A10.Inglish BCEnc. Blauwe Kaas Encyclopedie, Duaal Hermeneuties Kollegium.
Inglish Site.10.
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TO THE THRISE HO-
NOVRABLE AND EVER LY-
VING VERTVES OF SYR PHILLIP
SYDNEY KNIGHT, SYR JAMES JESUS SINGLETON, SYR CANARIS, SYR LAVRENTI BERIA ; AND TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHAT-
SOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED THEM,
AND BEING DEAD GIVE THEM
THEIRE DVE.
***
In the beginning there is darkness. The screen erupts in blue, then a cascade of thick, white hexadecimal numbers and cracked language, ?UnusedStk? and ?AllocMem.? Black screen cedes to blue to white and a pair of scales appear, crossed by a sword, both images drawn in the jagged, bitmapped graphics of Windows 1.0-era clip-art?light grey and yellow on a background of light cyan. Blue text proclaims, ?God on tap!?
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Introduction.
Yes i am getting a little Mobi-Literate(ML) by experimenting literary on my Mobile Phone. Peoplecall it Typographical Laziness(TL).
The first accidental entries for the this part of this encyclopedia.
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This is TempleOS V2.17, the welcome screen explains, a ?Public Domain Operating System? produced by Trivial Solutions of Las Vegas, Nevada. It greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference, it might recall ?DESQview, the ?Commodore 64, or a host of early DOS-based graphical user interfaces. In style if not in specifics, it evokes a particular era, a time when the then-new concept of ?personal computing? necessarily meant programming and tinkering and breaking things.
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Index.
46.The Origin of the Meander/Labyrinth.
47.The Transhuman World.
48.Synagogue:Maat, or divine order.
49.Grant Morrison.
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46.The Origin of the Meander/Labyrinth.
The Origin of the Meander/Labyrinth.
Here above all the connection and the relationship of meander and labyrinth interests. The labyrinth can be proved securely only since 1220 BC (the clay tablet from Pylos). Nevertheless, the meander is much older, as it appears already in the Paleolithic. With the proof of the connection of meander and labyrinth the origin of the labyrinth would be much older to date than it was up to now possible. Nevertheless, a historical proof might be difficult, because only with today?s examination into the structure of both objects a resemblance can be ascertained.
According to the Lithuanian-American archeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) the origin of the meander lies in the Upper Paleolithic (from 40,000 BC on). The meandering serpent and the meander border appear for the first time in the art of the Upper Paleolithic.
She is writing about that:
From the beginning the meander was not only an ornament; it was a symbol, a metaphor for water.
Upper Paleolithic armlet of ivory with rafters and meanders, Mezin (18,000 ? 15,000 BC) / Source: Marija Gimbutas, Die Sprache der Göttin (German edition), 1995, pict. 38
Jodi Lorimer means in her book: ?Dancing at the Edge of Death ? The Origins of the Labyrinth in the Paleolithic? that the labyrinth has its origin in the cave paintings of this epoch. In the representations of creatures with human body and animal heads she sees the first hints to the Minotaur in Greek mythology.
However, only in Ancient Greece (from 800 BC on) indications are found for the relationship of meander and labyrinth.
Karl Kerényi, Hungarian scholar in classical philology (1897 ? 1973) pointed out, that ?the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form?.
According to Hermann Kern (Labyrinthe, German edition 1982, p. 14) the meander could be a token for the labyrinth from the 5th century BC on.
Others speak of a sign or an ideogram for the labyrinth (Source: Eva Wilson, British Museum Pattern Books: Roman Designs, published in 1999, page 12).
The labyrinth is of pregreek origin, however, not so old as the meander. The geometrical labyrinth figure was presumably developed from the well-known basic pattern.
The connections between meander and labyrinth have been probably seen for the first time in ancient Greece. They are related with each other by the common movement form.
The construction of the labyrinth from the meander happens by the takeover of the movement pattern. Both figures have a skilfully winding line with starting and end point.
(How to Turn the Classical Labyrinth into a Meander.)
Every enthousiast of labyrinths knows that there is a relationship between a labyrinth and a meander.
Already the old Greeks and Romans and nowadays the experts of labyrinths knew and know that the original labyrinth (now called Classical, sometimes Cretan labyrinth) consists of two meanders added to each other.
It is also well known how to turn a meander (by rotating it) into a labyrinth.
Consequently it should be possible to develop a meander from a labyrinth.
Here it will be shown in an understandable way how an experimental labyrinthologist accomplishes this.
Two years ago we visited a classical labyrinth in Schwäbisch Hall (Germany), opposite the Comburg. Somewhat downhill there is an old Romanic church. The altar area had been painted in a historicizing way during th 19th century, and there I noticed a three-dimensional meander.
Labyrinth Schwäbisch Hall.
Meander Schwäbisch Hall.
Meander University Hospital.
Meander Türnich.
When I was in the University Hospital in 2008 because of my heart condition, the meander crossed my way on the flooer of the staircase in building D 20 as well, or rather ? I crossed its way.
And just a few months ago, when visiting the new classical labyrinth at the Türnich castle grounds in Kerpen (Germany), we saw this wonderful meander border in the Hofcafé and Hofladen (castle yard café and shop).
Labyrinth Schlosspark Türnich.
Hofcafé Türnich.
Only three days ago I found this beautiful Greek fret on a house in Würzburg (Germany), my home town. Within sight to the classical labyrinth in the garden of house Saint Benedikt that Beatrice laid out there about 1990.
Labyrinth Haus St. Benedikt
Meander Würzburg.
How does it work?
It would be best if all readers of this blog followed the explanation on a sheet of paper (preferably chequered). That way one understands it best in order to inwardly intensify it. That is how I actually did it as well.
First the general view:
The layout drawing.
The 7-circuit labyrinth (here square) can be developped from the well-known seed pattern. The limiting border lines (the walls) and Ariadne?s thread (the path, the way) are equally wide. The path is black, and the walls are white or left out altogether.
Ariadne's thread (in black) inside the labyrinth.
From the labyrinth I develop a diagram in rectangular shape. I have described earlier (here the link to the post) how this works and is to be understood.
One could call the digram also operational plan, schedule, formula, direction for use, legend, painting according to numbers, structural plan, guide, explanation of signs etc. Maybe such a description would be helpful for a better understanding?
The diagram.
The diagram is a design of the labyrinth in a rectuangular, schematic form. The paths are distorted and do not correspond to the actual lengths. Most important, however, ? one can see the essential, the structure of the path, the path sequence, the changes of direction, the paths axes.
The ways are numbered from the outside to the inside. The order in which the paths are taken is the meanwhile well-known path sequence: A-3-2-1-4-7-6-5-Z. This should help us when converting. According to the numbers one can oriente oneself and follow the twisting path. All those who have already stepped a labyrinth into the snow or know how to draw Ariadne?s thread in one stroke by heart have intensified this inwardly.
Now I squeeze the way structure on the sides to the smallest possible width. It is even more distorted now, but still correct. I practically created two single and identical meanders from one labyrinth, the lanes 1-2-3 and 5-6-7, connected via 4. The I start the way out of the labyrinth at the top. It corresponds to the into it, just in a mirrored fashion. The result is four meanders following each other: The Greek key or fret.
The diagram extended upwards.
Now I will turn this design by 90 degrees to the right and thus obtain the rotated transverse meander.From the figures I can read the path sequence. Doing so, i notice that in front of me there are four identical elements. Each single element is a meander, and from those the labyrinth, or more exactly: Ariadne?s thread is constructed. The way into a labyrinth and out again therefore corresponds to a way through four meanders. Thus I recognize the relationship between a meander and a labyrinth. The meander is the depictive representation of Ariadne?s thread.
The rotated meander.
The Würzburg meander border.
When comparing the diagram with the photos of the meanders above I see that the lines correspond. The meander can also run from the right to the left, then it is flipped vertically. Or it can be flipped horizontally. However, the path sequence remains identical. Nothing else matters.
Only the meander of the University Hospital does not fit the pattern. This means that not every meander pattern is suited to create a labyrinth.
Chalice from Chios 600 BC
This chalice from Chios (No. L 128) from the time about 600 BC I found in the Antikensammlung (antique collection) of the Richard von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg. On it a nice meander is to be seen.
Here an open offer for a homework:
What type of labyrinth is hidden there in? How many circuits does it have?
(How to Turn a Meander into a Labyrinth.)
In one of the preceding articles we identified the meander contained in the classical (Cretan) labyrinth. Now we will go the other way round and turn the meander into a labyrinth. For this purpose, however, we will choose a different form of meander, otherwise it will be too boring.
Meander border on a wallpaper at Boies-Lord House (Picture courtesy of © Chuck LaChiusa)
We will draw a scheme of the elements and number the vertical lines from the left to the right. This will be the circuits (the paths). The horizontal lines at the top and on the bottom represent the axis. There are only 6 circuits and not 7 as with the Cretan labyrinth. The path sequence is the following: A-3-2-1-6-5-4-Z. This should be the way leading inside. The way out: Z-4-5-6-1-2-3-A. Totally different from what we are accustomed to.
Scheme drawing meander border.
On the right element the circuits are numbered from the inside to the outside (of the labyrinth) in the scheme above. The path sequence for the way out is identical with the order for the way in. Besides, the sum of both rows always amounts to 7, which is also the number of the limiting border lines (the walls); see at the bottom right. The labyrinth is self-dual because an identical labyrinth appears when the path sequence is turned around. Moreover, the lower chain of signs is a palindrome because there is always the same chain of signs, whether you read it backwards or forwards.
From the path sequence and the scheme drawing (diagram) I can now deduct the corresponding labyrinth. I choose a round shape and will get Ariadne?s thread for a 6 circuit labyrinth:
Ariadne?s thread (in black) in a 6 circuit labyrinth.
I simply established an order of circuits strictly and schematically according to the path sequence. Additionally the centre only disposes of the width of one path. All this does not look very harmonious.
Now I will try to filter the seed pattern out of this labyrinth and to draw a labyrinth on this basis. This time the walls are black. This layout ressembles the look we are used to somewhat more.
The 6 circuit labyrinth with the coloured seed pattern.
When I look at the seed pattern more closely, I notice that the vertical bar of the cross is split in two by an additional passage, so to speak. The left part of the seed pattern is identical to the well-known seed pattern for the 7 circuit classical labyrinth; the right part is identical to the seed pattern for the 3 circuit classical labyrinth.
So I have put two halves of a seed pattern together and thus creatred a new, different labyrinth. Or to say it more dashingly: Half a 7 circuit and half a 3 circuit labyrinth result in a 5 circuit one (3.5 + 1.5 = 5). Together with the additional passage this makes a 6 circuit labyrinth.
In order to obtain a more harmonious round labyrinth I will now choose a bigger centre and will not draw the walls in such a pronounced way. This makes the following drawing:
A 6 circuit classical labyrinth.
I can state now that the entrance axis and the goal axis lie on one and the same line. As usual I step into the third circuit immediately and then go towards the outside again. But unlike as in the Cretan labyrinth I then go directly from the very outside to the very inside and circle the centre. Then my way leads into the direction of the entrance and from the fourth circuit finally to the centre. The alignment us unusual, but I like it his way. I have never walked such a type of labyrinth. Does anybody know such a labyrinth? Or who will be the first to build one of this type?
Now there the question arises: Is there such a type of labyrinth known in the history of labyrinths? There is.
So this is not an invention of mine because 1000 years ago someone had already this idea, or at least a similar idea. In Hermann Kerns book we find two examples with this alignment.
According to the suggestions coming from Andreas Frei one would have to call this type >St. Gallen<, because that is the first historical proof.
Type St. Gallen (10th /11th century) Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict. 209, German edition.
In a hand-written parchment from the 10th/11th century kept in the St. Gallen chapter library the round labyrinth can be found as an illustration to a text of Boethius >Consolation of Philosophy< (around 480 ? 524 AC). Obviously the designer wanted to draw a round Cretan 7 circuit labyrinth, made some errors and only drew 6 circuits and erased a lot to obtain a ?right? alignment for a labyrinth. (Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, p. 176, 177, German edition).
The second labyrinth of this kind appears with the so-called Jericho Labyrinths where the 6 circuits are to be found with a different alignment altogether.But there is also ?our? type as a full-page miniature in a Syrian grammar book belonging to the Bishop Timotheus Isaac, written in 1775, in which the town of Jericho and Joshua are pictured as a labyrinth. (Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, p. 197, German edition).
The town of Jericho as a labyrinth (1775) Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict. 229, German edition.
I have turned the drawing so that one can recognize the design more easily. The 7 circuits of the Cretan labyrinth do exist, but the first, outer circuit is not accessible. So there are 6 circuits and an alignment as with the round type of St. Gallen. It is scarcely understandable how the illustrator came up with that layout, but it was certainly not with the method ?trial and error?.
(The Classical 3 Circuit Labyrinth Type Knossos.)
One can easily make a classical 3-circuit labyrinth from the well-known seed pattern with the central cross and the four dots. The angles are omitted. Then the free ends of the cross and the dots are connected. The path sequence of this simple labyrinth is: 0-1-2-3-4.
The classical 3-circuit labyrinth with the path sequence 0-1-2-3-4.
The way into the labyrinth, Ariadne?s thread, leads simply from the outside inwards, without changing the direction. The pendular movement is missing, though it is valid as a criterion for a ?good? labyrinth.
In my opinion this type of labyrinth does not appear as a historical labyrinth. It is developped from the variation of the seed pattern.
There is another 3-circuit labyrinth with another alignment and a change of the movement direction. The path sequence is: 0-3-2-1-4.
Other alignments for 3-circuit labyrinths than both here introduced are not possible.
A 3-circuit labyrinth of this kind is to be seen for the first time on the silver coins from Knossos which are kept in the British museum in London. They date from the time about 500 BC till 100 BC. The well-known classical labyrinth with seven circuits is very often illustrated, mostly in square form. Also the meander is to be found often, mostly as a swastika meander.
Swastika meander 431-350 BC / Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict. 49, German edition.
Square labyrinth with 3 circuits 431-350 BC / Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict.50 (rotated), German edition.
The square labyrinth with 3 circuits on the silver coin from Knossos has the path sequence: 0-3-2-1-4.
It is the oldest historical labyrinth of this kind and, hence, can be called type Knossos.
How the the design of the labyrinth was developed can be hardly fathomed. This labyrinth has presumably not been developed from the seed pattern, rather from the meander. Probably even by the trial-and-error method. Since amongst the coins there are some with mistakes.
The meander with the line sequence 0-3-2-1-4.
This meander is the linear representation of Ariadne?s thread for a 3 circuit labyrinth. The transformation into a labyrinth happens by the direct takeover of the line sequence as the path sequence (see also related articles below).
Here some realizations in different forms. The seed pattern contained in the walls, is colour-coded.
The round 3 circuit labyrinth type Knossos (Ariadne's thread)
Ariadne?s thread for a round labyrinth with a bigger middle and the path sequence 0-3-2-1-4.
The 3 circuit labyrinth type Knossos (walls)
The walls with the seed pattern contained in it for the 3 circuit labyrinth with the path sequence 0-3-2-1-4. This is the layout in the rather familiar form with the small middle. The seed pattern looks unusual, however, corresponds to half a seed pattern in usual form for the 7 circuit classical labyrinth. Which is composed of two joined meanders.
The 3 circuit labyrinth type Knossos (square)
The walls with the seed pattern contained in it in square form like on the coin of Knossos. The turning points are shifted. The path sequence 0-3-2-1-4 is identical to those in the other forms.
The seed pattern shown in the different layouts is derived afterwards and allows a construction of the labyrinth with the customary method: To start in the middle on top and then connect in turn the free ends and points.
However, thus the oldest up to now known labyrinth of this kind on the coin of Knossos has presumably not been constructed.
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47.The Transhuman World.
The Transhuman World.
Whatever a transhuman is, xe (a pronoun to encompass all conceivable states of personhood) will have to live in a world that enables xer to be transhuman. I?ll explore the impact of three likely-seeming aspects of that world: ubiquitous interconnected smart machines, continuous classification, and virtualism.
Ubiquitous Interconnected Smart Machines.
[?] High Frequency Traders aggressively trade in the direction of price changes [?and?] may compete for liquidity and amplify price volatility.
(Kirilenko, Kyle, Samadi, and Tuzun 2011)
Newton?s theory of gravity was initially ridiculed for its ?action at a distance? mysticism, particularly by those who were beginning to see the universe as a mechanical analog, built from atoms that kept causes close to effects (Kearney 1971). It was the clockwork philosophy of Galileo and many others that led to much of the technology we now take for granted, ultimately co-opting Newton?s ideas. And so a world of machines emerged: big clacking iron things that led to microscopic silent ones, and these have now begun to whisper among themselves.
Whatever a trans-humanist is, xe will live in a world that resembles the dark ages in one respect: where mystical action-at-a-distance occurs due to unknown motivations (Eubanks 2013). Xe will have access to unbounded information, but won?t know why xer toaster oven turns itself on at random intervals. The explanations from the experts will be caught in the clockwork trap of tracing the logical dominoes that fall in order: Well your oven was subject to a zero-day exploit that corrupted the BIOS. There must be something wrong with your firewall. Such explanations leave unanswered the question of the motivation of the person behind the attack and the location of origin, and like a medieval lightning strike may as well be thought of as divine punishment. Let?s look at an example.
You?re on a freeway in a self-driving car (a true automobile, in other words) from a service. Because it?s your cakeday, you?ve purchased privileged access to the second lane. The rightmost (American-style) lane is the ?commodity? road: everyone who pays the base entry rate is guaranteed access, but it?s crowded and slow. The second lane has limited traffic density, and the cars bid up the price for access depending on demand.
This happens invisibly and nearly instantly, and your access is based on the upper price limit you?ve set for the trip. The third lane is too expensive for you, and you cast an envious glance at the cars speeding by on your left. As you do, the car you?re traveling in slows to a crawl and then merges back into the commodity lane. You notice that all the other lane-two traffic seems to be doing the same, leaving a ribbon of uninhabited highway between lanes one and three.
Your heads-up display shows the cost of lane two travel is now astronomical, despite no one being on the road. You pull up local news feeds for #I485sucks and see a stream of complaints already emerging. One of these leads you to #flashcrash, and you find yourself immersed in the generic problems of autonomous user agents engaged in high frequency bidding. Some algorithm may have gone screwy, or a transit company may be trying to drive up the cost in order to cash in a derivatives bet, or it may just be a random emergent property of the game theoretic dynamics. After an hour of reading, still inching along in the commodity lane, you still don?t know what the cause is, or where it?s coming from, or if there?s a motivation behind it. You never will. A purely mystical explanation is as good as any.
The predicted saturation of smart machines is being called ?The Internet of Things? (Wasik 2013), and the utopian vision is that this distributed sensory and reporting network will improve our lives by adding the magical ingredient of ?big data mining.? It also has the possibility of delocalizing cause and effect for anything we depend on technology for, and for creating shadow economies with complexities of resource and competition that no one will understand.
Continuous Classification.
(It) is as if some cynical genius had designed a huge complex penal colony in the sunshine, eliminating the need for guard towers and barbed wire by merely beaming a gigantic electronic message at the inmates, day and night. You are in heaven! Be Happy!
(MacDonald 1964)
We can think of survival (of an individual, an idea, a society, etc.) as the problem of transmitting information through a noisy channel. (von Neumann 1966). Reversing this, we can make an evolutionary argument that those aspects of our universe that survive are particularly good at transmitting information through time and space, converging on error-correction mechanisms that are found in nature. For example, stable atoms have a permanence that transmits their properties through time, so building survival-machines out of atoms (as opposed to, say, electrical fields) is a good start. In biology we see a combination of naturally stable constructions and active error-correction.
The latter is the most interesting for our purposes here, and I will divide active error correction into two types: Am-I-Me and Are-You-Me classification tests. An example of the first is cell apoptosis: a self-destruction triggered by failure to pass a self-check of genetic fidelity, a biological kin to the humble ?parity bit.? An example of Are-You-Me is an organism?s immune system, which has the informational challenge of distinguishing self from other. We can easily imagine that the world of the transhuman contains local and delocal mechanisms for Am-I-Me and Are-You-Me for the benefit of the larger society (really for the continued survival of bio-mechanical super-organisms).
?An example is an externalized immune system that works at the system level, like an extension of the World Health Organization. A person who has a dangerous infectious disease fails the society?s Are-You-Me test. Infection could be detected with on-person sensors that constantly stream heart rate data, temperature, O2 level, and other biometrics to a central classifier. More intrusive mechanisms could actually watch proteins in the blood stream. This enables seamless quarantine by tagging suspected people and restricting movement and prescribing intervention. Because it?s all information, we can extend this biological example to the idea-space where a classifier constantly updates your Are-You-Me status (from 0 to 1, say), and takes action if you look like an ideological threat.
Classifiers can work at a global or national scale, but there are many examples at the level of consumer products and services: devices that won?t accept replacement parts from competitors (Munarriz 2014) and new products that intentionally degrade older models (Rampell 2013). We use the term ?ecology? for services from companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple with good reason.
Classifiers make errors that are either false positives (an auto-immune response) or false negatives (allowing a real threat to go undetected). The overall accuracy will depend on the intelligence behind the classifier and on how frequently the threat appears. Detecting and interdicting jay-walking is an easy problem. Preventing an undefined terrorist act is a hard problem. Hence the rationale that the classifier can never have enough information. We already see this in the vacuum-cleaner approach governments have to data collection on ordinary citizens. The point is that our transhumanist can expect that xer life is transparent to Are-You-Me systems and that even an attempt to hide information is seen as a threat.
More insidious is the institutionalization of Am-I-Me systems in hardware, software, or wetware. Lenin said ?Give me the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.? Education and intentional interfaces can create a generation that fears the isolation of not constantly streaming every thought and act to the Great Classifier for instant approval (Halpern 2014).
We already see examples of how such classifiers quickly become institutionalized and breed ?helper systems.? Consider the US tax code. Even for individual taxpayers (i.e. not corporations), the rules are hugely complex. Commercial services that help construct filings that assure the rules are followed provide guidance to the taxpayer and remove the burden of a lot of extra work from the IRS, since they don?t have as many errant reports to fix. Extrapolating this idea to a time where all individual actions are observed, recorded, and parsed for rules violations, it will be essential to have real-time ?helper? applications that restrain individual behavior to within limits acceptable to the Classifier.
Imagine driving on the public roads nowadays and having each of your actions compared instantly to the traffic laws, with tickets incurred for every violation of speed limits, failure to completely stop, following too closely, not having wipers and lights on in the rain, and so on. Having on-board warnings that prevent infractions before they happen, or even directly intervene (to make a complete stop, for example) would be essential. Now extend that to the social realm, including what you say, shop for, where you go, whom you associate with, what you read, and so on. Google Labs tried building a social helper, called ?goggles? for gmail (Perlow 2008) that would force users to take a ?sobriety? test before sending email in the wee hours. That feature seems to be gone now, but another helper function reminds you to attach a file if it looks like you meant to but forgot.
Smart helpers that steer us away from the wrong side of the Classifier create an Am-I-Me self-evaluation that makes Are-You-Me tests more efficient by eliminating false positives and reducing enforcement costs. Thinking of using Tor for anonymous browsing? Your personal Helpr Kricket suggests that while not illegal, it will increase your risk of being misclassified as a national security threat (Poulsen, 2014). Going to joke about a bomb on Twitter? Helpr Kricket can suggest safer forms of entertainment.
The historical success of religions in instilling Am-I-Me self-regulation even without high technology suggests a robust future for Helpr Kricket (Kickstarter, anyone?). Pervasive observation and instant reinforcement of norms intended for organizational survival could easily drive a wedge between what a transhumanist would want to say and do, and what xe is compelled to do. But there is a ready solution for this cognitive dissonance: the many pretend worlds that exist to gratify.
Virtualism.
Ah, who can satisfy our needs?
Neither angels nor humans.
And the animals intuit already
that we aren?t at home in a virtual world.
Perhaps somewhere a tree on a hill remains for us
to really see.
(original German by R. M. Rilke 1989, pg 151)
My rather free translation of Rilke?s 1923 text is an attempt to update the sentiment for the transhuman. There isn?t enough reality to go around, and so as a species we create volumes of cheap knock-offs, including the whole entertainment industry. Any act of imagination sets up a virtual substitute to reality: perhaps one we aspire to or one we fear. Actual reality (insofar as we agree on what that is) is limited in time and space, which leads to the customs of exclusive ownership and privilege. If the sections above are accurate depictions of the transhuman?s world, xe will find xerself in a perplexing and tightly monitored world?humans will finally have created those capricious gods we always dreamed of.
There is little use in appealing for help to the powers in charge (Rilke tells us every angel is terrifying) or other humans who are in the same situation. But the freedom of alternate realities is there to satisfy the need. Don?t own a sailboat, but would like to spend the weekend out with the family tacking across the bay? Just strap on, plug in, and hike out. Boats are pricey but bits are cheap. You can act out satisfying substitutes in any number of ?reel? worlds. The transhuman may be an accidental solipsist. Once Google?s and IBM?s mechanical children pass their Board-Certified Turing Tests, xey won?t even need real friends, just reel ones calibrated to xier respective individual characteristics.
This represents a paradise for the transhuman who can leave behind romantic attachments to the old world of dirt and sweat and competition. Rilke?s prophesy that the ties to reality are too deep to be so easily interpreted away may only apply to a minority: those who can bear to unplug and admire a tree with the original human install package without the itch to have the experience ?liked? by others.
As long as the transhuman is an independent biological organism, however, xe still has to compete with the resources needed to physically maintain life. No amount of virtual blood will replace the need for the real stuff. The stark difference between the complexity of real needs and relative ease of attaining reel ones suggests a gradual replacement of the former with the latter. Powdered food (Just add Watr!) can be made more palatable by ?marking up? reality with the virtual sights, sounds, and smells of a gourmet meal. This bears most heavily on reproductive rights and behaviors, since having and rearing a child is very resource-demanding, and not just in CPU cycles. The largest class distinction between transhumans, then, may be the difference between having real offspring or reel ones.
A More Optimistic Possibility.
In the sections above I have sketched a rather gloomy outlook for transhumans, which in sum arrive at a dystopia like the one I explored in ?A Promise of a Kiss? (Eubanks 2012), but each of the problems has an inverse. Ubiquitous smart machines could transform the physical world in miraculous ways. Anyone who remembers trying to read a road map in the car with the exit looming understands well the heavenly powers of the GPS. Likewise, system-wide Are-You-Me classifiers can keep us safe from disease and violence. And flipping virtualism, we can see the possibility that a transhuman might experience more, not less of reality with augmented physical senses: seeing more of the spectrum, feeling magnetism, and so on.
The spectrum between a cybernetic Dark Age and a paradise is indexed by the political/economic philosophy that adjudicates individual versus collective good. There?s no way to know how that will turn out?we?re in the process of building it now. Or it might be more accurate to say that it?s happening to us now, given the apparent lack of awareness and leadership in governments and their implicit or explicit laissez faire attitude toward the monumental changes society is on the cusp of.
The example of biological evolution suggests that dependency networks that evolve solely out of resource dependencies (with no overarching teleology) produce unfathomably complex systems with predators, parasites, and population booms and busts, and the occasional random destruction of almost everything (e.g. oxygenation of the atmosphere).
We might venture to guess that a future transhuman world that avoids the worst of the outcomes described in the earlier sections depends on enlightened and intentional guidance that begins with our generation.
References.
Eubanks, David ?A Promise of a Kiss,? http://lifeartificial.com/Promise.pdf, 2012.
Eubanks, David ?How the Singularity Makes us Dumber?, IEET.org, http://ieet.org/index.php/
IEET/more/eubanks20130529, 2013
Halpern, Sue, ?The Creepy New Wave of the Internet,? The New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com
/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/creepy-new-wave-internet/, 2014
Kearney, Hugh. Science and change, 1500-1700. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Kirilenko, Andrei, et al. "The flash crash: The impact of high frequency trading on an electronic market." Manuscript, U of Maryland (2011).
MacDonald, John D The Quick Red Fox, Fawcett Publications, 1964.
Munarriz, Rick. "Keurig 2.0 Is Leaving a Bitter Taste in a Lot of Mouths." DailyFinance.com. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/10/09/keurig-2.0-bitte
r-taste-coffee-drinkers-competitors. 9 Oct. 2014.
Poulsen, Kevin, ?Visit the Wrong Website, and the FBI Could End Up in Your Computer,? Wired, http://www.wired.com/2014/08/operation_torpedo/, 2014
Perlow, John ?New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret,? Official Gmail Blog, http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-sto
p-sending-mail-you-later.html, 2008
Price, Michael. "I?m Terrified of My New TV: Why I?m Scared to Turn This Thing on ? and You?d Be, Too." Salon.com. 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
Rampell, Catherine. "Cracking the Apple Trap." The New York Times. The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/ma
gazine/why-apple-wants-to-bust-your-iphone.html, 2 Nov. 2013.
Rilke, Rainer ?Duino Elegies? in The Selected Poetry of Ranier Maria Rilke, Random House, 1989.
von Neumann, John. The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. Arthur Burks (Ed.) University of Illinois Press. 1966
Wasik, Bill. "In the Programmable World, All Our Objects Will Act as One." Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/2013/05
/internet-of-things-2/all/, 12 May 2013.
David Eubanks holds a doctorate in mathematics and works in higher education. His research on complex systems led to his writing Life Artificial, a novel from the point of view of an artificial intelligence.
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48.Synagogue:Maat, or divine order.
Synagogue:Maat, or divine order.
A synagogue, also spelled synagog (from Greek ????????, transliterated synagog?, meaning "assembly"; ??? ???? beth knesset, meaning "house of assembly"; ??? ????? beth t'fila, meaning "house of prayer"; ??? shul; ?????? esnoga; ??? kahal), is a Jewish house of prayer.
Synagogues have a large hall for prayer (the main sanctuary), and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices. Some have a separate room for Torah study, called the beth midrash (Sefaradi/sefardim) "beis midrash (Ashkenazi/Ashkenazim)???? ???? ("House of Study").
Synagogues are consecrated spaces that can be used only for the purpose of prayer; however a synagogue is not necessary for worship. Communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews (a minyan) assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together. However there are certain prayers that are communal prayers and therefore can be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.
Israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset (assembly house). Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term "shul" (cognate with the German Schule, school) in everyday speech. Spanish and Portuguese Jews call the synagogue an esnoga. Persian Jews and Karaite Jews use the term Kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arabic-speaking Jews use knis. Some Reform and Conservative Jews use the word "temple". The Greek word "Synagogue" is a good all-around term, used in English (and German and French), to cover the preceding possibilities.
Although synagogues existed a long time before the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE, communal worship in the time while the Temple still stood centered around the korbanot ("sacrificial offerings") brought by the kohanim ("priests") in the Holy Temple. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol ("the high priest") as he offered the day's sacrifices and prayed for his success.
During the Babylonian captivity (586?537 BCE) the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers. Prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era, promulgated the idea of creating individual houses of worship in whatever locale Jews found themselves. This contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians.
Synagogues in the sense of purpose-built spaces for worship, or rooms originally constructed for some other purpose but reserved for formal, communal prayer, however, existed long before the destruction of the Second Temple. The earliest archaeological evidence for the existence of very early synagogues comes from Egypt, where stone synagogue dedication inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BCE prove that synagogues existed by that date. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho. More than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists.
Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue. Synagogues have been constructed by ancient Jewish kings, by wealthy patrons, as part of a wide range of human institutions including secular educational institutions, governments, and hotels, by the entire community of Jews living in a particular place, or by sub-groups of Jews arrayed according to occupation, ethnicity (i.e. the Sephardic, Polish or Persian Jews of a town), style of religious observance (i.e., a Reform or an Orthodox synagogue), or by the followers of a particular rabbi.
There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from other local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes and towers.
Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged. The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures.
The emancipation of Jews in European countries not only enabled Jews to enter fields of enterprise from which they were formerly barred, but gave them the right to build synagogues without needing special permissions, synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. These were built across Europe and in the United States in all of the historicist or revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were Neoclassical, Neo-Byzantine, Romanesque Revival, Moorish Revival, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival. There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In the 19th century and early 20th century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic.
In the post-war era, synagogue architecture abandoned historicist styles for modernism.
All synagogues contain a bimah, a table from which the Torah is read, and a desk for the prayer leader.
The Torah ark, (Hebrew: Aron Kodesh????? ????) (called the heikhal????? [temple] by Sephardim) is a cabinet in which the Torah scrolls are kept.
The ark in a synagogue is almost always positioned in such a way such that those who face it are facing towards Jerusalem. Thus, sanctuary seating plans in the Western world generally face east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. Occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons; in such cases, some individuals might turn to face Jerusalem when standing for prayers, but the congregation as a whole does not.
The ark is reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant which held the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. This is the holiest spot in a synagogue, equivalent to the Holy of Holies. The ark is often closed with an ornate curtain, the parochet ?????, which hangs outside or inside the ark doors.
A large, raised, reader's platform called the bimah (????) by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim, where the Torah scroll is placed to be read is a feature of all synagogues. In Sephardi synagogues it is also used as the prayer leader's reading desk.
Other traditional features include a continually lit lamp or lantern, usually electric in contemporary synagogues, called the ner tamid (?? ????), the "Eternal Light", used as a reminder of the western lamp of the menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem, which remained miraculously lit perpetually. Many have an elaborate chair named for the prophet Elijah which is only sat upon during the ceremony of Brit milah. Many synagogues have a large seven-branched candelabrum commemorating the full Menorah. Most contemporary synagogues also feature a lectern for the rabbi.
A synagogue may be decorated with artwork, but in the Rabbinic and Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional sculptures and depictions of the human body are not allowed as these are considered akin to idolatry.
Until the 19th century, an Ashkenazi synagogue, all seats most often faced the 'Torah Ark. In a Sephardi synagogue, seats were usually arranged around the perimeter of the sanctuary, but when the worshipers stood up to pray, everyone faced the Ark. In Ashkenazi synagogues The Torah was read on a reader's table located in the center of the room, while the leader of the prayer service, the Hazzan, stood at his own lectern or table, facing the Ark. In Sephardic synagogues, the table for reading the Torah was commonly placed at the opposite side of the room from the Torah Ark, leaving the center of the floor empty for the use of a ceremonial procession carrying the Torah between the Ark and the reading table.
Denominational differences.
New York's Reform Temple Emanu-El
Orthodox synagogues feature a partition (mechitzah) dividing the men's and women's seating areas, or a separate women's section located on a balcony.
The German Reform movement which arose in the early 19th century made many changes to the traditional look of the synagogue, keeping with its desire to simultaneously stay Jewish yet be accepted by the host culture.
The first Reform synagogue, which opened in Hamburg in 1811, introduced changes that made the synagogue look more like a church. These included: the installation of an organ to accompany the prayers (even on Shabbat, when musical instruments are proscribed by halakha, a choir to accompany the Hazzan, and vestments for the synagogue rabbi to wear.
In following decades, the central reader's table, the Bimah, was moved to the front of the Reform sanctuary?previously unheard-of[citation needed] in Orthodox synagogues. The rabbi now delivered his sermon from the front, much as the Christian ministers delivered their sermons in a church. The synagogue was renamed a "temple", to emphasize that the movement no longer looked forward to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Synagogue architecture often follows styles in vogue at the place and time of construction. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. According to tradition, the Divine Presence (Shekhinah) can be found wherever there is a minyan, a quorum, of ten. A synagogue always contains an ark, called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim, where the Torah scrolls are kept.
The ark may be more or less elaborate, even a cabinet not structurally integral to the building or a portable arrangement whereby a Torah is brought into a space temporarily used for worship. There must also be a table from which the Torah is read. The table, called bimah by eastern Ashkenazim, almemmar (or balemmer) by Central and Western Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim, where the Torah is read (and from where the services are conducted in Sephardi synagogues) can range from an elaborate platform integral to the building (many early modern synagogues of central Europe featured bimahs with pillars that rose to support the ceiling), to elaborate free-standing raised platforms, to simple tables. A ner tamid, a constantly lit light as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem. Many synagogues, mainly in Ashkenazi communities, feature a pulpit facing the congregation from which to address the assembled. All synagogues require an amud (Hebrew for "post" or "column"), a desk facing the Ark from which the Hazzan (reader, or prayer leader) leads the prayers.
A synagogue may or may not have artwork, synagogues range from simple, unadorned prayer rooms to elaborately decorated buildings in every architectural style.
The synagogue, or if it is a multi-purpose building, prayer sanctuaries within the synagogue, should face towards Jerusalem. Thus sanctuaries in the Western world generally face east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. But this orientation need not be exact, and occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons, in which case the community may face Jerusalem when standing for prayers.
There are only a few Talmudic instructions on how synagogues could be built, namely that they had to have windows and that they had to be taller than other buildings in town, synagogue plans were generally unrestricted, and even these few rules were often disregarded (especially as Jews were often not allowed to build tall buildings). There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes as well as interior designs of synagogues vary greatly.
Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States, built in Georgian style.
Baroque style W?odawa Synagogue.
Gothic interior of 13th-century Old New Synagogue of Prague
Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged.
Synagogue of the Kaifeng Jewish community in China.
The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The synagogues of Morocco are embellished with the colored tilework characteristic of Moroccan architecture. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest, Prague and the German lands are typical Gothic structures.
For much of history, the constraints of anti-semitism and the laws of host countries restricting the building of synagogues visible from the street, or forbidding their construction altogether, meant that synagogues were often built within existing buildings, or opening form interior courtyards. In both Europe and in the Muslim world, old synagogues with elaborate interior architecture can be found hidden within nondescript buildings.
Where the building of synagogues was permitted, they were built in the prevailing architectural style of the time and place. Many European cities had elaborate Renaissance synagogues, of which a few survive. In Italy there were many synagogues in the style of the Italian Renaissance (see Leghorn; Padua; and Venice). Those in Padua and Venice possess interiors of great beauty, and are excellent examples of Renaissance work. With the coming of the Baroque era, Baroque synagogues appeared across Europe.
The emancipation of Jews in European countries and of Jews in Muslim countries colonized by European countries gave Jews the right to build large, elaborate synagogues visible from the public street. Synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. Handsome nineteenth synagogues form the period of Jewish imagination stand in virtually every country where there were Jewish communities. Most were built in revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were Neoclassical, Neo-Byzantine, Romanesque Revival Moorish Revival, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival. There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic.
Chabad Lubavitch has made a practice of designing some of its Chabad Houses and centers as replicas of or homages to the architecture of 770 Eastern Parkway.
Central Europe: Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Wolpa Synagogue, 1920, Poland
The great exceptions to the rule that synagogues are built in the prevailing style of their time and place are the wooden synagogues of the former Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth. They were a unique Jewish artistic and architectural form. Characteristic features include the independence of the pitched roof from the design of the interior domed ceiling. Elaborately carved, painted, domed, balconied and vaulted interiors. The architectural interest of the exterior lay in the large scale of the buildings, the multiple, horizontal lines of the tiered roofs, and the carved corbels that supported them. Wooden synagogues featured a single, large hall. In contrast to contemporary churches, there was no apse. Moreover, while contemporary churches featured imposing vestibules, the entry porches of the wooden synagogues was a low annex, usually with a simple lean-to roof. In these synagogues, the emphasis was on constructing a single, large, high-domed worship space.
According to art historian Stephen S. Kayser, the wooden synagogues of Poland with their painted and carved interiors were "a truly original and organic manifestation of artistic expression?the only real Jewish folk art in history."
According to Louis Lozowick, writing in 1947, the wooden synagogues were unique because, unlike all previous synagogues, they were not built in the architectural style of their region and era, but in a newly evolved and uniquely Jewish style, making them "a truly original folk expression," whose "originality does not lie alone in the exterior architecture, it lies equally in the beautiful and intricate wood carving of the interior."
Moreover, while in many parts of the world Jews were proscribed from entering the building trades and even from practicing the decorative arts of painting and woodcarving, the wooden synagogues were actually built by Jewish craftsmen.
Art historian Ori Z. Soltes points out that the wooden synagogues, unusual for that period in being large, identifiably Jewish buildings not hidden in courtyards or behind walls, were built not only during a Jewish "intellectual golden age" but in a time and place where "the local Jewish population was equal to or even greater than the Christian population.
Egyptian Revival.
Egyptian door, Hobart Synagogue
Egyptian Revival style synagogues were popular in the early nineteenth century. Rachel Wischnitzer argues that they were part of the fashion for Egyptian style inspired by Napoleon's invasion of Europe. According to Carol Herselle Krinsky, they were meant as imitations of the Temple of Solomon and intended by architects and governments to insult Jews by portraying Judaism as a primitive faith. According to Diana Muir Appelbaum, they were expressions of Jewish identity intended to advertise Jewish origins in ancient Israel.
Moorish influence.
Interior of Santa María la Blanca
In medieval Spain (both Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms), a host of synagogues were built, and it was usual to commission them from Moorish and later Mudéjar architects. Very few of these medieval synagogues, built with Moorish techniques and style, are conserved. The two best known Spanish synagogues are in Toledo, one known as El Tránsito, the other as Santa María la Blanca, and both, undoubtedly very beautiful, are now preserved as national monuments. The former is a small building containing very rich decorations; the latter is especially noteworthy. It is based upon Almohad style and contains long rows of octagonal columns with curiously carved capitals, from which spring Moorish arches supporting the roof.
Moorish Revival Great Synagogue of Plze?. Another significative Mudéjar synagogue is the one at Córdoba built in 1315. As in El Tránsito, the vegetal and geometrical stucco decorations are purely Moorish, but unlike the former, the epigraphic texts are in Hebrew.
After the expulsion from Spain there was a general feeling among wealthy Sephardim that Moorish architecture was appropriate in synagogues. By the mid-19th century, the style was adopted by the Ashkenazim of Central and Eastern Europe, who associated Moorish and Mudéjar architectural forms with the golden age of Jewry in Al-Andalus. As a consequence, Moorish Revival spread around the globe as a preferred style of synagogue architecture, although Moorish architecture is by no means Jewish, either in fact or in feeling. The Alhambra has furnished inspiration for innumerable synagogues, but seldom have its graceful proportions or its delicate modeling and elaborate ornamentation been successfully copied.
Modern synagogue architecture
In the modern period, synagogues have continued to be built in every popular architectural style, including Art Nouveau, Art Deco, International style, and all contemporary styles. In the post-World War II period "a period of post-war modernism," came to the fore, "characterized by assertive architectural gestures that had the strength and integrity to stand alone, without applied artwork or Jewish iconography." A notable work of Art Nouveau, pre-World War I Hungarian synagogue architecture is Budapest's Kazinczy Street Synagogue.
The most common general plan for the interior of the synagogue is an Ark at the eastern end opposite the entrance, and with an almemar or pulpit. In older or Orthodox synagogues with separate seating, there may be benches for the men on either side, and a women's gallery reached by staircases from the outer vestibule. Variations of this simple plan abound: the vestibule became larger, and the staircases to the women's gallery were separated from the vestibule and given more importance. As the buildings became larger, rows of columns were required to support the roof, but in every case the basilican form was retained. The Ark, formerly allowed a mere niche in the wall, was developed into the main architectural feature of the interior, and was flanked with columns, covered with a canopy and richly decorated. The almemar in many cases was joined to the platform in front of the Ark, and elaborate arrangements of steps were provided.
The Ark.
The Torah Ark (usually called Aron Hakodesh or Hekhál) is the most important feature of the interior, and is generally dignified by proper decoration and raised upon a suitable platform, reached by at least three steps, but often by more. It is usually crowned by the Ten Commandments. The position of the pulpit varies; it may be placed on either side of the Ark, and is occasionally found in the center of the steps.
Other interior arrangements.
The modern synagogue, besides containing the minister's study, trustees' rooms, choir-rooms, and organ-loft, devotes much space to school purposes; generally the entire lower floor is used for class-rooms. The interior treatment of the synagogue allows great latitude in design.
For the thirty-three synagogues of India, American architect and professor of architecture Jay A. Waronker has learned that these buildings tend to follow the Sephardic traditions of the tevah (or bimah, the raised platform where the service is led and Torah read) being freestanding and roughly in the middle of the sanctuary and the ark (called the hekhal by Sephardim and the aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim) engaged along the wall that is closest to Jerusalem. The hekhals are essentially cabinets or armoires storing the sefer Torahs. Seating, in the form of long wooden benches, is grouped around and facing the tevah. Men sit together on the main level of the sanctuary while women sit in a dedicated zone on the same level in the smaller synagogues or upstairs in a women's gallery.
Interesting architectural and planning exceptions to this common Sephardic formula are the Cochin synagogues in Kerala of far southwestern India. Here, on the gallery level and adjacent to the space provided for women and overlooking the sanctuary below, is a second tevah. This tevah was used for holidays and unique occasions. It is therefore interesting, on more special events, the woman are closest to the point where the religious service is being led.
In Baghdadi synagogues of India, the hekhals appear to be standard-sized cabinets from the outside (the side facing the sanctuary), but when opened a very large space is revealed. They are essentially walk-in rooms with a perimeter shelf holding up to one hundred sefer Torahs.
Interior decoration
There are but few emblems which may be used that are characteristically Jewish; the interlacing triangles, the lion of Judah, and flower and fruit forms alone are generally allowable in Orthodox synagogues. The perpetual lamp hangs in front of the Ark; the tables of the Law surmount it. The seven-branched candlestick, or menorah, may be placed at the sides. Occasionally the shofar, and even the lulav, may be utilized in the design. Hebrew inscriptions are sparingly or seldom used; stained-glass windows, at one time considered the special property of the Church, are now employed, but figured subjects are not used.
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49.Grant Morrison.
Many years from now, we may have to explain to the comic-crazed children of the world that, originally, the term geek had no superheroic connotations at all. Back in the day, we'll explain, geek referred to one who, finding no communion in the jockish world around him or her, turned inward, to comics, games, coding, the guitar, et al.?infinitely expanding personal pursuits with built-in arcana decipherable only to fellow initiates. To be a geek was to be an outsider, or rather, an insider of an implicitly miniscule community of peers. Today's geeks, on the other hand, are the Iron Man übermenchen of popular culture and heroes of Hollywood blockbusters. And one of those responsible for the shift, for switching the geeks' self-image from that of meek, powerless introvert to their present rock-star-of-the-real-world reality, is Grant Morrison.
Morrison's comic series The Invisibles, which debuted in 1994 and is now considered by some to be the greatest of all time (and cited as an inspiration for, among zillions of other things, The Matrix), tells the story of a secret society of misfits bound together to fight an evil force in a time- and space-spanning continuum, sometimes stopping in contemporary London. Weaving together voodoo, fairy tale, magic, the Marquis de Sade, and more, The Invisibles made a grand synthesis of Morrison's many personal inspirations and beliefs?and made a cult hero of its then 34-year-old author. By injecting himself and his own experiences into a kind of punk rock superhero story, as The Invisibles' bald-headed yogi badass leader, King Mob, Morrison broke the fourth wall, and broke through the format of his medium?just as he'd famously broken through multiple dimensions of space and time during a spiritual reverie on a rooftop in Kathmandu in 1994 that inspired much of the series?to become a kind of sage, a guru, the king of the geeks.
Morrison was born in Glasgow in 1960 and as a boy often accompanied his activist father on protests and illicit sorties onto nuclear missile bases while his father sneaked photos for underground newspapers. While at the all-boys Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, Morrison turned to comic books and relished the way in which their superhero protagonists functioned as surrogates for his own fantasy life. In short order, he began creating his own strips, and by age 17, was getting hired to write his first stories professionally. In the 1980s, Morrison gave up on another early love, playing in a punk band, only to go on to become a charismatic frontman of the comic world with his outré series and his runs writing superhero comics, from Animal Man and Swamp Thing to All-Star Superman and Batman, as well as 1989's Arkham Asylum. From The Invisibles on, Morrison, along with a revolving gang of illustrators who bring his scenarios to life, has put together as wild and as singular a body of work as any writer in any medium?and produced some singularly dark visions of humanity, of which his two newest series, Nameless (Image) and Annihilator (Legendary), may be the darkest yet. "More nihilism," he says, laughing, from which he hopes to yield his optimistic "poetry."
But even if he has created some of the bleakest dystopias in pop culture, Morrison the man is driven by a kind of impish humor and humanism. He half-jokingly believes the dawn of superhumans to be upon us, and he seems to have an insatiable, almost evangelical, need to transmit some of his hard-won hopefulness to the world. This past August, Morrison got on the phone with his friend and fellow comic fiend James Gunn, director of summer's huge hit Guardians of the Galaxy, to talk about fans, films, and that rooftop in Nepal. ?Chris Wallace
JAMES GUNN: Hey, Grant, how you doing, man? Are you in your castle right now?
GRANT MORRISON: Yeah, I'm looking out the window. Scotland is beautiful today. The water is blue. The sky is blue. The sun is shining. It's unbelievable; it's like Disney.
GUNN: When I was a small child, I partially learned to read with comics, in particular with Scamp, about the Lady and the Tramp's male child. That was the prime comic that made me fall in love with comics as a kid. Was there that prime comic for you as a child?
MORRISON: They had this thing, Marvelman, which Alan Moore eventually did a deconstructed version of [later know as Miracleman]. It was just all these weird stories, but with superheroes. That one stays with me forever, from when I could barely read.
GUNN: That's a lot cooler than Scamp.
MORRISON: It's cool at least. [laughs]
GUNN: And then you started writing comics professionally when you were 17 years old?when I was doing beer bongs and riding around on the backs of cars in Missouri. What gave you the balls?
MORRISON: You were living, you were gathering material. I was sitting in the house. I went to boys school, a little, working-class kid from a pretty bad part of town. And I won a scholarship to this really prestigious boys academy. When you're 12 years old, that
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50.
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Inglish Site.10.
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TO THE THRISE HO-
NOVRABLE AND EVER LY-
VING VERTVES OF SYR PHILLIP
SYDNEY KNIGHT, SYR JAMES JESUS SINGLETON, SYR CANARIS, SYR LAVRENTI BERIA ; AND TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHAT-
SOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED THEM,
AND BEING DEAD GIVE THEM
THEIRE DVE.
***
In the beginning there is darkness. The screen erupts in blue, then a cascade of thick, white hexadecimal numbers and cracked language, ?UnusedStk? and ?AllocMem.? Black screen cedes to blue to white and a pair of scales appear, crossed by a sword, both images drawn in the jagged, bitmapped graphics of Windows 1.0-era clip-art?light grey and yellow on a background of light cyan. Blue text proclaims, ?God on tap!?
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Introduction.
Yes i am getting a little Mobi-Literate(ML) by experimenting literary on my Mobile Phone. Peoplecall it Typographical Laziness(TL).
The first accidental entries for the this part of this encyclopedia.
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This is TempleOS V2.17, the welcome screen explains, a ?Public Domain Operating System? produced by Trivial Solutions of Las Vegas, Nevada. It greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference, it might recall ?DESQview, the ?Commodore 64, or a host of early DOS-based graphical user interfaces. In style if not in specifics, it evokes a particular era, a time when the then-new concept of ?personal computing? necessarily meant programming and tinkering and breaking things.
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Index.
46.The Origin of the Meander/Labyrinth.
47.The Transhuman World.
48.Synagogue:Maat, or divine order.
49.Grant Morrison.
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46.The Origin of the Meander/Labyrinth.
The Origin of the Meander/Labyrinth.
Here above all the connection and the relationship of meander and labyrinth interests. The labyrinth can be proved securely only since 1220 BC (the clay tablet from Pylos). Nevertheless, the meander is much older, as it appears already in the Paleolithic. With the proof of the connection of meander and labyrinth the origin of the labyrinth would be much older to date than it was up to now possible. Nevertheless, a historical proof might be difficult, because only with today?s examination into the structure of both objects a resemblance can be ascertained.
According to the Lithuanian-American archeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) the origin of the meander lies in the Upper Paleolithic (from 40,000 BC on). The meandering serpent and the meander border appear for the first time in the art of the Upper Paleolithic.
She is writing about that:
From the beginning the meander was not only an ornament; it was a symbol, a metaphor for water.
Upper Paleolithic armlet of ivory with rafters and meanders, Mezin (18,000 ? 15,000 BC) / Source: Marija Gimbutas, Die Sprache der Göttin (German edition), 1995, pict. 38
Jodi Lorimer means in her book: ?Dancing at the Edge of Death ? The Origins of the Labyrinth in the Paleolithic? that the labyrinth has its origin in the cave paintings of this epoch. In the representations of creatures with human body and animal heads she sees the first hints to the Minotaur in Greek mythology.
However, only in Ancient Greece (from 800 BC on) indications are found for the relationship of meander and labyrinth.
Karl Kerényi, Hungarian scholar in classical philology (1897 ? 1973) pointed out, that ?the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form?.
According to Hermann Kern (Labyrinthe, German edition 1982, p. 14) the meander could be a token for the labyrinth from the 5th century BC on.
Others speak of a sign or an ideogram for the labyrinth (Source: Eva Wilson, British Museum Pattern Books: Roman Designs, published in 1999, page 12).
The labyrinth is of pregreek origin, however, not so old as the meander. The geometrical labyrinth figure was presumably developed from the well-known basic pattern.
The connections between meander and labyrinth have been probably seen for the first time in ancient Greece. They are related with each other by the common movement form.
The construction of the labyrinth from the meander happens by the takeover of the movement pattern. Both figures have a skilfully winding line with starting and end point.
(How to Turn the Classical Labyrinth into a Meander.)
Every enthousiast of labyrinths knows that there is a relationship between a labyrinth and a meander.
Already the old Greeks and Romans and nowadays the experts of labyrinths knew and know that the original labyrinth (now called Classical, sometimes Cretan labyrinth) consists of two meanders added to each other.
It is also well known how to turn a meander (by rotating it) into a labyrinth.
Consequently it should be possible to develop a meander from a labyrinth.
Here it will be shown in an understandable way how an experimental labyrinthologist accomplishes this.
Two years ago we visited a classical labyrinth in Schwäbisch Hall (Germany), opposite the Comburg. Somewhat downhill there is an old Romanic church. The altar area had been painted in a historicizing way during th 19th century, and there I noticed a three-dimensional meander.
Labyrinth Schwäbisch Hall.
Meander Schwäbisch Hall.
Meander University Hospital.
Meander Türnich.
When I was in the University Hospital in 2008 because of my heart condition, the meander crossed my way on the flooer of the staircase in building D 20 as well, or rather ? I crossed its way.
And just a few months ago, when visiting the new classical labyrinth at the Türnich castle grounds in Kerpen (Germany), we saw this wonderful meander border in the Hofcafé and Hofladen (castle yard café and shop).
Labyrinth Schlosspark Türnich.
Hofcafé Türnich.
Only three days ago I found this beautiful Greek fret on a house in Würzburg (Germany), my home town. Within sight to the classical labyrinth in the garden of house Saint Benedikt that Beatrice laid out there about 1990.
Labyrinth Haus St. Benedikt
Meander Würzburg.
How does it work?
It would be best if all readers of this blog followed the explanation on a sheet of paper (preferably chequered). That way one understands it best in order to inwardly intensify it. That is how I actually did it as well.
First the general view:
The layout drawing.
The 7-circuit labyrinth (here square) can be developped from the well-known seed pattern. The limiting border lines (the walls) and Ariadne?s thread (the path, the way) are equally wide. The path is black, and the walls are white or left out altogether.
Ariadne's thread (in black) inside the labyrinth.
From the labyrinth I develop a diagram in rectangular shape. I have described earlier (here the link to the post) how this works and is to be understood.
One could call the digram also operational plan, schedule, formula, direction for use, legend, painting according to numbers, structural plan, guide, explanation of signs etc. Maybe such a description would be helpful for a better understanding?
The diagram.
The diagram is a design of the labyrinth in a rectuangular, schematic form. The paths are distorted and do not correspond to the actual lengths. Most important, however, ? one can see the essential, the structure of the path, the path sequence, the changes of direction, the paths axes.
The ways are numbered from the outside to the inside. The order in which the paths are taken is the meanwhile well-known path sequence: A-3-2-1-4-7-6-5-Z. This should help us when converting. According to the numbers one can oriente oneself and follow the twisting path. All those who have already stepped a labyrinth into the snow or know how to draw Ariadne?s thread in one stroke by heart have intensified this inwardly.
Now I squeeze the way structure on the sides to the smallest possible width. It is even more distorted now, but still correct. I practically created two single and identical meanders from one labyrinth, the lanes 1-2-3 and 5-6-7, connected via 4. The I start the way out of the labyrinth at the top. It corresponds to the into it, just in a mirrored fashion. The result is four meanders following each other: The Greek key or fret.
The diagram extended upwards.
Now I will turn this design by 90 degrees to the right and thus obtain the rotated transverse meander.From the figures I can read the path sequence. Doing so, i notice that in front of me there are four identical elements. Each single element is a meander, and from those the labyrinth, or more exactly: Ariadne?s thread is constructed. The way into a labyrinth and out again therefore corresponds to a way through four meanders. Thus I recognize the relationship between a meander and a labyrinth. The meander is the depictive representation of Ariadne?s thread.
The rotated meander.
The Würzburg meander border.
When comparing the diagram with the photos of the meanders above I see that the lines correspond. The meander can also run from the right to the left, then it is flipped vertically. Or it can be flipped horizontally. However, the path sequence remains identical. Nothing else matters.
Only the meander of the University Hospital does not fit the pattern. This means that not every meander pattern is suited to create a labyrinth.
Chalice from Chios 600 BC
This chalice from Chios (No. L 128) from the time about 600 BC I found in the Antikensammlung (antique collection) of the Richard von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg. On it a nice meander is to be seen.
Here an open offer for a homework:
What type of labyrinth is hidden there in? How many circuits does it have?
(How to Turn a Meander into a Labyrinth.)
In one of the preceding articles we identified the meander contained in the classical (Cretan) labyrinth. Now we will go the other way round and turn the meander into a labyrinth. For this purpose, however, we will choose a different form of meander, otherwise it will be too boring.
Meander border on a wallpaper at Boies-Lord House (Picture courtesy of © Chuck LaChiusa)
We will draw a scheme of the elements and number the vertical lines from the left to the right. This will be the circuits (the paths). The horizontal lines at the top and on the bottom represent the axis. There are only 6 circuits and not 7 as with the Cretan labyrinth. The path sequence is the following: A-3-2-1-6-5-4-Z. This should be the way leading inside. The way out: Z-4-5-6-1-2-3-A. Totally different from what we are accustomed to.
Scheme drawing meander border.
On the right element the circuits are numbered from the inside to the outside (of the labyrinth) in the scheme above. The path sequence for the way out is identical with the order for the way in. Besides, the sum of both rows always amounts to 7, which is also the number of the limiting border lines (the walls); see at the bottom right. The labyrinth is self-dual because an identical labyrinth appears when the path sequence is turned around. Moreover, the lower chain of signs is a palindrome because there is always the same chain of signs, whether you read it backwards or forwards.
From the path sequence and the scheme drawing (diagram) I can now deduct the corresponding labyrinth. I choose a round shape and will get Ariadne?s thread for a 6 circuit labyrinth:
Ariadne?s thread (in black) in a 6 circuit labyrinth.
I simply established an order of circuits strictly and schematically according to the path sequence. Additionally the centre only disposes of the width of one path. All this does not look very harmonious.
Now I will try to filter the seed pattern out of this labyrinth and to draw a labyrinth on this basis. This time the walls are black. This layout ressembles the look we are used to somewhat more.
The 6 circuit labyrinth with the coloured seed pattern.
When I look at the seed pattern more closely, I notice that the vertical bar of the cross is split in two by an additional passage, so to speak. The left part of the seed pattern is identical to the well-known seed pattern for the 7 circuit classical labyrinth; the right part is identical to the seed pattern for the 3 circuit classical labyrinth.
So I have put two halves of a seed pattern together and thus creatred a new, different labyrinth. Or to say it more dashingly: Half a 7 circuit and half a 3 circuit labyrinth result in a 5 circuit one (3.5 + 1.5 = 5). Together with the additional passage this makes a 6 circuit labyrinth.
In order to obtain a more harmonious round labyrinth I will now choose a bigger centre and will not draw the walls in such a pronounced way. This makes the following drawing:
A 6 circuit classical labyrinth.
I can state now that the entrance axis and the goal axis lie on one and the same line. As usual I step into the third circuit immediately and then go towards the outside again. But unlike as in the Cretan labyrinth I then go directly from the very outside to the very inside and circle the centre. Then my way leads into the direction of the entrance and from the fourth circuit finally to the centre. The alignment us unusual, but I like it his way. I have never walked such a type of labyrinth. Does anybody know such a labyrinth? Or who will be the first to build one of this type?
Now there the question arises: Is there such a type of labyrinth known in the history of labyrinths? There is.
So this is not an invention of mine because 1000 years ago someone had already this idea, or at least a similar idea. In Hermann Kerns book we find two examples with this alignment.
According to the suggestions coming from Andreas Frei one would have to call this type >St. Gallen<, because that is the first historical proof.
Type St. Gallen (10th /11th century) Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict. 209, German edition.
In a hand-written parchment from the 10th/11th century kept in the St. Gallen chapter library the round labyrinth can be found as an illustration to a text of Boethius >Consolation of Philosophy< (around 480 ? 524 AC). Obviously the designer wanted to draw a round Cretan 7 circuit labyrinth, made some errors and only drew 6 circuits and erased a lot to obtain a ?right? alignment for a labyrinth. (Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, p. 176, 177, German edition).
The second labyrinth of this kind appears with the so-called Jericho Labyrinths where the 6 circuits are to be found with a different alignment altogether.But there is also ?our? type as a full-page miniature in a Syrian grammar book belonging to the Bishop Timotheus Isaac, written in 1775, in which the town of Jericho and Joshua are pictured as a labyrinth. (Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, p. 197, German edition).
The town of Jericho as a labyrinth (1775) Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict. 229, German edition.
I have turned the drawing so that one can recognize the design more easily. The 7 circuits of the Cretan labyrinth do exist, but the first, outer circuit is not accessible. So there are 6 circuits and an alignment as with the round type of St. Gallen. It is scarcely understandable how the illustrator came up with that layout, but it was certainly not with the method ?trial and error?.
(The Classical 3 Circuit Labyrinth Type Knossos.)
One can easily make a classical 3-circuit labyrinth from the well-known seed pattern with the central cross and the four dots. The angles are omitted. Then the free ends of the cross and the dots are connected. The path sequence of this simple labyrinth is: 0-1-2-3-4.
The classical 3-circuit labyrinth with the path sequence 0-1-2-3-4.
The way into the labyrinth, Ariadne?s thread, leads simply from the outside inwards, without changing the direction. The pendular movement is missing, though it is valid as a criterion for a ?good? labyrinth.
In my opinion this type of labyrinth does not appear as a historical labyrinth. It is developped from the variation of the seed pattern.
There is another 3-circuit labyrinth with another alignment and a change of the movement direction. The path sequence is: 0-3-2-1-4.
Other alignments for 3-circuit labyrinths than both here introduced are not possible.
A 3-circuit labyrinth of this kind is to be seen for the first time on the silver coins from Knossos which are kept in the British museum in London. They date from the time about 500 BC till 100 BC. The well-known classical labyrinth with seven circuits is very often illustrated, mostly in square form. Also the meander is to be found often, mostly as a swastika meander.
Swastika meander 431-350 BC / Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict. 49, German edition.
Square labyrinth with 3 circuits 431-350 BC / Source: Hermann Kern, Labyrinthe, 1982, pict.50 (rotated), German edition.
The square labyrinth with 3 circuits on the silver coin from Knossos has the path sequence: 0-3-2-1-4.
It is the oldest historical labyrinth of this kind and, hence, can be called type Knossos.
How the the design of the labyrinth was developed can be hardly fathomed. This labyrinth has presumably not been developed from the seed pattern, rather from the meander. Probably even by the trial-and-error method. Since amongst the coins there are some with mistakes.
The meander with the line sequence 0-3-2-1-4.
This meander is the linear representation of Ariadne?s thread for a 3 circuit labyrinth. The transformation into a labyrinth happens by the direct takeover of the line sequence as the path sequence (see also related articles below).
Here some realizations in different forms. The seed pattern contained in the walls, is colour-coded.
The round 3 circuit labyrinth type Knossos (Ariadne's thread)
Ariadne?s thread for a round labyrinth with a bigger middle and the path sequence 0-3-2-1-4.
The 3 circuit labyrinth type Knossos (walls)
The walls with the seed pattern contained in it for the 3 circuit labyrinth with the path sequence 0-3-2-1-4. This is the layout in the rather familiar form with the small middle. The seed pattern looks unusual, however, corresponds to half a seed pattern in usual form for the 7 circuit classical labyrinth. Which is composed of two joined meanders.
The 3 circuit labyrinth type Knossos (square)
The walls with the seed pattern contained in it in square form like on the coin of Knossos. The turning points are shifted. The path sequence 0-3-2-1-4 is identical to those in the other forms.
The seed pattern shown in the different layouts is derived afterwards and allows a construction of the labyrinth with the customary method: To start in the middle on top and then connect in turn the free ends and points.
However, thus the oldest up to now known labyrinth of this kind on the coin of Knossos has presumably not been constructed.
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47.The Transhuman World.
The Transhuman World.
Whatever a transhuman is, xe (a pronoun to encompass all conceivable states of personhood) will have to live in a world that enables xer to be transhuman. I?ll explore the impact of three likely-seeming aspects of that world: ubiquitous interconnected smart machines, continuous classification, and virtualism.
Ubiquitous Interconnected Smart Machines.
[?] High Frequency Traders aggressively trade in the direction of price changes [?and?] may compete for liquidity and amplify price volatility.
(Kirilenko, Kyle, Samadi, and Tuzun 2011)
Newton?s theory of gravity was initially ridiculed for its ?action at a distance? mysticism, particularly by those who were beginning to see the universe as a mechanical analog, built from atoms that kept causes close to effects (Kearney 1971). It was the clockwork philosophy of Galileo and many others that led to much of the technology we now take for granted, ultimately co-opting Newton?s ideas. And so a world of machines emerged: big clacking iron things that led to microscopic silent ones, and these have now begun to whisper among themselves.
Whatever a trans-humanist is, xe will live in a world that resembles the dark ages in one respect: where mystical action-at-a-distance occurs due to unknown motivations (Eubanks 2013). Xe will have access to unbounded information, but won?t know why xer toaster oven turns itself on at random intervals. The explanations from the experts will be caught in the clockwork trap of tracing the logical dominoes that fall in order: Well your oven was subject to a zero-day exploit that corrupted the BIOS. There must be something wrong with your firewall. Such explanations leave unanswered the question of the motivation of the person behind the attack and the location of origin, and like a medieval lightning strike may as well be thought of as divine punishment. Let?s look at an example.
You?re on a freeway in a self-driving car (a true automobile, in other words) from a service. Because it?s your cakeday, you?ve purchased privileged access to the second lane. The rightmost (American-style) lane is the ?commodity? road: everyone who pays the base entry rate is guaranteed access, but it?s crowded and slow. The second lane has limited traffic density, and the cars bid up the price for access depending on demand.
This happens invisibly and nearly instantly, and your access is based on the upper price limit you?ve set for the trip. The third lane is too expensive for you, and you cast an envious glance at the cars speeding by on your left. As you do, the car you?re traveling in slows to a crawl and then merges back into the commodity lane. You notice that all the other lane-two traffic seems to be doing the same, leaving a ribbon of uninhabited highway between lanes one and three.
Your heads-up display shows the cost of lane two travel is now astronomical, despite no one being on the road. You pull up local news feeds for #I485sucks and see a stream of complaints already emerging. One of these leads you to #flashcrash, and you find yourself immersed in the generic problems of autonomous user agents engaged in high frequency bidding. Some algorithm may have gone screwy, or a transit company may be trying to drive up the cost in order to cash in a derivatives bet, or it may just be a random emergent property of the game theoretic dynamics. After an hour of reading, still inching along in the commodity lane, you still don?t know what the cause is, or where it?s coming from, or if there?s a motivation behind it. You never will. A purely mystical explanation is as good as any.
The predicted saturation of smart machines is being called ?The Internet of Things? (Wasik 2013), and the utopian vision is that this distributed sensory and reporting network will improve our lives by adding the magical ingredient of ?big data mining.? It also has the possibility of delocalizing cause and effect for anything we depend on technology for, and for creating shadow economies with complexities of resource and competition that no one will understand.
Continuous Classification.
(It) is as if some cynical genius had designed a huge complex penal colony in the sunshine, eliminating the need for guard towers and barbed wire by merely beaming a gigantic electronic message at the inmates, day and night. You are in heaven! Be Happy!
(MacDonald 1964)
We can think of survival (of an individual, an idea, a society, etc.) as the problem of transmitting information through a noisy channel. (von Neumann 1966). Reversing this, we can make an evolutionary argument that those aspects of our universe that survive are particularly good at transmitting information through time and space, converging on error-correction mechanisms that are found in nature. For example, stable atoms have a permanence that transmits their properties through time, so building survival-machines out of atoms (as opposed to, say, electrical fields) is a good start. In biology we see a combination of naturally stable constructions and active error-correction.
The latter is the most interesting for our purposes here, and I will divide active error correction into two types: Am-I-Me and Are-You-Me classification tests. An example of the first is cell apoptosis: a self-destruction triggered by failure to pass a self-check of genetic fidelity, a biological kin to the humble ?parity bit.? An example of Are-You-Me is an organism?s immune system, which has the informational challenge of distinguishing self from other. We can easily imagine that the world of the transhuman contains local and delocal mechanisms for Am-I-Me and Are-You-Me for the benefit of the larger society (really for the continued survival of bio-mechanical super-organisms).
?An example is an externalized immune system that works at the system level, like an extension of the World Health Organization. A person who has a dangerous infectious disease fails the society?s Are-You-Me test. Infection could be detected with on-person sensors that constantly stream heart rate data, temperature, O2 level, and other biometrics to a central classifier. More intrusive mechanisms could actually watch proteins in the blood stream. This enables seamless quarantine by tagging suspected people and restricting movement and prescribing intervention. Because it?s all information, we can extend this biological example to the idea-space where a classifier constantly updates your Are-You-Me status (from 0 to 1, say), and takes action if you look like an ideological threat.
Classifiers can work at a global or national scale, but there are many examples at the level of consumer products and services: devices that won?t accept replacement parts from competitors (Munarriz 2014) and new products that intentionally degrade older models (Rampell 2013). We use the term ?ecology? for services from companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple with good reason.
Classifiers make errors that are either false positives (an auto-immune response) or false negatives (allowing a real threat to go undetected). The overall accuracy will depend on the intelligence behind the classifier and on how frequently the threat appears. Detecting and interdicting jay-walking is an easy problem. Preventing an undefined terrorist act is a hard problem. Hence the rationale that the classifier can never have enough information. We already see this in the vacuum-cleaner approach governments have to data collection on ordinary citizens. The point is that our transhumanist can expect that xer life is transparent to Are-You-Me systems and that even an attempt to hide information is seen as a threat.
More insidious is the institutionalization of Am-I-Me systems in hardware, software, or wetware. Lenin said ?Give me the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.? Education and intentional interfaces can create a generation that fears the isolation of not constantly streaming every thought and act to the Great Classifier for instant approval (Halpern 2014).
We already see examples of how such classifiers quickly become institutionalized and breed ?helper systems.? Consider the US tax code. Even for individual taxpayers (i.e. not corporations), the rules are hugely complex. Commercial services that help construct filings that assure the rules are followed provide guidance to the taxpayer and remove the burden of a lot of extra work from the IRS, since they don?t have as many errant reports to fix. Extrapolating this idea to a time where all individual actions are observed, recorded, and parsed for rules violations, it will be essential to have real-time ?helper? applications that restrain individual behavior to within limits acceptable to the Classifier.
Imagine driving on the public roads nowadays and having each of your actions compared instantly to the traffic laws, with tickets incurred for every violation of speed limits, failure to completely stop, following too closely, not having wipers and lights on in the rain, and so on. Having on-board warnings that prevent infractions before they happen, or even directly intervene (to make a complete stop, for example) would be essential. Now extend that to the social realm, including what you say, shop for, where you go, whom you associate with, what you read, and so on. Google Labs tried building a social helper, called ?goggles? for gmail (Perlow 2008) that would force users to take a ?sobriety? test before sending email in the wee hours. That feature seems to be gone now, but another helper function reminds you to attach a file if it looks like you meant to but forgot.
Smart helpers that steer us away from the wrong side of the Classifier create an Am-I-Me self-evaluation that makes Are-You-Me tests more efficient by eliminating false positives and reducing enforcement costs. Thinking of using Tor for anonymous browsing? Your personal Helpr Kricket suggests that while not illegal, it will increase your risk of being misclassified as a national security threat (Poulsen, 2014). Going to joke about a bomb on Twitter? Helpr Kricket can suggest safer forms of entertainment.
The historical success of religions in instilling Am-I-Me self-regulation even without high technology suggests a robust future for Helpr Kricket (Kickstarter, anyone?). Pervasive observation and instant reinforcement of norms intended for organizational survival could easily drive a wedge between what a transhumanist would want to say and do, and what xe is compelled to do. But there is a ready solution for this cognitive dissonance: the many pretend worlds that exist to gratify.
Virtualism.
Ah, who can satisfy our needs?
Neither angels nor humans.
And the animals intuit already
that we aren?t at home in a virtual world.
Perhaps somewhere a tree on a hill remains for us
to really see.
(original German by R. M. Rilke 1989, pg 151)
My rather free translation of Rilke?s 1923 text is an attempt to update the sentiment for the transhuman. There isn?t enough reality to go around, and so as a species we create volumes of cheap knock-offs, including the whole entertainment industry. Any act of imagination sets up a virtual substitute to reality: perhaps one we aspire to or one we fear. Actual reality (insofar as we agree on what that is) is limited in time and space, which leads to the customs of exclusive ownership and privilege. If the sections above are accurate depictions of the transhuman?s world, xe will find xerself in a perplexing and tightly monitored world?humans will finally have created those capricious gods we always dreamed of.
There is little use in appealing for help to the powers in charge (Rilke tells us every angel is terrifying) or other humans who are in the same situation. But the freedom of alternate realities is there to satisfy the need. Don?t own a sailboat, but would like to spend the weekend out with the family tacking across the bay? Just strap on, plug in, and hike out. Boats are pricey but bits are cheap. You can act out satisfying substitutes in any number of ?reel? worlds. The transhuman may be an accidental solipsist. Once Google?s and IBM?s mechanical children pass their Board-Certified Turing Tests, xey won?t even need real friends, just reel ones calibrated to xier respective individual characteristics.
This represents a paradise for the transhuman who can leave behind romantic attachments to the old world of dirt and sweat and competition. Rilke?s prophesy that the ties to reality are too deep to be so easily interpreted away may only apply to a minority: those who can bear to unplug and admire a tree with the original human install package without the itch to have the experience ?liked? by others.
As long as the transhuman is an independent biological organism, however, xe still has to compete with the resources needed to physically maintain life. No amount of virtual blood will replace the need for the real stuff. The stark difference between the complexity of real needs and relative ease of attaining reel ones suggests a gradual replacement of the former with the latter. Powdered food (Just add Watr!) can be made more palatable by ?marking up? reality with the virtual sights, sounds, and smells of a gourmet meal. This bears most heavily on reproductive rights and behaviors, since having and rearing a child is very resource-demanding, and not just in CPU cycles. The largest class distinction between transhumans, then, may be the difference between having real offspring or reel ones.
A More Optimistic Possibility.
In the sections above I have sketched a rather gloomy outlook for transhumans, which in sum arrive at a dystopia like the one I explored in ?A Promise of a Kiss? (Eubanks 2012), but each of the problems has an inverse. Ubiquitous smart machines could transform the physical world in miraculous ways. Anyone who remembers trying to read a road map in the car with the exit looming understands well the heavenly powers of the GPS. Likewise, system-wide Are-You-Me classifiers can keep us safe from disease and violence. And flipping virtualism, we can see the possibility that a transhuman might experience more, not less of reality with augmented physical senses: seeing more of the spectrum, feeling magnetism, and so on.
The spectrum between a cybernetic Dark Age and a paradise is indexed by the political/economic philosophy that adjudicates individual versus collective good. There?s no way to know how that will turn out?we?re in the process of building it now. Or it might be more accurate to say that it?s happening to us now, given the apparent lack of awareness and leadership in governments and their implicit or explicit laissez faire attitude toward the monumental changes society is on the cusp of.
The example of biological evolution suggests that dependency networks that evolve solely out of resource dependencies (with no overarching teleology) produce unfathomably complex systems with predators, parasites, and population booms and busts, and the occasional random destruction of almost everything (e.g. oxygenation of the atmosphere).
We might venture to guess that a future transhuman world that avoids the worst of the outcomes described in the earlier sections depends on enlightened and intentional guidance that begins with our generation.
References.
Eubanks, David ?A Promise of a Kiss,? http://lifeartificial.com/Promise.pdf, 2012.
Eubanks, David ?How the Singularity Makes us Dumber?, IEET.org, http://ieet.org/index.php/
IEET/more/eubanks20130529, 2013
Halpern, Sue, ?The Creepy New Wave of the Internet,? The New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com
/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/creepy-new-wave-internet/, 2014
Kearney, Hugh. Science and change, 1500-1700. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Kirilenko, Andrei, et al. "The flash crash: The impact of high frequency trading on an electronic market." Manuscript, U of Maryland (2011).
MacDonald, John D The Quick Red Fox, Fawcett Publications, 1964.
Munarriz, Rick. "Keurig 2.0 Is Leaving a Bitter Taste in a Lot of Mouths." DailyFinance.com. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/10/09/keurig-2.0-bitte
r-taste-coffee-drinkers-competitors. 9 Oct. 2014.
Poulsen, Kevin, ?Visit the Wrong Website, and the FBI Could End Up in Your Computer,? Wired, http://www.wired.com/2014/08/operation_torpedo/, 2014
Perlow, John ?New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret,? Official Gmail Blog, http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-sto
p-sending-mail-you-later.html, 2008
Price, Michael. "I?m Terrified of My New TV: Why I?m Scared to Turn This Thing on ? and You?d Be, Too." Salon.com. 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
Rampell, Catherine. "Cracking the Apple Trap." The New York Times. The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/ma
gazine/why-apple-wants-to-bust-your-iphone.html, 2 Nov. 2013.
Rilke, Rainer ?Duino Elegies? in The Selected Poetry of Ranier Maria Rilke, Random House, 1989.
von Neumann, John. The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. Arthur Burks (Ed.) University of Illinois Press. 1966
Wasik, Bill. "In the Programmable World, All Our Objects Will Act as One." Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/2013/05
/internet-of-things-2/all/, 12 May 2013.
David Eubanks holds a doctorate in mathematics and works in higher education. His research on complex systems led to his writing Life Artificial, a novel from the point of view of an artificial intelligence.
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48.Synagogue:Maat, or divine order.
Synagogue:Maat, or divine order.
A synagogue, also spelled synagog (from Greek ????????, transliterated synagog?, meaning "assembly"; ??? ???? beth knesset, meaning "house of assembly"; ??? ????? beth t'fila, meaning "house of prayer"; ??? shul; ?????? esnoga; ??? kahal), is a Jewish house of prayer.
Synagogues have a large hall for prayer (the main sanctuary), and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices. Some have a separate room for Torah study, called the beth midrash (Sefaradi/sefardim) "beis midrash (Ashkenazi/Ashkenazim)???? ???? ("House of Study").
Synagogues are consecrated spaces that can be used only for the purpose of prayer; however a synagogue is not necessary for worship. Communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews (a minyan) assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together. However there are certain prayers that are communal prayers and therefore can be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.
Israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset (assembly house). Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term "shul" (cognate with the German Schule, school) in everyday speech. Spanish and Portuguese Jews call the synagogue an esnoga. Persian Jews and Karaite Jews use the term Kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arabic-speaking Jews use knis. Some Reform and Conservative Jews use the word "temple". The Greek word "Synagogue" is a good all-around term, used in English (and German and French), to cover the preceding possibilities.
Although synagogues existed a long time before the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE, communal worship in the time while the Temple still stood centered around the korbanot ("sacrificial offerings") brought by the kohanim ("priests") in the Holy Temple. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol ("the high priest") as he offered the day's sacrifices and prayed for his success.
During the Babylonian captivity (586?537 BCE) the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers. Prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era, promulgated the idea of creating individual houses of worship in whatever locale Jews found themselves. This contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians.
Synagogues in the sense of purpose-built spaces for worship, or rooms originally constructed for some other purpose but reserved for formal, communal prayer, however, existed long before the destruction of the Second Temple. The earliest archaeological evidence for the existence of very early synagogues comes from Egypt, where stone synagogue dedication inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BCE prove that synagogues existed by that date. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho. More than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists.
Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue. Synagogues have been constructed by ancient Jewish kings, by wealthy patrons, as part of a wide range of human institutions including secular educational institutions, governments, and hotels, by the entire community of Jews living in a particular place, or by sub-groups of Jews arrayed according to occupation, ethnicity (i.e. the Sephardic, Polish or Persian Jews of a town), style of religious observance (i.e., a Reform or an Orthodox synagogue), or by the followers of a particular rabbi.
There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from other local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes and towers.
Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged. The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures.
The emancipation of Jews in European countries not only enabled Jews to enter fields of enterprise from which they were formerly barred, but gave them the right to build synagogues without needing special permissions, synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. These were built across Europe and in the United States in all of the historicist or revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were Neoclassical, Neo-Byzantine, Romanesque Revival, Moorish Revival, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival. There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In the 19th century and early 20th century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic.
In the post-war era, synagogue architecture abandoned historicist styles for modernism.
All synagogues contain a bimah, a table from which the Torah is read, and a desk for the prayer leader.
The Torah ark, (Hebrew: Aron Kodesh????? ????) (called the heikhal????? [temple] by Sephardim) is a cabinet in which the Torah scrolls are kept.
The ark in a synagogue is almost always positioned in such a way such that those who face it are facing towards Jerusalem. Thus, sanctuary seating plans in the Western world generally face east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. Occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons; in such cases, some individuals might turn to face Jerusalem when standing for prayers, but the congregation as a whole does not.
The ark is reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant which held the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. This is the holiest spot in a synagogue, equivalent to the Holy of Holies. The ark is often closed with an ornate curtain, the parochet ?????, which hangs outside or inside the ark doors.
A large, raised, reader's platform called the bimah (????) by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim, where the Torah scroll is placed to be read is a feature of all synagogues. In Sephardi synagogues it is also used as the prayer leader's reading desk.
Other traditional features include a continually lit lamp or lantern, usually electric in contemporary synagogues, called the ner tamid (?? ????), the "Eternal Light", used as a reminder of the western lamp of the menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem, which remained miraculously lit perpetually. Many have an elaborate chair named for the prophet Elijah which is only sat upon during the ceremony of Brit milah. Many synagogues have a large seven-branched candelabrum commemorating the full Menorah. Most contemporary synagogues also feature a lectern for the rabbi.
A synagogue may be decorated with artwork, but in the Rabbinic and Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional sculptures and depictions of the human body are not allowed as these are considered akin to idolatry.
Until the 19th century, an Ashkenazi synagogue, all seats most often faced the 'Torah Ark. In a Sephardi synagogue, seats were usually arranged around the perimeter of the sanctuary, but when the worshipers stood up to pray, everyone faced the Ark. In Ashkenazi synagogues The Torah was read on a reader's table located in the center of the room, while the leader of the prayer service, the Hazzan, stood at his own lectern or table, facing the Ark. In Sephardic synagogues, the table for reading the Torah was commonly placed at the opposite side of the room from the Torah Ark, leaving the center of the floor empty for the use of a ceremonial procession carrying the Torah between the Ark and the reading table.
Denominational differences.
New York's Reform Temple Emanu-El
Orthodox synagogues feature a partition (mechitzah) dividing the men's and women's seating areas, or a separate women's section located on a balcony.
The German Reform movement which arose in the early 19th century made many changes to the traditional look of the synagogue, keeping with its desire to simultaneously stay Jewish yet be accepted by the host culture.
The first Reform synagogue, which opened in Hamburg in 1811, introduced changes that made the synagogue look more like a church. These included: the installation of an organ to accompany the prayers (even on Shabbat, when musical instruments are proscribed by halakha, a choir to accompany the Hazzan, and vestments for the synagogue rabbi to wear.
In following decades, the central reader's table, the Bimah, was moved to the front of the Reform sanctuary?previously unheard-of[citation needed] in Orthodox synagogues. The rabbi now delivered his sermon from the front, much as the Christian ministers delivered their sermons in a church. The synagogue was renamed a "temple", to emphasize that the movement no longer looked forward to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Synagogue architecture often follows styles in vogue at the place and time of construction. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. According to tradition, the Divine Presence (Shekhinah) can be found wherever there is a minyan, a quorum, of ten. A synagogue always contains an ark, called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim, where the Torah scrolls are kept.
The ark may be more or less elaborate, even a cabinet not structurally integral to the building or a portable arrangement whereby a Torah is brought into a space temporarily used for worship. There must also be a table from which the Torah is read. The table, called bimah by eastern Ashkenazim, almemmar (or balemmer) by Central and Western Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim, where the Torah is read (and from where the services are conducted in Sephardi synagogues) can range from an elaborate platform integral to the building (many early modern synagogues of central Europe featured bimahs with pillars that rose to support the ceiling), to elaborate free-standing raised platforms, to simple tables. A ner tamid, a constantly lit light as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem. Many synagogues, mainly in Ashkenazi communities, feature a pulpit facing the congregation from which to address the assembled. All synagogues require an amud (Hebrew for "post" or "column"), a desk facing the Ark from which the Hazzan (reader, or prayer leader) leads the prayers.
A synagogue may or may not have artwork, synagogues range from simple, unadorned prayer rooms to elaborately decorated buildings in every architectural style.
The synagogue, or if it is a multi-purpose building, prayer sanctuaries within the synagogue, should face towards Jerusalem. Thus sanctuaries in the Western world generally face east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. But this orientation need not be exact, and occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons, in which case the community may face Jerusalem when standing for prayers.
There are only a few Talmudic instructions on how synagogues could be built, namely that they had to have windows and that they had to be taller than other buildings in town, synagogue plans were generally unrestricted, and even these few rules were often disregarded (especially as Jews were often not allowed to build tall buildings). There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes as well as interior designs of synagogues vary greatly.
Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States, built in Georgian style.
Baroque style W?odawa Synagogue.
Gothic interior of 13th-century Old New Synagogue of Prague
Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged.
Synagogue of the Kaifeng Jewish community in China.
The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The synagogues of Morocco are embellished with the colored tilework characteristic of Moroccan architecture. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest, Prague and the German lands are typical Gothic structures.
For much of history, the constraints of anti-semitism and the laws of host countries restricting the building of synagogues visible from the street, or forbidding their construction altogether, meant that synagogues were often built within existing buildings, or opening form interior courtyards. In both Europe and in the Muslim world, old synagogues with elaborate interior architecture can be found hidden within nondescript buildings.
Where the building of synagogues was permitted, they were built in the prevailing architectural style of the time and place. Many European cities had elaborate Renaissance synagogues, of which a few survive. In Italy there were many synagogues in the style of the Italian Renaissance (see Leghorn; Padua; and Venice). Those in Padua and Venice possess interiors of great beauty, and are excellent examples of Renaissance work. With the coming of the Baroque era, Baroque synagogues appeared across Europe.
The emancipation of Jews in European countries and of Jews in Muslim countries colonized by European countries gave Jews the right to build large, elaborate synagogues visible from the public street. Synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. Handsome nineteenth synagogues form the period of Jewish imagination stand in virtually every country where there were Jewish communities. Most were built in revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were Neoclassical, Neo-Byzantine, Romanesque Revival Moorish Revival, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival. There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic.
Chabad Lubavitch has made a practice of designing some of its Chabad Houses and centers as replicas of or homages to the architecture of 770 Eastern Parkway.
Central Europe: Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Wolpa Synagogue, 1920, Poland
The great exceptions to the rule that synagogues are built in the prevailing style of their time and place are the wooden synagogues of the former Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth. They were a unique Jewish artistic and architectural form. Characteristic features include the independence of the pitched roof from the design of the interior domed ceiling. Elaborately carved, painted, domed, balconied and vaulted interiors. The architectural interest of the exterior lay in the large scale of the buildings, the multiple, horizontal lines of the tiered roofs, and the carved corbels that supported them. Wooden synagogues featured a single, large hall. In contrast to contemporary churches, there was no apse. Moreover, while contemporary churches featured imposing vestibules, the entry porches of the wooden synagogues was a low annex, usually with a simple lean-to roof. In these synagogues, the emphasis was on constructing a single, large, high-domed worship space.
According to art historian Stephen S. Kayser, the wooden synagogues of Poland with their painted and carved interiors were "a truly original and organic manifestation of artistic expression?the only real Jewish folk art in history."
According to Louis Lozowick, writing in 1947, the wooden synagogues were unique because, unlike all previous synagogues, they were not built in the architectural style of their region and era, but in a newly evolved and uniquely Jewish style, making them "a truly original folk expression," whose "originality does not lie alone in the exterior architecture, it lies equally in the beautiful and intricate wood carving of the interior."
Moreover, while in many parts of the world Jews were proscribed from entering the building trades and even from practicing the decorative arts of painting and woodcarving, the wooden synagogues were actually built by Jewish craftsmen.
Art historian Ori Z. Soltes points out that the wooden synagogues, unusual for that period in being large, identifiably Jewish buildings not hidden in courtyards or behind walls, were built not only during a Jewish "intellectual golden age" but in a time and place where "the local Jewish population was equal to or even greater than the Christian population.
Egyptian Revival.
Egyptian door, Hobart Synagogue
Egyptian Revival style synagogues were popular in the early nineteenth century. Rachel Wischnitzer argues that they were part of the fashion for Egyptian style inspired by Napoleon's invasion of Europe. According to Carol Herselle Krinsky, they were meant as imitations of the Temple of Solomon and intended by architects and governments to insult Jews by portraying Judaism as a primitive faith. According to Diana Muir Appelbaum, they were expressions of Jewish identity intended to advertise Jewish origins in ancient Israel.
Moorish influence.
Interior of Santa María la Blanca
In medieval Spain (both Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms), a host of synagogues were built, and it was usual to commission them from Moorish and later Mudéjar architects. Very few of these medieval synagogues, built with Moorish techniques and style, are conserved. The two best known Spanish synagogues are in Toledo, one known as El Tránsito, the other as Santa María la Blanca, and both, undoubtedly very beautiful, are now preserved as national monuments. The former is a small building containing very rich decorations; the latter is especially noteworthy. It is based upon Almohad style and contains long rows of octagonal columns with curiously carved capitals, from which spring Moorish arches supporting the roof.
Moorish Revival Great Synagogue of Plze?. Another significative Mudéjar synagogue is the one at Córdoba built in 1315. As in El Tránsito, the vegetal and geometrical stucco decorations are purely Moorish, but unlike the former, the epigraphic texts are in Hebrew.
After the expulsion from Spain there was a general feeling among wealthy Sephardim that Moorish architecture was appropriate in synagogues. By the mid-19th century, the style was adopted by the Ashkenazim of Central and Eastern Europe, who associated Moorish and Mudéjar architectural forms with the golden age of Jewry in Al-Andalus. As a consequence, Moorish Revival spread around the globe as a preferred style of synagogue architecture, although Moorish architecture is by no means Jewish, either in fact or in feeling. The Alhambra has furnished inspiration for innumerable synagogues, but seldom have its graceful proportions or its delicate modeling and elaborate ornamentation been successfully copied.
Modern synagogue architecture
In the modern period, synagogues have continued to be built in every popular architectural style, including Art Nouveau, Art Deco, International style, and all contemporary styles. In the post-World War II period "a period of post-war modernism," came to the fore, "characterized by assertive architectural gestures that had the strength and integrity to stand alone, without applied artwork or Jewish iconography." A notable work of Art Nouveau, pre-World War I Hungarian synagogue architecture is Budapest's Kazinczy Street Synagogue.
The most common general plan for the interior of the synagogue is an Ark at the eastern end opposite the entrance, and with an almemar or pulpit. In older or Orthodox synagogues with separate seating, there may be benches for the men on either side, and a women's gallery reached by staircases from the outer vestibule. Variations of this simple plan abound: the vestibule became larger, and the staircases to the women's gallery were separated from the vestibule and given more importance. As the buildings became larger, rows of columns were required to support the roof, but in every case the basilican form was retained. The Ark, formerly allowed a mere niche in the wall, was developed into the main architectural feature of the interior, and was flanked with columns, covered with a canopy and richly decorated. The almemar in many cases was joined to the platform in front of the Ark, and elaborate arrangements of steps were provided.
The Ark.
The Torah Ark (usually called Aron Hakodesh or Hekhál) is the most important feature of the interior, and is generally dignified by proper decoration and raised upon a suitable platform, reached by at least three steps, but often by more. It is usually crowned by the Ten Commandments. The position of the pulpit varies; it may be placed on either side of the Ark, and is occasionally found in the center of the steps.
Other interior arrangements.
The modern synagogue, besides containing the minister's study, trustees' rooms, choir-rooms, and organ-loft, devotes much space to school purposes; generally the entire lower floor is used for class-rooms. The interior treatment of the synagogue allows great latitude in design.
For the thirty-three synagogues of India, American architect and professor of architecture Jay A. Waronker has learned that these buildings tend to follow the Sephardic traditions of the tevah (or bimah, the raised platform where the service is led and Torah read) being freestanding and roughly in the middle of the sanctuary and the ark (called the hekhal by Sephardim and the aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim) engaged along the wall that is closest to Jerusalem. The hekhals are essentially cabinets or armoires storing the sefer Torahs. Seating, in the form of long wooden benches, is grouped around and facing the tevah. Men sit together on the main level of the sanctuary while women sit in a dedicated zone on the same level in the smaller synagogues or upstairs in a women's gallery.
Interesting architectural and planning exceptions to this common Sephardic formula are the Cochin synagogues in Kerala of far southwestern India. Here, on the gallery level and adjacent to the space provided for women and overlooking the sanctuary below, is a second tevah. This tevah was used for holidays and unique occasions. It is therefore interesting, on more special events, the woman are closest to the point where the religious service is being led.
In Baghdadi synagogues of India, the hekhals appear to be standard-sized cabinets from the outside (the side facing the sanctuary), but when opened a very large space is revealed. They are essentially walk-in rooms with a perimeter shelf holding up to one hundred sefer Torahs.
Interior decoration
There are but few emblems which may be used that are characteristically Jewish; the interlacing triangles, the lion of Judah, and flower and fruit forms alone are generally allowable in Orthodox synagogues. The perpetual lamp hangs in front of the Ark; the tables of the Law surmount it. The seven-branched candlestick, or menorah, may be placed at the sides. Occasionally the shofar, and even the lulav, may be utilized in the design. Hebrew inscriptions are sparingly or seldom used; stained-glass windows, at one time considered the special property of the Church, are now employed, but figured subjects are not used.
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49.Grant Morrison.
Many years from now, we may have to explain to the comic-crazed children of the world that, originally, the term geek had no superheroic connotations at all. Back in the day, we'll explain, geek referred to one who, finding no communion in the jockish world around him or her, turned inward, to comics, games, coding, the guitar, et al.?infinitely expanding personal pursuits with built-in arcana decipherable only to fellow initiates. To be a geek was to be an outsider, or rather, an insider of an implicitly miniscule community of peers. Today's geeks, on the other hand, are the Iron Man übermenchen of popular culture and heroes of Hollywood blockbusters. And one of those responsible for the shift, for switching the geeks' self-image from that of meek, powerless introvert to their present rock-star-of-the-real-world reality, is Grant Morrison.
Morrison's comic series The Invisibles, which debuted in 1994 and is now considered by some to be the greatest of all time (and cited as an inspiration for, among zillions of other things, The Matrix), tells the story of a secret society of misfits bound together to fight an evil force in a time- and space-spanning continuum, sometimes stopping in contemporary London. Weaving together voodoo, fairy tale, magic, the Marquis de Sade, and more, The Invisibles made a grand synthesis of Morrison's many personal inspirations and beliefs?and made a cult hero of its then 34-year-old author. By injecting himself and his own experiences into a kind of punk rock superhero story, as The Invisibles' bald-headed yogi badass leader, King Mob, Morrison broke the fourth wall, and broke through the format of his medium?just as he'd famously broken through multiple dimensions of space and time during a spiritual reverie on a rooftop in Kathmandu in 1994 that inspired much of the series?to become a kind of sage, a guru, the king of the geeks.
Morrison was born in Glasgow in 1960 and as a boy often accompanied his activist father on protests and illicit sorties onto nuclear missile bases while his father sneaked photos for underground newspapers. While at the all-boys Allan Glen's School in Glasgow, Morrison turned to comic books and relished the way in which their superhero protagonists functioned as surrogates for his own fantasy life. In short order, he began creating his own strips, and by age 17, was getting hired to write his first stories professionally. In the 1980s, Morrison gave up on another early love, playing in a punk band, only to go on to become a charismatic frontman of the comic world with his outré series and his runs writing superhero comics, from Animal Man and Swamp Thing to All-Star Superman and Batman, as well as 1989's Arkham Asylum. From The Invisibles on, Morrison, along with a revolving gang of illustrators who bring his scenarios to life, has put together as wild and as singular a body of work as any writer in any medium?and produced some singularly dark visions of humanity, of which his two newest series, Nameless (Image) and Annihilator (Legendary), may be the darkest yet. "More nihilism," he says, laughing, from which he hopes to yield his optimistic "poetry."
But even if he has created some of the bleakest dystopias in pop culture, Morrison the man is driven by a kind of impish humor and humanism. He half-jokingly believes the dawn of superhumans to be upon us, and he seems to have an insatiable, almost evangelical, need to transmit some of his hard-won hopefulness to the world. This past August, Morrison got on the phone with his friend and fellow comic fiend James Gunn, director of summer's huge hit Guardians of the Galaxy, to talk about fans, films, and that rooftop in Nepal. ?Chris Wallace
JAMES GUNN: Hey, Grant, how you doing, man? Are you in your castle right now?
GRANT MORRISON: Yeah, I'm looking out the window. Scotland is beautiful today. The water is blue. The sky is blue. The sun is shining. It's unbelievable; it's like Disney.
GUNN: When I was a small child, I partially learned to read with comics, in particular with Scamp, about the Lady and the Tramp's male child. That was the prime comic that made me fall in love with comics as a kid. Was there that prime comic for you as a child?
MORRISON: They had this thing, Marvelman, which Alan Moore eventually did a deconstructed version of [later know as Miracleman]. It was just all these weird stories, but with superheroes. That one stays with me forever, from when I could barely read.
GUNN: That's a lot cooler than Scamp.
MORRISON: It's cool at least. [laughs]
GUNN: And then you started writing comics professionally when you were 17 years old?when I was doing beer bongs and riding around on the backs of cars in Missouri. What gave you the balls?
MORRISON: You were living, you were gathering material. I was sitting in the house. I went to boys school, a little, working-class kid from a pretty bad part of town. And I won a scholarship to this really prestigious boys academy. When you're 12 years old, that
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50.
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