We haven’t camped much since opening the studio and moving in together.
This is my favorite time of year to camp and we’re taking advantage, now with a weekend in New Jersey.
Camping Again
Isaiah 47: Babylon’s Hubris
Isaiah 47:10 RSV — You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray.
This is an example of the descriptive nature of the Old Testament. God doesn’t bring Babylon low out of vengeance, but rather Babylon’s arrogance and refusal to see its limited role in history.
#BannedBooksWeek Scam
Banned Books Week is a scam to sell books that are not banned.
Isaiah 46: These Things You Carry
Isaiah 46:1 RSV — Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle; these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts.
I have to laugh at myself. I’ve been stressing all morning about loading up for a camping weekend. Scripture is magic. The Word shows up in humbling ways.
This weekend I will focus on not carrying false idols into the woods.
Isaiah 44-45: I am the LORD’s
Isaiah 44:5 RSV — This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’s,’ another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and surname himself by the name of Israel.”
Isaiah 45:1 RSV — Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
To be clear: I do not think I’m anointed, comparable to a king like Cyrus, nor particularly led by the hand of God.
I aspire to serve God to the best of my ability and these passages are bolstering.
The Oxford Study Bible says that owners put their name on the hands of slaves.
When I got my first tattoo, the story of Jacob’s dream and the ladder stretching down from Heaven felt right. I forget why exactly we chose to use my right arm, but I think it was Kristen’s call from an artistic stand point. Her intuitions are strong.
The supplanter Jacob is renamed Israel after he wrestles with God (or God’s angel, I haven’t gone deep enough on that to say). Although I want to study more, I’m tempted to have Kristen depict that wrestling match on my left arm. Jacob and Israel represent two extremes of the human spirit, the conivining and the righteous. This is the struggle that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn framed so beautifully.
I feel this divide daily in temptations for good and ill. To look down and see that I have marked myself, voluntarily, with something akin to “I am the LORD’s” gives me a little more strength to see and choose the righteous path.
Good News
There are 227 reactions to this news story about a new Covid variant. All of them are mocking.
This is the best news I’ve gotten all day.
Mary-centric
Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of my wedding to Mary.
Somewhat coincidentally, our tattoo studio was closed and Kristen was in a decorating mood. She’s been working on this wall and I helped hang some musical memorabilia.
Although she was quiet about her choices, my heart was filled with love because most of these have connections to Mary. The Ziggy Stardust was a gift from her and the signed Rhiannon Giddens picture was from me to her. Mary never got to see Beats Antique, but they were a favorite listen.
Kristen’s capacity to hold space for Mary astounds me.
The recognition of a love cut short might be the most important component of romance in widowhood. Both parties must find a comfortable balance and be prepared for the inevitable uncomfortable moments.
A Week in Tattoos
AI Ain’t Smart
I have very little direct experience with language modeling apps. My instincts quickly recognized that my interactions with this tech was damaging to my spirit. Since stepping back, I have learned a lot about “Artificial Intelligence.” These Large Language Models (LLMs) aren’t the popularly understood “thinking” machines from movies and contemporary discourse. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is what the industry refers to when discussing a properly “thinking” machine. As far as I know, this does not yet exist. I use quotes around “thinking” because these engineers do not know what that word means. Philosophers have been wrestling with the concept of conciousness for as long as…well…we don’t know how long. The tech industry is investing a witheringly small amount of philosophical energy. I’m glad. I don’t want them to figure this out and I suspect that it is an impossible feat.
Back to LLMs. These are complex modelling programs, they do not value truth. Their job is to make the best guess at producing a result that pleases the user. It acquires from each question, and “learns” to refine the language as you refine your inquiry.
It’s a very clever conman that gets the answers right most of the time.
It’s similar to the problem with tests. Being a good test taker doesn’t mean you have mastered the material, it means you have learned the game of the test. I was a smart kid, but I realized that once I mastered the concept of tests, I could turn down my brain power and coast through school.
LLMs are mastering the test, but they have no way to master the material.
“These models acquire predictive power regarding syntax, semantics, and ontologies inherent in human language corpora, but they also inherit inaccuracies and biases present in the data they are trained on.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model
Isaiah 43: Forgiveness
Isaiah 43:22 RSV — “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
Isaiah 43:25 RSV — “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
Although Jacob’s people deny and forget God repeatedly, he does not withhold forgiveness.
The phrase “for my own sake” stands out for the human truth that when we forgive those who wrong us, we are blessed.
