abramelin, one of the grimoires of my youth:




For it is an indubitable and evident thing that he who is born Christian, Jew, Pagan, Turk, Infidel, or whatever religion it may be, can arrive at the perfection of this Work or Art and become a Master, but he who hath abandoned his natural Law, and embraced another religion opposed to his own, can never arrive at the summit of this Sacred Science.




I am beginning to wonder if this way of thinking is actually in part Islamic in origin. Though I will admit that these are at present vague and poorly supported thoughts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
So, what are you reading?


I finished Nasr Abu Zayd's Rethinking the Qur'an: Towards a Humanistic Hermeneutics. It's a short essay, but very valuable.




It is not only a question of contextualization, which is pivotal in discourse analysis, but more than that it is what the discourse tells about the context and how. Now, the question is which is historical and which is universal, a question that keeps all the modern liberal Muslim scholars of the Qur'an busy. Being confined to the Qur'an as 'text' alone, the conservatives win at the end of the day. When the liberals, for example, emphasize 'togetherness' as the universal eliminating the 'hostility' limiting its meaning to the negative past the conservatives will apply the principle of 'abrogation' to historicize 'togetherness' as abrogated and will universalize 'hostility', as the abrogat [sic]. In the present context of unsolved Palestinian-Israeli trauma, whose hermeneutics or meaning is valid? The winner is sure to be the meaning of ghetto, separation and isolation, the meaning of Mr. Sharon's wall.




Zayd's hope is to fight against that outcome in Middle East/Western relations, which 'hostility' he sees as being supported by the adapting of Islam to resistance.